Taylor Bootsma
Taylor was a BSc student in the Soma Lab, and assisted with developing an ultra-sensitive method for the detection of multiple estrogens via chemical derivatization and LC-MS/MS.
Athena Varghese
Athena was a BSc student in Behavioural Neuroscience in the Soma Lab. She studied steroid synthesis within the brain, particularly steroids conjugated to fatty acids.
Maria Shock
Maria completed her BSc in Behavioural Neuroscience in 2021. She investigated the roles of estrogens in social behaviour. Maria assisted Cecilia Jalabert with her PhD project investigating local sex steroid synthesis in the brain and how these neurosteroids regulate aggressive behaviour in a songbird model. Maria participated in developing an ultra-sensitive method for measuring multiple […]
Brandon Forys
Brandon completed his B.A. in Honours Psychology and studied how neurosteroids influence behaviour. He is especially interested in computational modeling of the synthesis of neurosteroids within and among various brain regions, and exploring how computational models of neuroendocrine systems can be used to understand the production of steroids in the brain. He also learned various bioinformatics techniques […]
Katherine Gray
Katherine’s research focused on the regulation of glucocorticoid levels within different brain regions. More specifically, she examined whether the metabolite of corticosterone, 11-dehydrocorticosterone (DHC), is locally regulated within the brain and the implications for how stress affects the brain. Katherine received a 2019 NSERC USRA to conduct research and a Quinn Travel Award to attend the 2019 Society for […]
Jasmine Cleary-Gosine
Jasmine received a BSc in Behavioural Neuroscience in 2019. She and Cheryl Chow examined the motivation to exercise in a rodent model. She studied how motivation and executive function are modulated by steroid action in neural circuits.
Ravish Sharma
Ravish finished his B.Sc. in Integrated Science in 2018 and studied immunology, nutrition, and physiology. He then completed courses in business and accounting. Ravish is currently working in the financial sector.
Whitney Krieger
Whitney completed her BSc Biology Honours thesis in the Soma Lab in 2018. She and Marie Turcott studied the effects of food availability on motivation to exercise, using a novel operant conditioning paradigm. She received an award from the NSERC USRA Program to work full-time in the lab during the summer of 2018, to learn […]
George Kachkovski
George worked in the Soma Lab (2015-2018) as part of the Honours Program in Psychology and continued his research with funding from the Arts Undergraduate Research Award and the Work Learn Program and the NSERC USRA Program. George studied how consumption of sucrose (table sugar) by the mother affects the brain and behaviour of her offspring, as well as the gut […]
Marie Turcott
Marie completed her BA in Psychology in 2018. She was in the Psychology Honours Program and presented her research at the UBC Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference. For her Honours project, she worked with Whitney Krieger to develop novel methods to measure the motivation to exercise in rats. Marie then completed a JD at UBC Law School.