Alumni

Garrett completed his BSc in Cell and Developmental Biology (honours). Garrett is interested in how changes to the gut microbiome impact health. He assisted Dr. Jordan E. Hamden and Dr. Désirée R. Seib with the bioinformatic analysis of their projects as well as helped establish behavioural analysis software in the lab.

Ching is a BSc student completing her degree in Biology with a minor in Oceanography. Ching is working with Hitasha Bajaj and looking at mechanisms of enzymatic microglial interactions and glucocorticoid synthesis in the brain as a result of early life stress. She is also optimizing a technique for the extraction of sequenceable RNA and steroid data from the same tissue sample.

Jenn worked in the Soma Lab as an undergraduate and examined two neuropeptides that regulate reproduction (GnRH and GnIH). She received a Faculty of Arts AURA award to complete this project. From her work in the Soma Lab as an undergraduate, Jenn is a co-author on 2 papers and the first-author on a paper in Journal of Neuroendocrinology.

Jenn completed a MSc in Neuroscience and is currently a PhD student in Rehabilitation Science at UBC.

Anastasia worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Soma Lab. Her research was focused on local synthesis of steroids in the rat brain and its regulation by gonadal hormones, cognitive challenges, and diet. She also studied local glucocorticoid production in immune tissues. Anastasia is a co-author on two peer-reviewed papers and presented her findings at the 2017 Society for Neuroscience conference, for which she received the SfN Trainee Professional Development Award to attend. She completed a Directed Studies with Prof. Soma and also participated in the UBC Work Learn Program.

Anastasia completed the UBC Speech-Language Pathology M.Sc. program and is currently working as a speech therapist.

Helen completed her B.Sc. in Psychology in 2017. She completed a Directed Studies course with Prof. Soma, participated in the Work Learn Program, and presented at the UBC Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference. Her research examined how androgens influence behavioural flexibility, and also the effects of aging on dopamine receptors in the brain. She is co-author on a paper published in the prestigious journal, Neurobiology of Aging.

Helen is currently attending law school at Queen’s University.

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.

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 microbiome (in collaboration with Prof. Brett Finlay). He also investigated the role of neural testosterone synthesis in behavioural flexibility. George presented his data at the UBC Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference and the UBC Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference, as well as the 2018 Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology meeting.  He is a co-author on abstracts for major international scientific conferences.

George graduated from UBC Nursing School and worked as a nurse. He is now attending medical school at McMaster University.

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 immunohistochemistry and microscopy as well as steroid analysis in microdissected brain tissue. She is first author on a Society for Neuroscience conference abstract.

Whitney is currently working at BC Children’s Hospital.

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.

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.

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 Behavioral Neuroendocrinology to present her results.

Katherine is currently in UBC Medical School.

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 for microbiome analysis, to study how the microbiome affects immunosteroid synthesis. Brandon received the prestigious Wesbrook Scholarship.

Brandon is currently a Master’s student in UBC Psychology.

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 estrogens, using chemical derivatization and LC-MS/MS.

Maria is currently a medical student at McMaster University.

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.

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.

Michael was a BSc student who is interested in neuroscience and immunology. He was working with Melody Salehzadeh and examining regulation of immunosteroid synthesis using qPCR and LC-MS/MS. Michael is in UBC Medical school. 

Eashan was an undergraduate student in the Soma Lab pursuing his BSc in Biology. He has an interest in the intersection between immunology and endocrinology and studied local glucocorticoid production in lymphocyte populations.

Sarah was an undergraduate student in the Soma Lab pursuing a BSc in Integrated Sciences, in which she incorporated neurobiology and microbiology. She assisted Melody Salehzadeh in investigating local glucocorticoid production in lymphoid and brain tissue using qPCR and LC-MS/MS.

Esther was an undergraduate student pursuing her BSc in Biology, with a minor in Psychology. She worked with Valerie Lo and investigated the relationship between behavioural flexibility and locally-produced testosterone in the mesocorticolimbic system.

Lily was an undergraduate student studying the effects of maternal sucrose intake on offspring neurodevelopment. Lily is now in Veterinary Medicine school

Marwa is a 4th year undergraduate student pursuing an honours in Animal Biology, and a minor in Psychology. She is working alongside Michelle for her honours project which looks at the effect of maternal sucrose consumption on maternal serum and amniotic fluid.