SBN Online Research Symposium
SBN Online Research Symposium Committee
The SBN ORS is comprised of trainee researchers (graduate students, post-docs) across diverse behavioral neuroendocrinology labs. The ORS committee is overseen by the SBN membership committee including Dr. Matthew Paul (University at Buffalo), Dr. Wendy Saltzman (University of California, Riverside), Dr. Stephanie Correa (UCLA) and Dr. Damian Zuloaga (University at Albany).
Victoria Riesgo (co-chair) is a fifth year PhD candidate in the Willing lab at Bowling Green State University. She graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a B.A. in Psychology in 2019, where she studied the influence of neuropeptides on rodent maternal behavior in the D’Anna-Hernandez lab. Upon joining the Willing lab in the fall of 2019, Victoria began work investigating the effects of two common environmental factors, phthalates and maternal infection, on neurodevelopment. Her master’s thesis identified that each of these factors introduced perinatally can produce sex-specific reductions in neuron number within the adult prefrontal cortex. Victoria’s current research focuses on pubertal hormones and their role in shaping the development of the dopaminergic neurons in the rat midbrain. She is passionate about student mentorship and currently manages a team of six undergraduate research assistants, as well as an additional four students in collaborative projects with other labs. Many of these research assistants have been awarded internal funding for their research, presented at national conferences, and gained authorship on publications under her guidance. As a Latina first-generation academic, she is dedicated to increasing accessibility and inclusivity within neuroscience, guiding similarly under-represented learners through the landscape of higher education with the goal of increasing retention and academic success.
Laila Ouldibbat (co-chair) is a 4th year PhD student in Dr. Marija Kundakovic's lab at Fordham University in New York. Laila graduated from Drexel University in 2016 with a B.S in Nutrition Sciences. Prior to graduate school Laila worked in clinical dietetics and studied preterm neurodevelopment which began to shape her love and interest for neuroendocrinology. The Kundakovic lab is broadly interested in the epigenetic basis of behavior and psychiatric disorders with a focus on hormonal and environmental factors driving sex differences. Upon joining, Laila began a new metabolic research project. Her research is focused on studying metabolic phenotypes and the molecular mechanisms of ovarian hormone mediated regulation of metabolism in the adult female hypothalamus. Laila is very passionate about the implications this research has for closing the gender gap by contributing to women’s health research and the molecular basis of hormone action on the female brain and behavior.
Dr. Alyse Maksimoski (she/they) (secretary) graduated from Michigan State University in 2017 with a Bachelors in Zoology with honors. During her undergraduate experience, she studied the social behaviors of honeybees, spotted hyenas, and North American rodents. After graduating, they worked in a primatology lab at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst before heading to Zambia to study aggression in male kinda baboons. In the fall of 2019, Dr. Maksimoski started their doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Integrative Biology Department in Dr. Lauren Riters’ lab. Dr. Maksimoski’s dissertation identified mechanisms that facilitate and reward vocal-social behaviors in European starling flocks, with particular focus on individual variation in social experience. This work provided novel support for the idea that opioids released during social experience may function as a proximate reinforcer of flocking via coupling the associated positive affective state to the social environment. During her PhD program, Dr. Maksimoski consistently made representation and retention of women and underrepresented students a priority, including mentoring nine such undergraduates, many of whom garnered authorship on posters and publications. Dr. Maksimoski is a recent recipient Dr. Maksimoski is a recent recipient of the inaugural SBN Elsevier Award and is currently a staff scientist in the de la Cruz Lab at Idaho State University studying how senescence alters the endocrine modulation of pancreatic islets. They will transition this fall into a postdoctoral researcher in the Pradhan Lab, also at Idaho State University, studying neuroendocrine mechanisms behind adult feminization in the sex changing blue banded goby.
Dr. Emily Wright completed her undergraduate studies at UC Davis, where she fell in love with neuroendocrinology as a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Karen Bales. She continued her academic journey at UC Davis, where she pursued her doctoral studies under the mentorship of Dr. Brian Trainor. Dr. Wright's dissertation work identified puberty as an important organizational period for testosterone to reduce both behavioral and neuronal responses to social stress in adult male California mice. Dr. Wright is now a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Lin Tian at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. Her current research employs the genetically-encoded serotonin indicator, iSeroSnFR2.0, to monitor changes in serotonin release during fear learning and pharmaceutical manipulation. Her work is supported by a BRAIN Initiative F32 Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Wright is deeply committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment in the scientific community, especially for trainees. Inspired by the exceptional mentorship she received early in her career, she prioritizes mentorship both within and outside of the lab.
Aaron Fleischer is a sixth-year graduate student in the Frick lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Aaron graduated with degrees in biology and chemistry from the University of South Dakota in the spring of 2018 and joined Karyn Frick’s lab in the summer of the same year. Broadly, the Frick lab studies how estrogens drive memory processes in mice of both sexes, with special, recent emphasis being given to Alzheimer’s disease models and developing novel treatments for the menopausal loss of circulating estrogens. Aaron completed his master’s thesis in the spring of 2021, where he developed a long-term treatment regimen and behavioral battery to test the efficacy of a highly selective estrogen receptor beta agonist in reducing preclinical indices of menopause-related symptoms in ovariectomized mice. Currently, Aaron is pursuing his dissertation, examining how estrogenic signaling builds upon learning-induced cellular activity to stabilize learned experiences into long-term memory within different hippocampal cell types. Aaron is particularly interested in sex comparisons regarding the roles estrogens play in facilitating memory processes. Importantly, this work has involved many undergraduate research assistants and postbaccalaureate researchers, resulting in many locally and nationally presented posters and talks given by rising scientists from the UWM community. Thus, Aaron is impassioned by mentoring students to find their scientific passions and working with others to facilitate the field’s neurobiological understanding of sex comparisons in learning and memory.
Sophia Rogers is a third-year PhD student in the Bales Lab at the University of California, Davis (UCD). The Bales Lab focuses on the comparative neurobiology of monogamy. Sophia's research interests include pair-bonding, adult social relationships, and the effects of prenatal conditions. Her current project investigates the behavioral consequences of prenatal THC exposure in prairie voles. Additionally, Sophia is dedicated to closing the gender gap in academia, actively promoting diversity and inclusion in scientific research.
Krystyna Rybka is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Zuloaga lab at the University at Albany in New York. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology with minors in both Neuroscience and Psychology from the University of Maine in 2018. Her research interests include the effects of stress on HPA-axis regulation and its contribution to stress-related mood disorders, focusing on how sex differences alter their susceptibility. She’s particularly interested in the neuroendocrinology aspect of behavioral neuroscience to better understand the hormonal mechanisms that result in sex differences in the prevalence rates of autoimmune diseases that disproportionately affect women.
Dr. Brigitta Bonaldo is a junior postdoc. She completed her undergraduate studies in Neurobiology at the University of Turin. During her undergraduate experience, she studied the role of the anti-inflammatory enzyme A20 in the neuropathology of Multiple Sclerosis. In 2017, she started her doctoral studies in the Neuroendocrinology lab under the mentorship of Professor Giancarlo Panzica at the University of Turin. Her PhD work evaluated the effects on the brain and behavior of oral exposure to bisphenols A or S during critical periods of development. She was particularly interested in studying the possible impairments in maternal, sexual, and anxiety-related behaviors. In October 2023, she started a new postdoc fellowship in the lab of Dr. Stefano Espinoza at the University of Piemonte Orientale in collaboration with the University of Trento and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) of Genoa, supported by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI). The main aim of her current project is to provide Proof-of-Concept for developing a novel RNA-based therapy for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Even though ASD is a behaviorally defined disorder with a strong sexually dimorphic component, the behavioral phenotype and the sexual dimorphism in the transgenic models of ASD often represent critical points, as they could be mild, poorly described, or not considered; thus, she is now particularly interested in implementing the phenotyping of those aspects as key features to be considered when selecting an experimental model or testing new therapeutic approaches. She fully supports the idea that science is sharing, which goes hand in hand with collaboration, accessibility, and inclusiveness.