Rachel Babij, sixth-year Tri-Institutional MD-PhD student, has been awarded an F30 Fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for her project, “The Instruction of Sensory Inputs in Inhibitory Circuit Maturation in the Somatosensory Cortex.”
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders of diverse presentation, with both genetic and environmental causes. Inhibitory neurons have been implicated in disease pathogenesis, and high-risk ASD genes frequently code for synaptic machinery and receptors. The proposed study will utilize mouse models of ASD, in vivo calcium imaging, morphological and anatomical analyses, and viral tracing to investigate the maturation of cortical circuits containing inhibitory neurons and the interaction between genetic background and activity-dependent developmental processes.
Rachel is conducting her thesis research in the laboratory of Dr. Natalia De Marco Garcia in the Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Graduate School.
Rachel Babij
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- Awards