Congratulations to the PhD graduates of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience (GPN), fall class of 2025! Nine trainees are graduating this week and to celebrate, we asked them to share some of their favourite memories during their time at UBC, their future plans and advice for future students.
Kumar Pankaj Gupta, PhD
Supervisor: Tim Murphy
Thesis title: Open-source real-time feedback system for shaping cortical and behavioural motor dynamics in mice reveal altered cortical networks and behaviour with closed-loop training
Summary of research: This dissertation introduces a new open-source system that trains mice by giving them real-time feedback based on their brain activity or movement. By linking the animals’ actions or brain signals to rewards, the system helps them learn tasks more quickly and efficiently. The research also uses computer models to study how different types of brain cells contribute to learning. These models show that certain inhibitory cells respond to the same events with different timing, offering clues about how the brain organizes information. Overall, this work provides new tools and insights into how learning happens in the brain.
What’s a skill you gained during grad school that you’ll carry forward in your future career? Communicating ideas through illustrations, speaking and presenting in public, and experiment design.
What is your favourite UBC/GPN memory or something that you’ll miss the most about UBC? DMCBH retreat, campus life and the view from the 4th and 5th floors of the DMCBH.
What’s next for you and what excites you most about that next step? Starting a postdoc position at Stanford and Salk Institute investigating motor circuits in stroke recovery.
Do you have any advice for future students? Be aware of program timelines and talk to senior students often. Stay focused on your thesis proposal.
Adrienne Kinman, PhD
Supervisor: Mark Cembrowski
Thesis title: Visualizing and manipulating cell-type-specific spatial and non-spatial memory in the subiculum
Summary of research: My research identified and characterized a new hippocampal cell type — ovoid cells — and showed that they selectively encode object novelty. This work helps illuminate how the brain detects and stores new information in our environment.
What is a skill you gained during grad school that you’ll carry forward in your career? How to pivot quickly and pivot well when research directions change. Learning to do this well helped me uncover some of my favourite findings from my PhD research and is likely an advantageous skill in any position going forward in one’s career.
What is your favourite UBC/GPN memory of something that you’ll miss the most about UBC? Every DMCBH Christmas party is one for the books! I have also loved the collaborative and friendly spirit of the LSI, DMCBH and GPN.
What’s next for you and what excites you most about that next step? I am beginning a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Tina Kim’s Lab at Princeton University. I am so excited to meet a whole new group of amazing neuroscientists, learn from them, and deepen my own research interests alongside them.
Do you have any advice for future students? Friendship is a great antidote to the stressors of grad school! Prioritize meeting new friends in grad school – your experience will be that much richer because of it!
Jinfang Li, PhD
Supervisor: Michael Gordon
Thesis title: Organization and processing of gustatory information in the Drosophila brain
Summary of research: Our taste system is essential to our survival, therefore it needs to be both robust and versatile. In this study, I aimed to unravel the logic of taste organization in early sensory processing.
What is a skill you gained during grad school that you’ll carry forward in your career? One thing I gained through grad school is not hesitating to ask for help. The help I received from my supervisor, my labmates and my committee members greatly pushed forward my thesis project.
What is your favourite UBC/GPN memory of something that you’ll miss the most about UBC? I will miss the lab trips to Rain or Shine ice cream.
What’s next for you and what excites you most about that next step? I am planning to enter industry where I can transform the skills that I’ve learned into production.
Do you have any advice for future students? Don’t hesitate to ask for help or collaborate.
Kaitlin Sullivan, PhD
Supervisor: Mark Cembrowski
Thesis title: Identifying and manipulating cell types involved in rodent fear memory
Summary of research: My PhD research was focused on uncovering how specific types in the brain encode and store fear memories.
What’s a skill you gained during grad school that you’ll carry forward in your future career? Grad school taught me to trust my own competence and lean into the confidence that I can learn anything, even far beyond my original expertise.
What is your favourite UBC/GPN memory or something that you’ll miss the most about UBC? I’ll miss Tuesdays and our lab wine tastings the most!
What’s next for you and what excites you most about that next step? I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University, studying how early life stress epigenetically affects the brain. The thing that excites me the most about my next steps is the growing autonomy I get to see in myself and my peers.
Do you have any advice for future students? Let go of the idea that you must always know everything and be right to be valid. Being an academic means continually seeking out what you don’t know.
Graeme Betts, PhD
Supervisor: Catharine Winstanley
Thesis title: Central cholinergic system and muscarinic subtype M4: probabilistic decision-making deficits by inherent impulsivity
Summary of research: People living with psychiatric disorders often face challenges worsened by impulsive behaviour and risky decision making. I found that pharmacological compounds that bind to specific receptors (M1 and M4) highly localized to habit and goal-directed areas of the brain can reduce impulsive behaviour without the adverse side effects associated with current therapeutics. This suggests that the emerging trend of M1 and M4 subtype-specific drug development is a promising avenue for psychiatric treatment.
What’s a skill you gained during grad school that you’ll carry forward in your future career? Confidence in my competency to interpret information and communicate it effectively.
What is your favourite UBC/GPN memory or something that you’ll miss the most about UBC? Well, I’m still on campus as a researcher at a biotech company, so I still have more memories to form! In general, I’ve felt a stark environmental contrast to my background in the trades, with people showing support, patience, and humility even when answering a stupid question.
What’s next for you and what excites you most about that next step? I’ve started as a research fellow with CereCura, which is based out of UBC. It is a very different focus of neuroscience and I’m really excited to diversify my knowledge base. The fact that my research findings will shape our path towards clinical development is very cool.
Do you have any advice for future students? Define your boundaries, don’t overwork yourself, and maintain a hobby outside of research. You’ll get more done with consistent and fewer hours than burst and burnouts. There will likely be times when you want to give up, but push through and stay the course.
Jesse Donald Fox, PhD
Supervisor: Josef Penninger and Shernaz Bamji
Thesis title: Characterization of the Parkinson’s disease DNAJC13 p.N855S mutation in a knock-in mouse model
Jake Gerlofs, PhD
Supervisor: Alan Kingstone
Thesis title: The dual function of social gaze
Joyce Lam, PhD
Supervisor: Silke Appel-Cresswell
Thesis title: Clinical and biological investigations of anxiety in Parkinson’s disease: insights from microbiome, psychometric, and placebo-controlled studies
Tanvi Puri, PhD
Supervisor: Liisa Galea and Teresa Liu-Ambrose
Thesis title: Past reproductive experience and estradiol affect brain health in middle-aged females
