Alanna Carey, a PhD student in the Chen Lab, recently received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award. The purpose of this award is to support a defined pathway across career stages for outstanding graduate students who are from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups that are underrepresented in neuroscience research. This two-phase award will facilitate the completion of the doctoral dissertation and transition of talented graduate students to strong neuroscience research postdoctoral positions and will provide career development opportunities relevant to their long-term career goal of becoming independent neuroscience researchers.
Alanna’s current work utilizes a genetically diverse mouse model in an automated home-cage performing a goal-directed learning task to observe how genetic diversity influences learning capacity. Her dissertation aims to demonstrate that genetic variation related to learning can converge on specific neuronal cell types and investigate how molecular, anatomical, or functional properties of neuronal cell types vary to produce learning differences among individuals. Alanna’s long-term goal is to lead her own research laboratory studying how specific gene networks and cell-types mechanistically influence learning and memory in neurodevelopmental disorders, utilizing genetic diversity and environmental factors.
Congratulations, Alanna!