MBB Class of 2023: Thesis Titles
Listed are the concentrations, thesis titles, and thesis advisors with affiliations of track students.
Kidist Alemu (Computer Science), A comparison of natural language models to subtype ischemic stroke from electronic health records (advisor Puneet Batra, HMS)
Sophia Campbell (Human Evolutionary Biology), The evolution of reward circuitry: A comparative study between humans, chimpanzees, rhesus macaques, and capuchin monkeys (advisor, Erin Hecht, Human Evolutionary Biology/FAS)
Allison Chang (Neuroscience), Age-specific functions of microglial C1q in neuronal translational regulation and synaptic plasticity (advisor Beth Stevens, HMS)
Rachel Chau (Neuroscience), Investigating long noncoding RNAs as novel therapeutic targets in Alzheimer’s Disease (advisors Anna Krichevsky, HMS & Lien Nguyen, HMS)
Evie Coxon (Neuroscience), Examining frontolimbic connectivity and childhood trauma as predictors of non-suicidal self injury in a high-risk cohort of children (Jenna Traynor, HMS)
Odessa Xinyao Deng (Neuroscience and Chemistry), Breaking into song: Neural activation and functional connectivity of music with and without vocals (advisors Lisa Wong, HMS & Psyche Loui, Northeastern)
Udochi Emeghara (Neuroscience), Examining the moderating impact of positive parenting on the association between early life adversity and neurodevelopment (advisor Kate McLaughlin, Psychology/FAS)
Eloise Freitag (Neuroscience), Exploring the neurobiological association between temperament and polygenic risk for psychopathology (advisor Charles Nelson, HMS)
Katie Gao (Neuroscience) (March degree), Reward network connectivity distinguishes antidepressant mechanisms of action in ECT and TMS: A resting-state fMRI study (advisor Joan Camprodon, HMS)
Ilai Gavish (Neuroscience and Philosophy), Less than reckless: Assessing the role of consciousness in the moral appraisal of risky action (advisor Gabriel Kreiman, HMS)
Cade Herrera (Neuroscience), Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind: A longitudinal fMRI study on the efficacy of mindfulness training to offset age-related cognitive decline (advisor Sara Lazar, HMS)
Shifa Hossain (Neuroscience), Investigating the dynamics of cell death and cell proliferation in dorsal root ganglia of axolotls during peripheral nerve regeneration (advisor Jessica Whited, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, HMS/FAS)
Miyu Imai (Neuroscience), Individuality in phototactic preference in tethered adult drosophila melanogaster (advisor Benjamin de Bivort, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, FAS)
Autumn Lynne Johnson (Neuroscience), Touch as a key regulator of social need (advisor Catherine Dulac, Molecular and Cellular Biology/FAS)
Maria Kaltchenko (Neuroscience), Maternal exogenous oxytocin administration and the enduring effects of birth manipulations on the fetal brain (advisor Marcy Kingsbury, HMS)
Christine Lee (Neuroscience), Systemic inequity and structural integrity: A neuroimaging investigation of socioeconomic status and brain development in adolescents (advisor Anastasia Yendiki, HMS)
Nadine Lee (Neuroscience), Modeling temporal lobe epilepsy through prime editing of RAS-MAPK variants (advisor Christopher Walsh, HMS)
Seungil (Rick) Lee (Neuroscience) (March degree), Identifying long noncoding RNAs as regulators of genes associated with autism spectrum disorder (advisor Christopher Walsh, HMS)
Soo Lee (Neuroscience) (March degree), Investigating the relation between infant functional connectivity and child internalizing behavior (advisor Charles A. Nelson, HMS)
Shaked Emily Leibovitz (Neuroscience), Overcoming fear-neuroadaptive changes following mindfulness training enhance fear extinction learning (advisor Sara Lazar, HMS)
Mikaela Belle Martin (Linguistics), Y’all finna go to the d-hall? –Tense-aspect markers in Black Harvard African American English (advisor Kathryn Davidson, Linguistics, FAS)
Rio McLellan (Neuroscience), Targeting proteostasis machinery in the brain vasculature to treat neurodegenerative disease (advisor Lee Rubin, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, HMS/FAS)
Keilina Tita Monteiro Do Canto (Neuroscience), Studying the relationship between neuropeptides regulating stress and anxiety circuitry in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: An investigation through the pathology of post-traumatic stress disorder (advisor Sabina Berretta, HMS)
Sam Murdock (Neuroscience and Philosophy), Theories of theory of mind: Investigating the dimensions and supportive neural architecture of the “mentalizing module” (advisors Randy Buckner, Psychology/FAS & Susanna Siegel, Philosophy/FAS)
Jennifer Jeanette Near (Neuroscience), Associations between caregiver depression, caregiver-child play interactions, and early childhood social information processing: An fNIRS investigation (advisors Charles Nelson, HMS & Laura Pirazzoli, HMS)
Cole Petersen (Neuroscience), Investigating the protective role of FBXO17 in the integrated stress response of glioblastoma stem cells (advisor Christian E. Badr, HMS)
Charles Edward Reilly III (Neuroscience), The effects of gap junction-blocking drugs on the survival and behavior of larval zebrafish implanted with glioblastoma (advisor Florian Engert, Cellular and Molecular Biology, FAS)
Allison Tu (Psychology), Examining intellectual safetyism: Developing a safetyism scale and characterizing its associations in a sample of college students (advisors Richard McNally, Psychology/FAS & Ben Bellet, Psychology/FAS)
Jania Josette Tumey (Human Evolutionary Biology), An evolutionary perspective on contraceptive use and its role in global fertility decline (advisor Anke Becker, HBS)
Elizabeth Wang (Neuroscience), Relationships between irritability and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and basolateral amygdala structural volume and structural connectivity (advisor Elizabeth Olson, HMS)
Julia Catherine Welsh (Neuroscience and Psychology), Brain reactivity to personalized alcohol cues is related to severity of alcohol use disorder but not subjective craving in treatment-seeking adults (advisors Scott Lukas, HMS & Laura Murray, HMS & Amy Janes, NIDA/NIH)
Peyton Williams (Human Evolutionary Biology), Tend-and-befriend stress response and chronic stress: social risks as effect modifiers of the relationship between social support and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic (advisors Anne Thorndike, HMS & Daniel Lieberman, Human Evolutionary Biology/FAS)