MBB Theses, Class of 2016


Kelsey Clayman, Neurobiology, Dynamic regulation of the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway in glioblastoma (advisor Mark Johnson, HMS)

Allyson Covello, Neurobiology, Lynx1 expression modulates attentional state (advisor Takao Hensch, Molecular and Cellular Biology/FAS and HMS)

Cailin Daley, Neurobiology, Maternal anxiety and infant face-processing development: An event-related potential study (advisor Charles Nelson, HMS and GSE)

Gabriella Giugliano, Neurobiology, Discovering an action perception and comprehension impairment in individuals with cerebral palsy (advisor Alfonso Caramazza, Psychology/FAS)

Emily Hansman, Neurobiology, Cortical development and preferential looking in face-deprived juvenile macaques (advisor Margaret Livingstone, HMS)

Dylan Hardenbergh, Linguistics, Contrastive inferences under cognitive load (advisor Jesse Snedeker, Psychology/FAS)

Sean Hardy, Neurobiology, Organization of the afferent circuitry of the postural lateral line in larval zebrafish (advisor Florian Engert, Molecular and Cellular Biology/FAS)

Sreeja Kalapurakkel, History and Science, The legacy of Grete Bibring and psychoanalysis at Harvard: Therapeutic empathy in the doctor-patient relationship (1920s-1980s), (advisor Elizabeth Lunbeck, History of Science/FAS)

Jennifer Kizza, Neurobiology, Language outcomes in toddlerhood for infants at high risk for autism spectrum disorder and language disorders: The associations between brain and behavior (advisors Charles Nelson, HMS and GSE & Kandice Varcin, HMS)

Garrett Lam, Neurobiology and Philosophy, The volitional (in)significance of neuroscience: What Libetian investigations can and cannot do for free will (advisors Gabriel Kreiman, HMS & Susanna Rinard, Philosophy/FAS)

Claire Leibowitz, Psychology, tDCS and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex’s role in intergroup empathy (advisor Mina Cikara, Psychology/FAS)

Chelsea Lide, Psychology, Language, goals, and the selective learning: How syntax guides infants’ interpretation of event structure (advisor Jesse Snedeker, Psychology/FAS)

Onyeka Nnaemeka, Neurobiology, Developing an interactive platform for displaying whole-brain activity maps in zebrafish (advisor Florian Engert, Molecular and Cellular Biology/FAS)

Julia Ostmann, History and Science, “Think them together:” Philosophy, Experimental Psychology, and Consciousness in the journal Mind, 1876-1887 (advisor Leah Aronowsky, History of Science/FAS)

Karim Pirbay, Philosophy, Polyglots and personalities: Can multilingualism create multiple personalities? (advisor Bernhard Nickel, Philosophy/FAS)

Tiffany Ramos, Neurobiology, The path towards matching genes and behavior: CACNAIC and the forced swim test (advisor Laura Magnotti, Neurobiology/FAS)

Kimberly Reimold, Human Evolutionary Biology, Fat and fecund: How energy status and location influences reproduction in a modern population of females (advisors Daniel Lieberman, Human Evolutionary Biology/FAS & Carole Hooven, Human Evolutionary Biology/FAS)

Renajd Rrapi, Neurobiology, Investigating the potential targets of the Let-y miRNA complex: Dally-like and folded gastrulation (advisor Samuel Kunes, Molecular and Cellular Biology/FAS)

Matthew Seghers, Neurobiology, An analysis of large amino acid mutants in the APP C100-FLAG sequence and shifts in the A/beta42/40 ratio (advisor Michael Wolfe, HMS)

Priyanka Sen, Linguistics, Thematic role assignment in a semantic dementia patient (advisor Domenica Romagno, Pisa)

Lauren Stone, Human Evolutionary Biology, Central endogenous ghrelin resistance: A novel biomarker for chronic stress, with implications for stress-related illnesses (advisors Peter Ellison, Human Evolutionary Biology/FAS & Brenda Frazier, Human Evolutionary Biology/FAS)

Aaron Tucker, Computer Science, Negative binomial LDS via polya-gamma augmentation for neural spike count modeling (advisor Ryan Adams, Computer Science/SEAS/FAS)

Shilpa Tummala, Neurobiology, Molecular correlates of tumor size and MRI contrast enhancement in a cohort of lower-grade glioma patients (advisor Daniel Cahill, HMS)

Sekinat Yusuf, Neurobiology, The thalamic reticular nucleus and sleep (advisor Robert Stickgold, HMS)