Elena Rykhlevskaia
Psychiatry
Bio-X Postdoctoral Fellow 2007/2008
Profs. Vinod Menon (Psychiatry, Neurosciences) and Brian Wandell (Psychology)

Elena is interested in connectivity aspects of brain organization. She develops data mining algorithms for analysis and modeling of in vivo human brain imaging data to understand how different brain areas interact as part of a large-scale network.

Her lab works with the Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Lab and the Vision, Imaging Science and Technology Activities Lab. To capture the structural back bone of brain networks, they use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to infer activity synchronization and information flow among the key network nodes (at rest, or when performing a task). She is particularly fascinated with the changes in structural and functional aspects of brain network connectivity due to brain development and aging.

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Shilpa Sambashivan
Chemical & Systems Biology
Genentech Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow
Professor Axel Brunger (Molecular & Cellular Physiology)
Scientist at NGM Biopharmaceuticals

The Endoplasmic Reticulum Associated Degradation pathway is an important quality control pathway that is essential for clearing misfolded proteins from cells in a timely manner thus preventing the accumulation of toxic aggregates. Aberrant functioning of the ERAD Pathway has been linked to several diseases including Parkinson’s disease. The pathway is highly evolved with specific branches of the pathway dedicated to the clearance of misfolded proteins in different cellular locations. Employing biochemical assays and structural techniques like X-ray crystallography, single-molecule studies and electron microscopy, the Brunger lab is interested in determining the molecular interactions between misfolded proteins and the various components of the ERAD-L pathway.