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River Day 2019

River Day 2019

River Day 2019

River Day 2019

Carla doing work at her desk

Carla doing work at her desk

Carla working

Carla working

Walk to End AD 2018

Walk to End AD 2018

Walk to End AD 2018

Walk to End AD 2018

Walk to End AD 2018

Walk to End AD 2018

MetLife Award, Cirrito

MetLife Award, Cirrito

Lake Day 2014

Lake Day 2014

Lake Day Flag

Lake Day Flag

Youngest lab member, Ben

Youngest lab member, Ben

Our youngest technician

Our youngest technician

Garbage Pail Lab (Gift for Todd)

Garbage Pail Lab (Gift for Todd)

Hippocampus, AD mouse model brain

Hippocampus, AD mouse model brain

Alzheimer's mouse model brain stained for amyloid plaques (red), astrocytes (green) and nuclei (blue).

Walk to End AD 2013

Walk to End AD 2013

Lake Day 2016

Lake Day 2016

SfN Shannigans

SfN Shannigans

Things refuse to go into solution

Things refuse to go into solution

Rotary Club CART Grant Award Mtg

Rotary Club CART Grant Award Mtg

Walk to End AD 2019

Walk to End AD 2019

Walk to End AD 2019

Walk to End AD 2019

EuroAnalysis Conf, Istanbul Turkey

EuroAnalysis Conf, Istanbul Turkey

Woodward rocking his poster at EuroAnalysis, September 2019

Roughing it in Istanbul, Sept 2019

Roughing it in Istanbul, Sept 2019

Society for Neurosciene 2019

Society for Neurosciene 2019

Lab Members 

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Brooke Doherty

Lab Technician

Brooke received her B.S. at Loyola University Chicago where she majored in Environmental Science and minored in Neuroscience and Biology. She joined the lab in May 2019 as Research Technician II on the microdialysis side. When she is not maintaining the peace between her 2 dogs and cat, she enjoys travel, cooking, and watching DIY videos. One day she might even get around to doing one. 

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Kate Reardon

Lab Technician

Kate received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Emory University. She joined the Cirrito Lab as a research technician in 2019 with a focus on microdialysis. In her free time, Kate enjoys listening to music, photography, and spending time outside, especially when it involves hiking and/or mountains.

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Amelie Halabi

Lab Technician

Amelie graduated from the University of Balamand - Lebanon with a B.S degree in Biology. She joined the Cirrito Lab in October 2021 as a research technician on the microdialysis side. In her spare time, Amelie enjoys shopping, watching movies and playing the piano. 

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Samuel Wycoff

Neuroscience Grad Student

Samuel graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2019 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and joined the Cirrito lab the following year. His research experience ranges from neuronal cultures to leeches to postmortem brains and has settled into a project exploring the interactions between alpha-synuclein and amyloid beta. When not pouring his blood, sweat, and tears into science, Samuel along with his wife enjoy hiking, teaching, and playing board games that aren't monopoly.

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Carla Yuede, PhD.

Associate Professor

Co-director of Behavior Core

Carla graduated from Missouri State University in 2000 with a BS in Psychology and Biomedical Science. From there, she moved to St. Louis to pursue a Ph.D in Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in the laboratory of Dr. George Taylor (Psychology).  During graduate school, she began a collaboration with the newly formed Animal Behavior Core (ABC) at Washington University and completed her dissertation research on the long-term behavioral effects of neonatal NMDA receptor antagonism under the guidance of Dr. David Wozniak (Psychiatry) in the lab of Dr. John Olney (Psychiatry).  Following graduation, she began a postdoc studying the effects of stress on Alzheimer’s disease with Dr. John Csernansky (Psychiatry). In 2012, she made the move to the Neurology department to work with Dr. John Cirrito to develop micro-immunoelectrodes (MIEs) to study rapid kinetics of beta amyloid and other peptides involved in Alzheimer’s disease.  In 2018, Carla became Co-Director of the ABC at Washington University, and splits her time between Cirrito Lab and ABC projects.  The ability to combine multiple techniques to study different aspects of Alzheimer’s disease has been extremely exciting over the years and the collaborative nature of the Cirrito Lab is the perfect environment for those projects.  

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John Cirrito, PhD.

Professor of Neurology

John grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, FL but escaped to cold weather and seasons as soon as he could. He went to Boston College where he experienced several “Blizzards of the Century” so quickly began to appreciate beach weather much more than he had. In college he got his first taste of research by working with Dr. Michael Numan (Psychology) studying the neural circuits underlying maternal avoidance in rats. He graduated in 1998 and spent a year working in Research and Development at NEN Life Sciences (now Perkin Elmer) developing research reagents, including some that his own lab still uses. In 1999 he started his PhD in Neuroscience at Washington University in the lab of Dr. David Holtzman (Neurology) studying Alzheimer’s disease. At this point, John still had hair. Much of his PhD work focused on the proteins and cellular pathways that eliminate amyloid-beta (Aβ) from the brain. Here he developed the first use of in vivo microdialysis to study Aβ kinetics in the brain of a living mouse. This was the first time someone was able to measure Aβ peptide longitudinally. In the Holtzman lab he realized the importance and value of collaboration, having worked with numerous departments across the university as well as outside groups and industries. This is something he still feels very strongly about. John received his PhD in 2005, then became a post-doc in the lab of Dr. Steven Mennerick (Psychiatry) where he learned to pretend to be an electrophysiologist to study synaptic processes that regulate Aβ generation. This is pretty much when John lost his hair. He started his own laboratory (Neurology) at WashU in 2010, received tenure in 2015, and serves on more committees and review panels than he wishes to think about. 

John and his life partner, Sandra, have a 8 year old son, Ben. The trio enjoys playing and traveling, especially if it involves a train. Luckily, John and Ben are roughly the same emotional age so they get along very well, often to the embarrassment of his wife.  

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Jennifer Stevens

Neuroscience Grad Student

Jennifer has been doing neuroscience research with WashU since 2009, when she began as an undergraduate in the pre-med program. There she discovered a passion for neuroscience research and would go on to enter the WashU Medical Science Training Program (MSTP) in 2013. While in the MSTP she has gained experience with a variety of techniques including but not limited to: PCR, EAE, and CRISPR-Cas. Jennifer joined the Cirrito lab in 2022 to study the relationship between exercise and Alzheimer’s disease.

Outside of the lab Jennifer enjoys running for exercise while exploring her neighborhood, baking for friends and family, and making new friends while attending church.

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Woodward Gardiner

Lab Supervisor and Technology Advisor

Woodrow (aka Woodward) earned a B.A. in biology and psychology at Truman State University followed by a M.A. at the University of Chicago. His master’s thesis was on the role of the orbital frontal cortex in rule learning; previous research interests include an ecological survey of bats in Central American rainforests, an investigation of housing preferences of middle class Americans, and various applications of biofeedback. He joined Dr. Cirrito’s lab in May 2018, acting as a research technician specializing in microdialysis, but has since transitioned into a micro-immunoelectrode extraordinaire/programming machine. Woodrow enjoys knitting, reading, and is a baller cook.

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Hannah Edwards

Neuroscience Grad Student

Hannah completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2015. She joined Cirrito Lab in 2016 as a research technician, focusing primarily on the micro-immunoelectrode and its applications both in vivo and in vitro. Hannah recently returned to the Cirrito Lab as a 1st year Neuroscience Graduate Student to study the relationship between stress, sex, and Alzheimer's disease.

When not in the lab, Hannah enjoys spending time with her adorable dogs, hiking, and off-roading. While she dreams of a lab dog, she is sadly mistaken.

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Clare Wallace

Staff Scientist

Clare graduated from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2013 with a M.S. in Chemistry.  She joined the Air Force National Guard soon after her graduation.  Upon her return from training, she joined the Cirrito lab early in 2014 as a lab technician.  She soon transitioned into a Laboratory Supervisor position and this year she accepted a position in the Cirrito Lab as a Staff Scientist.  Clare’s research focus is in microdialysis and the study of the a-beta protein and its effects in mice.  In her off time, Clare likes to hike, road trip, and explore.  She also likes to try new places to eat and enjoys creating art and taking care of her pets.

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