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AQM Team3 7-2023

AQM Team3 7-2023

Lake Day 2023

Lake Day 2023

LakeDay2023

LakeDay2023

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 dinner 1-2024

Lab dinner 1-2024

Happy Holidays from the Lab (plus S.O.s). #Sanctuaria

Lab trip to Boulder, CO to kick-off instrument design for the breath test. Might as well make an In

Lab trip to Boulder, CO to kick-off instrument design for the breath test. Might as well make an In

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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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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.

Professor of Psychiatry 

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 12 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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Kaitlyn Hersch

Research Technician

Kaitlyn Hersch is a research technician from Summit, New Jersey. She received her Bachelor’s in Environmental Biology and Spanish (with a hint of Linguistics) from Washington University in St. Louis. Her undergraduate research focused on the effects of climate change on the evolution of mating traits in North American dragonflies. After graduating, Kaitlyn spent a year in Madrid, Spain teaching English to middle and high school students and practicing her Spanish. Outside of the lab, Kaitlyn enjoys reading, horseback riding, painting, and spending time with friends.

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Nathan McFarland

Research Technician

Nathan graduated with a B.S. in neuroscience from Ohio State University in 2022. He is currently working on a master's degree in translational pharmacology (with a specialization in toxicology and safety), also at OSU. His previous research experience is in translational neurosurgery, specializing in histology and immunohistochemistry. He joined the Cirrito lab in August 2023 as a research technician II, hoping to learn new techniques and procedures like microdialysis and immunoassays. When not fighting for his life in the lab, Nathan most enjoys travelling, exploring the city, listening to music, and spending way too much time with his cat, Leo.

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Jessica Restivo

Lab Supervisor

Jess graduated from Western Illinois University in 2008 with a B.S. in Microbiology and received an M.A in Biology from Washington University in 2011. She started her career in the Cirrito in 2008 as a lab tech doing bench work and cell culture. After a 10 year hiatus in marine science she returned in 2023. Outside of lab Jess enjoys being outdoors and traveling.

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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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Emily Walsh, PhD.

Post Doctorate

Emily studied Psychology at Bradley University in Peoria, IL, where she received her degree as a Bachelor of Science. During this time she conducted research in the lab of Dr. Timothy Koeltzow, and learned about how stress and addiction impact behavior. Over time she developed an interest in the process of memory consolidation which led her to pursue a doctorate in Neuroscience at the University of Iowa, IA. There, she joined the lab of Dr. Ted Abel and began her studies working on understanding the molecular mechanisms of memory consolidation in the hippocampus. Later on she transitioned her studies to emphasize the roll of sleep and sleep loss on this process, to better understand how loss of sleep interferes with the consolidation of memory. Emily is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Dr. John Cirrito. In the Cirrito lab she is working on projects related to how sleep and sleep loss facilitate changes in Alzheimer’s Disease, and how chronic stressors impact Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. When not in lab, Emily spends her time exploring the many St. Louis parks with her dog.

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Hannah Petillo

Research Technician

Hannah obtained her B.S in Psychology and Neuroscience alongside her Master’s in Neuroscience from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. During her time at Tulane she studied the interactions between sex hormones, cognition, and cardiovascular health in rodents. She joined the Cirrito lab in August of 2024 as a research technician II performing microdialysis. Outside of work she enjoys cooking way more food than she can eat herself, drawing, and going to concerts with her partner.

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Sofia Mora

Research Technician

Sofia received her B.A. in Cognitive Neuroscience from WashU in May of 2024 and joined the Cirrito lab in August. She is currently taking a gap year while preparing to apply to medical schools in 2025. As an undergraduate, she conducted research in the Cognitive Control and Psychopathology lab with Dr. Deanna Barch, investigating motivation and pleasure in patients with varying mood and psychosis disorders as well as healthy individuals. In her free time, Sofia enjoys salsa dancing, volunteering at the NICU with the adorable babies, cooking, and finding new music to listen to 24/7. 

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