I received my PhD degree from CUHK, Hong Kong. My major interest of research is molecular machinery in Parkinson’s disease with cell reprogramming techniques such as iPSC and direct reprogramming from fibroblast to functional neuron (iN). With this technology I would like to identify the relationship of aging and Parkinsonism and why dopaminergic neurons are particularly vulnerable in Parkinson patients.

Carol is currently studying the behavior of different subtypes of human neurons in the neuropsychiatric diseases such as Autism spectrum disorders, Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder. Elucidation of basic mechanisms that are involved in neuronal deficits on brain disease may help developing strategies for drug screen platforms and potential therapy candidates for neurologic diseases. Carol obtained her degree in Biology and her PhD degree in Genetics at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil. When she is not working in the lab, Carol is involved in outreach science programs and Women in Science discussions. Carol’s passions are practicing yoga and teaching yoga for kids.

I’m interested in studying the biology of human aging and age-related neurodegenerative disorders using neural cell reprogramming technologies and integrative analysis approaches.

I studied Biology as an undergraduate at Duke before pursuing my PhD in the Neurosciences Graduate Program at UCSD, working in the lab of Dr. Eric Zorrilla.   I joined the Gage lab in 2012 as a staff researcher specializing in behavioral neuroscience.  I’m interested in the connection between outward behavior and its underlying neural circuits, with a particular focus on hippocampus-dependent memory.