Three UBC Neuroscience graduate students have recently taken on the role of NeuroImaging and NeuroComputation Centre (NINC) Microscopists in Residence. Given recent advances in imaging technology, fluorescent probes, and data analysis methods, neuroscience research is relying on ever increasing amounts of imaging data.
Working with the NINC Managing Director, the NINC Microscopists in Residence will not only help troubleshoot and optimize new and ongoing experiments with NINC users, but will also support the adoption of new optogenetic fluorescent probes and imaging techniques to further advance neuroscience research. Optimal experimental design and data collection are essential to ensuring success of specific research projects and this practical knowledge contributes to building the DMCBH’s capacity, as a community, to readily deploy new and evolving tools in future projects.
Learn more about the three trainees below.
Peter Hogg
Peter is currently a PhD student in Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Kurt Haas. His thesis focuses on the activity-based regulation of dendritic arborization.
Peter’s past experiences in microscopy include training in multiphoton microscopy and participating in research-focused summer schools and conferences focused on neurophotonics and optics. Peter has constructed multiple microscopes and designed various imaging components for custom microscopes. His recent build is a custom random-access microscope that can image subcellular neuronal activity at kilohertz speeds.
Peter has served as a Dynamic Brain Circuits in Health and Disease Steering Committee member and as a neurodata tutor at Databinge for the last few years.
Peter working on the Scan Line Angular Projection (SLAP2) microscope
Mathias Delhaye
Mathias is a current PhD student in Neuroscience under the supervision of Drs. Ann Marie Craig and Mark Cembrowski. Mathias studies the synaptic pathology of mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (mTLE), looking at the protein composition modification of synapses in mTLE patients’ hippocampus.
Mathias’ educational background includes an undergraduate biology degree from the University of Paris-Saclay, and a master’s degree in neuroscience from Sorbonne University in France.
Mathias’ expertise for the microscopist position includes confocal microscopy, super-resolution microscopy, lattice lightsheet and widefield epifluorescence microscopes.
Mathias working on the Lattice Lightsheet microscope
Nick Michelson
Nick is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Program in Dr. Tim Murphy’s lab. In his research, Nick uses 2-photon microscopy to image neuronal activity across millimetres of cortex, and fiber photometry to image neural activity from deeper areas in the brain.
Before coming to UBC, Nick studied Bioengineering at Binghamton University and the University of Pittsburgh.
Nick’s current research objective is to characterize the functional relationship between neurons across dorsal cortex and various subcortical targets including the hippocampus and striatum.
