Past Members
gLORIA JANSEN
NYUAD Graduate Student
Gloria Jansen graduated from NYUAD majoring in Biology with a specialization in Brain & Cognitive Science. As part of her undergraduate research at NYU Abu Dhabi, Gloria spearheaded the use of transcriptomics to determine neuronal sub-populations in mice that are resilient or susceptible to chronic social defeat stress. After graduating from NYUAD Gloria received an MRC fellowship is currently studying for a PhD in Cambridge University.
MERIMA SABANOVIC
NYUAD Graduate Student
Merima Sabanovic graduated from NYUAD majoring in Biology with a specialization in Brain and Cognitive Science and a minor in Psychology. Merima pioneered the winner-loser behavioural paradigm in the lab, which she d to investigate the effects of social stress exposure on expression of social dominance in rodents. After graduating from NYUAD she won a place with the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Training Program in Neuroscience, with further funding provided by the Clarendon Fund and is currently studying for a PhD in Oxford University.
CHRISTINA ‘MISYA’ ERWIN
NYUSH Graduate student
Christina graduated from New York University Shanghai (NYUSH). She volunteered in the lab during her 3rd year studies at NYUAD and was enormously helpful in setting up the lab.
HALA AQEL
NYUAD Graduate Student
Hala is a Palestinian-American graduated from NYUAD majoring in Biology. She is most passionate about health policy and hopes her work in that field can have a more widespread, global impact on healthcare. Her research interests focus on investigating the impact of induced jet lag models on susceptibility to stress-related depression in mice.
HE LIU, MD/PHD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
He Liu received his medical degree, specializing in Anesthesiology in 2006. After graduating, He Liu undertook the anesthesiology residency program from 2006-2008. He completed his M.M. training in the Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology & Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Anesthesia and Analgesia Application Technology at Xuzhou Medical College, under the instruction of Professor Jun-li Cao (2011). He received his PhD in Anesthesiology from China Medical University under the instruction of Professor Li-Cai Zhang (2014). He subsequently worked as an anesthesiology residency in the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical College (2014-2015). During training for his M.M. and PhD, he performed a series of studies investigating Regulation of Pain Signal Transduction. In 2015, he joined the team of Prof. Chaudhury in NYUAD as a Postdoctoral Associate investigating functional changes in neural circuits connecting the circadian clock of the brain to regions associated with mood disorders such as depression.
ALVARO YAÑEZ TOUZET
Former Research Fellow
Alvaro was an inaugural Research Fellow at New York University Abu Dhabi (2020). He did his BSc in biology at NYUAD (2019), specializing in brain and cognitive science and graduating magna cum laude. A physician in the making, Alvaro aspires to be a global neurologist-scientist. He has lived in Chile, Peru, and the UAE; studied away in the US and Ghana; and volunteered in Ecuador and Colombia. His research interests lie in the crossroads between the emergence of behavior and neuronal biophysics. At Chaudhury Lab, he investigated the relationship between susceptibility to stress and sleep patterns, using electroencephalography, electromyography, and models of behavioral testing. Currently, he studies medicine at The University of Manchester (2025).
