Our Alumni - Bo Li Lab

Radhashree Sharma, Research Tech, from June 2019- Jan. 2023

Radhashree graduated from St John’s University with M.S. in Biotechnology. She joined Li Lab in June 2019.

Alessandro Furlan, Postdoctoral Fellow, from Feb 2017- June 2022

Alessandro joined the lab in Feb 2017. He received his PhD from the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm in 2016. He is currently a Principal Investigator in his lab for Neurobiology of Obesity at the Karolinska Institute.

Xian Zhang, Postdoctoral Fellow, from March 2015- Feb 2022

Xian joined the lab in March 2015. He received his PhD from the University of Science and Technology of China. He investigated the functional role of basolateral amygdala in emotion and motivation.

Xiong Xiao, Postdoctoral Fellow, from Jan 2017- Nov 2021

Xiong joined the lab in January 2017. He received his PhD from the Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai, China. He investigated how the basal ganglia circuits contributed to reinforcement learning.

Hanfei Deng, Postdoctoral Fellow, from Jan 2017- Nov 2021

Hanfei joined the lab in January 2017. She received her PhD from the Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai, China. She studied how cortical neurons contributed to motivated behaviors.

Christian Bravo-Rivera, Postdoctoral Fellow, from Jan 2016- May 2021

Christian joined the lab in January 2016. He received his PhD from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. He investigates how projections from the ventral pallidium to the lateral habenula control motivation for seeking reward and for avoiding punishment.

Olivier Gschwend, Postdoctoral Fellow, From Jan 2018- July 2021

Olivier received his PhD from University of Geneva, Switzerland. He joined the lab in 2018 where he started to investigate the neural substrate of contextual decision making and cognitive flexibility.

Taylor Russo, Research Technician, from September 2018 to June 2019

Taylor received her B.S. in Psychology from Boston College and joined the Li Lab in September of 2018.

Mario Penzo, Postdoctoral Fellow, from August 2011 to August 2015

Mario received his Ph.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and joined the Li Lab in August 2011. He is studying the role of the central amygdala circuits in fear regulation.

Hillary Schiff, Postdoctoral Fellow, from May 2014 to January 2017

Hillary received her Ph.D. from New York University, and joined the Li Lab in May 2014. She is studying the role of the central amygdala circuits in fear regulation and anxiety.

Anna Lien Bouhuis Student in Residence, University of Amsterdam Sept. 2016- Oct 2020

Anna Lien joined CSHL in November 2015 as a Research Master student from the University of Amsterdam. After receiving her MSc in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, she returned to CSHL in September 2016 as a PhD student on a joint project between the University of Amsterdam and the Li Lab. Her work in the lab focuses on the role of the central amygdala in drug-related behaviors.

Jacqueline Giovanniello Graduate Student, Watson School of Biological Sciences Aug 2014- Jan 2020

Jackie received her BS in Biology from Brown University in 2012. After working as a Research Technician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Jackie joined the PhD program at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2014. She joined the Li Lab in 2015 and her thesis work has focused on understanding how neural circuits related to the amygdala and basal ganglia are disrupted in a mouse model of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Chloe Bizingre, Visiting Graduate Student from Oct. 2018-July 2019

Chloé is a graduate student from Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris-Saclay, France. She joined the lab in October 2018. She is studying the nucleus accumbens in motivated behaviors.

Kristen Delevich, Graduate Student, Post, Watson School of Biological Sciences, from August 2010 to February 2015

Kristen received her B.A. from University of Pittsburgh. She became a graduate student in the Watson School of Biological Sciences in August 2009 and joined the Li Lab in August 2010. She defended her Ph.D. thesis in July 2014. She was studying the long-range projections from the mediodorsal thalamus to the anterior cingulate cortex, and the role of the DISC1 (disrupted in schizophrenia 1) gene in this circuit. She is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Linda Wilbrecht’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

Alissa Cutrone, Visiting Student, Northeastern University, from June 2014 to December 2014

Alissa is an undergraduate student from Northeastern University. She joined the Li Lab in June 2014 as a visiting student. She was studying the role of the lateral habenula circuit in reward processing and in behaviors related to depression.

Jia Shen, Graduate Student, Rotation, Stony Brook University, from November 2014 to February 2015

Jia received her B.S. from Shanghai Normal University, M.S. from New York University. She became a graduate student in the Graduate Program in Genetics at Stony Brook University in September 2014. She started her rotation in the Li Lab in November 2014. She was studying the role of the lateral habenula circuit in reward processing and in behaviors related to depression.

Past Lab Members: