Three Stevens Undergraduates Pursue Neuroscience Research as Simons Foundation Fellows
Students investigating autism, brain science, aging with support from prestigious awards program
Three Stevens undergraduates have spent the 2024-25 academic year pursuing specialized studies in brain science, aging and autism with grant support from the Simons Foundation. Those students presented their research at the foundation’s New York City headquarters during a symposium for program fellows on April 7.
“We’re very proud to have three of just 75 SURFiN (Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience) fellowships funded nationwide this year by the Simons Foundation,” commented Andres Mansisidor, Stevens’ director for undergraduate research.
The students have been conducting their research projects under the mentorship of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the New York City metro region and at Princeton University.
Valerie Calligy, a quantitative social science major with interests in neuropsychology, cognition and visual information processing, has been studying with postdoctoral researcher Lucas Tian in Rockefeller University’s Freiwald brain-science lab.
Katelyn Chiurri, a chemical biology major with interests in neurobiology, neurodegenerative disease and genetics, is collaborating with postdoctoral fellow Melissa Cooper in Moses Chao’s NYU neuron-studies lab to understand how neuronal helper cells are organized in the brain. Chiurri uses a specific virus that marks an astrocyte network by biotinylating molecules moving through gap junctions between adjacent astrocytes in networks; these networks can then be visualized in the brain, demonstrating network organization and size.
“The overall goal of our project is to examine astrocytes and the gap junctions that connect them, to understand astrocyte networks across different brain regions,” she explains. “The findings in this project have implications in many fields including neurodegeneration and cancer biology.”
Mirian Rodriguez, a chemical biology major and pre-health program participant, works with postdoctoral researcher Erik Toraason in Coleen Murphy’s aging-research lab at Princeton. She presented research aimed at understanding the genetics and neurobiology of dynamic behaviors.
In addition to financial support, the SURFiN program also engages its fellows through virtual and in-person professional development and community-building activities including a coding boot camp and community meetings.
