Home Department: Engineering
Mentor: William Giardino (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences)

“Uncovering the Basis of Sex Differences in Emotional Behavior in
Rodents”

In his project, Max aims to uncover the neurobiological basis of sex differences in emotional behaviors by correlating stress stimuli given to rodents with the release of a neuropeptide in their amygdala region of the brain. The two variables Max will examine are biological sex and early life stress (maternal separation). This project will implement a diverse set of techniques focusing on optical neural recordings based on newly-developed fluorescent biosensors to monitor neuropeptide release in vivo.