Kyle is an MD/PhD student who completed the first two years of medical school at UNC and joined the Cohen Lab through the Department of Pharmacology in 2022. As an undergraduate, he attended Cornell University, where he majored in Biology and Neurobiology and studied the neurocircuitry related to depression and mood disorders in Melissa Warden’s Lab. He then expanded upon his skillset in behavioral and systems neuroscience when he joined the Friedman Lab of Molecular Genetics at the Rockefeller University as a post-baccalaureate research technician. In his two years there, he helped to parse out various neurocircuits related to metabolism, feeding, and thermoregulation using optogenetics, DREADDs, TRAP, iDISCO, and several other techniques. In the Cohen lab, Kyle studies how the dysregulation of glial cells and the neuroinflammatory response can lead to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in both in vitro and in vivo models. While not in the lab or clinic, Kyle enjoys cooking, hiking, powerlifting, basketball, volleyball, and learning new languages.

Carli is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Neuroscience curriculum. Before coming to UNC for graduate studies, Carli received a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at California State University, Northridge. She worked with Dr. Randy Cohen studying the neurodegeneration of Purkinje cells from excitotoxicity by GABA receptor activation in an ataxic rat model. After graduating in May 2015, Carli joined Dr. Daniel Geschwind’s lab at UCLA as a staff research associate where she investigated the effects of overexpression of specific genes known to be involved in neurogenesis such as NGN2, FGFR2, and SOX5 in primary human neural progenitor cells. Now in Todd Cohen’s lab at UNC Chapel Hill, Carli is evaluating the role of a particular post translational modification, tau cleavage by caspases, and its implications to Alzheimer’s disease. Outside of the lab, she enjoys baking, hanging out with her cat, running, eating cheese and making craft cocktails.

Julie is an MD/PhD student who completed the first two years of the UNC School of Medicine curriculum and then joined the Cohen Lab and the Cell Biology and Physiology Department full-time in 2019. She graduated from Pomona College in 2015, where she studied the neuroelectrophysiology and the molecular mechanisms of memory impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease. After graduating and before moving to North Carolina, Julie spent two years in Baltimore’s Biomedical Research Center working as an IRTA Fellow at the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. While there, she worked to develop and characterize novel genome engineering tools, such as CRISPR/Cas9 and AAV vector technology, to manipulate the rodent central nervous system with regional and cell-type specificity. She also worked on developing models of Parkinson’s Disease and HIV-associated Neurocognitive disorders. In the Cohen lab, Julie is researching the role of aberrant TDP-43 species in proteostasis impairment in ALS, FTLD, and other age-related TDP-43 proteinopathies using in vivo and in vitro approaches based on a novel mouse model of disease. She is also investigating the interactions of ALS/FTLD-associated mutations in non-TDP-43 genes on TDP-43 aggregation. When not in the lab or clinic, Julie likes to spend her time outside walking, running, hiking, and biking. She is also a big fan of wine and cheese boards, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Shannon is a second-year graduate student in the Neuroscience Curriculum. She graduated from University of Maryland in 2016 with a degree in Microbiology. She worked as a Lab Manager in Dr. Frank Shewmaker’s Lab at Uniformed Services University where she examined the biophysical characteristics of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)-associated protein FUS in cell culture. She is continuing her research in ALS through a co-mentorship with Sarah Cohen and Todd Cohen studying the impact of ALS pathology on organelle contacts and dynamics.

Baggio is a third-year Ph.D. candidate and NSF fellow in the Department of Cell Biology and Phisiology. Before coming to UNC for graduate studies, Baggio received a B.S. in Molecular and Microbiology at the University of Central Florida (UCF). There he studied epigenetic regulation of alpha-synuclein in Parkinson’s disease in the laboratory of Dr. Yoon-Seong Kim. From there, Baggio collaborated with Dr. Dmitri Kolpashchikov in the UCF Department of Chemistry where he designed a biosensor for pathological alpha-synuclein. After graduating in May 2017, Baggio joined the lab of Dr. Kenneth Teter where he investigated the biochemical properties of a molecular chaperone, Protein Disulfide Isomerase, and its ability to disaggregate alpha-synuclein and amyloid beta fibrils as a pan-therapeutic for neurodegenerative proteinopathies. Now in the Cohen lab, Baggio is investigating 1) a gene therapy strategy for eliminating ALS associated TDP-43 proteinopathy in vivo using Protein Disulfide Isomerase and 2) T-cell-mediated neuroinflammation in ALS.