Alexis is a research technician under the Bridge to the Ph.D. in STEM program at Columbia University. After taking an introductory biology course in high school, she became fascinated with the biological sciences and medicine. This fascination led her to pursue a Bachelor of Science at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), Amherst, where she majored in biochemistry and molecular biology. After taking a neurobiology course at UMass, her curiosity about neuroscience led her to join Karine Fenelon’s laboratory in the summer of 2019 under the William Lee Science Impact Program (Lee SIP). As a Lee SIP scholar, Alexis tested the efficacy of optogenetics using electrophysiological field recordings. From there, Alexis continued to work with Dr. Fenelon in the fall to conduct a year-long research project that investigated the significance of the hippocampus in sensorimotor gating using prepulse inhibition (PPI) in a murine model system. Abnormal or impaired PPI has been linked to patients with schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Huntington’s disease. In conjunction with this project, Alexis also joined the laboratory of Dong Wang, after completing his biochemistry course. In this group, she investigated the mechanism of nitrogen-fixing symbiosis amongst legumes and bacteria, using CRISPR Cas-9 genome engineering systems. Alexis worked in these two laboratories until May of 2020 when she became the first in her family to graduate from university. After completing the Bridge to the Ph.D. Program in STEM, Alexis plans to continue her graduate studies in neuroscience where she is looking to combine the intersectionality of engineering, medicine, and natural science. In her free time, she enjoys dancing kizomba, being a devoted plant mom, and playing any sport that has a board in it.

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