Lab Members

Current Lab Members

Click names for email

Franck Polleux – Ph.D.

Professor of Neuroscience

Franck did his undergraduate and graduate studies at Université Claude Bernard in Lyon, (France) where he obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 1997. He then joined the laboratory of Dr Anirvan Ghosh at Johns Hopkins University for his post-doctoral training. In 2002, Dr Polleux was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Neuroscience Center and Department of Pharmacology at University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill where he became an Associate Professor in 2008. In August 2010, he joined The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

In November 2013, he was recruited as a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University to join the new Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind, Brain, Behavior Institute.

Throughout his career, Dr Polleux has focused on the identification of the molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal development in the mammalian brain. More recently, his lab also started studying the genetic basis of human brain evolution as well as the signaling pathways underlying synaptic loss during early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease progression.

CV • Pubmed • Google scholar • Research Gate • Mendeley

Postdocs

Unknown Heike Blockus, Ph.D.

Heike did her graduate work in Alain Chédotal’s lab at Sorbonne Université – Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. She joined the Polleux lab in 2016 where she studies the role of srGAP2A and its human-specific paralog srGAP2C in synaptic plasticity and circuit dynamics. Pubmed

Yusuke Hirabayashi, Ph.D.

Yusuke did his graduate work in Dr Yukiko Gotoh lab at University of Tokyo and joined the Polleux lab in 2012 where he studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying presynaptic capture of mitochondria. Pubmed

Chandana Kondapalli, Ph.D.

Chandana did her graduate work jointly supervised by Prof. Dario Alessi and Dr. Miratul M.Muqit at University of Dundee, Scotland. She joined the lab in 2014 and is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying early synaptotoxic effects of Amyloid-β in context to Alzheimer’s disease. Pubmed

Justine Kupferman, Ph.D.

Justine worked in Dr. Steven Siegelbaum’s lab at Columbia University for her PhD. She joined the Polleux lab in 2014 and now studies the functional effects of SRGAP2A and its human-specific paralog SRGAP2C and their role in regulating synapse maturation. Pubmed

Seok-Kyu Kwon, Ph.D.

Seok-Kyu did his graduate work in the lab of Dr Eunjoon Kim in South Korea and joined the Polleux lab in 2011 where he studies the function of LKB1 in synaptic development. Pubmed

Tommy Lewis Jr., Ph.D.

Tommy did his graduate work in the lab of Dr Don Arnold at Univ. Southern California and joined the Polleux lab in 2011 where he studies the function of LKB1 in axonal transport. Pubmed

Abhishek_photo Abhishek Sahasrabudhe, Ph.D.

Abhishek completed his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Aurnab Ghose at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India. His graduate work focused on understanding the role of an actin nucleator protein, Formin-2, in neuronal growth cone migration and substrate attachment. He joined the Polleux lab in early 2016 and is interested in studying the role of AMPK in chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Pubmed

Ewoud Schmidt, Ph.D.

Ewoud did his graduate work in the lab of Dr Jeroen Pasterkamp at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands. He joined the Polleux lab in 2014 where he studies the role of SRGAP2A and its human-specific paralog SRGAP2C in synaptic development and circuit formation. Pubmed

Graduate Students

Daniel Iascone

Dan is a graduate student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program. He joined the Polleux lab in 2014 and studies the role of SRGAP2 in the evolution of human synaptic structure and function. Pubmed

Annie Lee

Annie is a PhD candidate in the Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies (CMBS) program. She joined the Polleux lab in 2014 and studies the role of the AMPK-ULK kinase pathway in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Research Technician

Miyako Hirabayashi

Administrative Assistant

Melba Melba Colon

Alumni

Former Postdocs

A. Paul Barnes • Assistant Professor at OHSU

Cécile Charrier • Assistant Professor – CNRS, Department of Biology at Ecole Normale Supérieure- Paris France

Julien Courchet • Assistant Professor- INSERM, Université Claude Bernard- Lyon 1, France

Kaumudi Joshi • Portfolio Manager at Genentech

Bonnie Marsick • Associate Director, Media Production at ScienCell Research Laboratories.

Georges Mairet-Coello • Principal Scientist – Team leader Union Chimique Belge (UCB), Brussels · Drug Discovery

Takayuki Sassa • Assistant Professor at Univ. Hokaido- Japan

Yuji Tsunekawa • Research Scientist in Dr Fumio Matsuzaki at RIKEN CDB Institute, Kobe, Japan.

Former Graduate Students

Dante Bortone • Post-doc in the lab of Dr Massimo Scanziani lab – UCSD- HHMI

Jaeda Coutinho-Budd • Post-doc in the lab of Dr Marc Freeman at U. Mass- HHMI

Jacqueline DeMarchena Powell • Medical science writer and editor with Education and Training Systems International (ETSI).

Sabrice Guerrier • Assistant Professor of Biology at Millsaps College

Randal Hand • Post-doc in the lab of Dr Alex Kolodkin at Johns Hopkins Univ. -HHMI

Hunki Paek

Ashton Powell • Biology Instructor at North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Julie Seibt • Research Assistant- Humboldt Univ. Berlin (Germany)

Research Technicians

Virginie Courchet • Courtney Benson • Elizabeth Boutt • Lisa Plummer • Marie Rougié

Undergraduate Students

Dean Liou • Amul Bathia • Maxime Camo • Petr Slivka • Melody Lee • Janet Berrios • Hannah Bishop • Rocky Cheung
Eldon Peters • Patrick-Olivier Rattis • Laetitia Poccard-Chapuis

Polleux Lab Pictures

Polleux lab 2015