Principal Investigator

CV here

Mentoring statement here

arodal@brandeis.edu

Postdoctoral Fellow
 

Mutations in the gene OCRL1 are linked to Lowe Syndrome and Dent-2 disease in humans. Despite a number of studies that have identified diverse roles for OCRL1 in normal cell function, it remains unclear precisely how mutations in this gene lead to disease. To address this question, I am currently using the fruit fly as a model to investigate how OCRL1 contributes to normal physiology in a complex in vivo system.

sdelsignore@brandeis.edu

Postdoctoral Fellow
 

My graduate work at UMass Medical School in Worcester focused on the development and maintenance of neural architecture in C. elegans. Since joining the Rodal lab, I have been using the Drosophila neuromuscular junction as a model to study the mechanisms that regulate extracellular vesicle trafficking within an intact nervous system.

cblanchette@brandeis.edu

Postdoctoral Fellow

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Actin is the most abundant cytoskeletal protein at presynaptic terminals, where it is implicated in many functions, ranging from vesicle mobilization and traffic to morphogenesis and stability of the synapse. However, little is known about how diverse types of actin assemblies are organized and coordinated at these sites. I aim to characterize the landscape of actin cytoskeleton in presynaptic terminals at the Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction (NMJ), our favorite model synapse, by using diffraction limited and structured illumination super-resolution microscopy. In addition, I would love to learn more about the protein components other than actin itself that contribute to the formation, stability and temporal control of the actin assemblies at the NMJ.

bermanoska@brandeis.edu

Postdoctoral Fellow

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Welcome to our newest Postdoc!

edresselhaus@brandeis.edu

The Lab Manager
 

I have the huge pleasure of doing all kinds of experiments for our lab with its many projects and people for the last 8 years. I know where everything is and whom to call (pro-tip: the answer is almost always Ghostbusters). I also like to read, bike, draw, help out at the Independent Film Festival of Boston, chase kiddos, and end sentences with exclamation points! I am the hand of the King.

tleskin@brandeis.edu

Fly Kitchen Manager

Here in the Fly Kitchen, along with my team of hard working students, we produce all of the food to support Brandeis' labs using fruit flies in their research. And what do the flies like to eat? It's a nutrient-rich, sweet cornmeal mush thickened with agar - YUM!!

rkroll@brandeis.edu

Graduate Student

Exosomes are small endosome-derived vesicles that can transport a variety of cargo such as RNA, DNA, lipids, and proteins between cells or remove these cargo from cells for degradation.  Our lab has identified a variety of proteins that are important for membrane trafficking.  I am interested in how these proteins affect the cargo that goes into exosomes.  I am using a variety of techniques in both Drosophila and mammalian cell culture to answer this question.

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CV here

scaleraa@brandeis.edu