Personnel

                                             PI - Robert Kozol, PhD

                                                                    I am a neuroscientist that studies

                                                                    the development and function of the

                                                                    nervous system. As a Marine Biology

                                                                    undergrad, I fell in love with the

                                                                    functional specializations of deep

                                                                    sea fish. In graduate school, I pivoted

                                                                    to studying sensory deficits in

                                                                    genetic models of Autism Spectrum

Disorders. Following my doctorate, I transitioned to evolutionary medicine

and adopted the blind Mexican cavefish as a model for studying how genetic

variation drives the evolution of the brain and behaviors, and how

those findings translate to the function and malfunction of the vertebrate

brain.

Visiting Scholars

Zachary Harkinish-Murray

Zachary investigates variations in sensorimotor behavior of cavefish. He received his Masters in Neuroscience from St. John's University in 2024 and is currently exploring PhD programs in Ecology and Evolution.

Tiffany Chan

Tiffany studies how changes in gene expression impact cave-derived biological traits. Tiffany received her Master's in Biology from St. John's University in 2024 and is currently looking at research opportunities in biomedicine.

Graduate Students

Hala AlGarni - M.S.

Hala is determining how natural genetic mutations impact drug-receptor interactions and drug efficacy. She joined the lab in the fall of 2024 as a Neuroscience student and looks to defend her master's thesis in 2025.

Jerry Gbarlea - M.S.

Jerry is establishing cavefish as an alternative model for neural homeostasis and evolutionary medicine. Jerry joined the lab in the fall of 2024 as a Neuroscience student and looks to defend his master's thesis in fall 2025.

Agniva Sinha - M.S.

Agniva is studying how swimming kinematics vary across populations of A. mexicanus. Agniva joined the lab in January 2025 and has since established high-speed kinematic computational programs for studying high resolution behavioral variation.