LEAD MOTIVATOR

VICTORIA ABRAIRA, PhD
​Victoria received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern California and her graduate degree in Neuroscience from Harvard University. As a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins/Harvard Medical School she set out to understand the cellular and synaptic substrates underlying innocuous touch perception by elucidating the functional organization of sensory neurons in mouse hairy skin and uncovering the neural codes of touch perception in the spinal cord dorsal horn. 
Email contact: victoria.abraira@rutgers.edu​

TECHNICAL TEAM

YURDIANA
Yurdiana Hernandez - an animal genotyping expert and an MD - serves as our lab manager. Wielding unmatched low genotyping error rates and extensive animal protocol prowess, she provides the framework of our lab's experimentation: proper animal husbandry and identification for hundreds of animals weekly. Moreover, Yurdiana manages lab documentation and compliance - keeping our mice and researchers in tip top shape.
Email contact: yg238@hginj.rutgers.edu​

SEAN
Sean O'Leary is a trained animal specialist. An integral member of not only Abraira Lab, but the W. M. Center for Collaborative Neuroscience, Sean also manages our animal surgery room, lab inventory, orders, and animal lines needed to keep experiments running. 
Email contact: ​soleary@dls.rutgers.edu​

JOANNE
Joanne Pipitone is the lab's administrative assistant. Born and raised in New Jersey, Joanne enjoys watching her kids either at her son's baseball games or her daughter dance/gymnastic competitions. She also enjoys her part-time jobs bartending/servicing at various music venues throughout the area. She has started a nonprofit called Dina's Hope and has raised money for supplies for the North Brunswick Women's commission annual DV walks. Her upbeat personality and friendliness are what make working with her fun.
​Email contact: joanne.pipitone@rugters.edu

AN ENTIRE CENTER

Our lab is immersed in the W. M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience, a state-of-the-art research center fully equipped and staffed toward cutting-edge spinal cord circuit research.