LEAD MOTIVATOR

  VICTORIA ABRAIRA, PhD

Victoria was born and raised in Argentina. She immigrated to the United States at the age of 12. She 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. 

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.

EMILY

Emily Behan received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Rutgers University and plans to pursue veterinary medicine. She currently aids in animal husbandry and welfare in order to maintain the Abraira Lab mouse colony. 

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. 

JESSICA

Jessica Keating received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Mount Allison University in Canada and a master's in cognitive neuropsychology from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She has published work on cognitive ageing and health services design for young stroke survivors, and now focuses on the role of oxytocin in pain modulation and somatosensory system development using intersectional genetics, immunohistochemistry, and behavioral assays.

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.