Ya’el Courtney Statement of Purpose submitted December 2018 for admission to Yale University’s PhD Program in Neuroscience
Over the past 4 years I have contributed to advances in psychophysiology, neural networks, neuroendocrinology, and neuroimmunology utilizing techniques ranging from neuroimaging to cellular and molecular approaches. I am a contagiously energetic individual who typically comes across as immersed in a variety of fields: music, theatre, and backpacking to name a few. However, there is no pursuit on earth that piques in me greater interest or yields greater satisfaction than relentlessly seeking answers to biological questions using the scientific method. Ultimately, I am passionate about serving not only as a scientist, but as a communicator at the intersection of science and public understanding. It is with great pleasure that I embark on the next step in that journey by pursuing my PhD.
As a freshman at Kent State University I quickly sought research involvement with Dr. Joel Hughes, where I studied the relationship between heart rate variability and psychosocial factors. Over my sophomore and junior years under Dr. Josh Pollock, I founded and coordinated a multi lab research project in which we utilized EEG to investigate the neural correlates of "Theory of Mind" in those on the autism spectrum vs healthy individuals. These experiences introduced me to formal laboratory settings and confirmed my desire to work as part of a collaborative intellectual team.
During the summers following my freshman and sophomore years I participated in the BP ENDURE program at Washington University in St. Louis. In Dr. Todd Braver's lab, I utilized fMRI to determine whether neural activation patterns may be viable endophenotypes for hereditary psychiatric disorders. This work led to six research presentations and a first authorship on our current manuscript in review. It also directed my future research involvement in a different direction, as conversations with many research faculty sparked a fascination with cellular and molecular techniques. I realized that I was not satisfied with the systems-level network information that stems from imaging approaches and desired to probe more specific cellular and molecular mechanisms to inform therapeutic targets for currently untreatable issues.
Realizing this, in January of my junior year I began my foray into wet laboratory work with Dr. Gemma Casadesus-Smith, with whom I am now completing a senior honors thesis characterizing the production and distribution of luteinizing hormone in the brain using a combination of molecular techniques and bioinformatics analyses of single-cell RNAseq data. The freedom I have been given in my thesis work has mimicked a PhD - I proposed a research question, conducted a thorough literature search, came up with experiments, introduced my lab to novel techniques better suited to answer my question, and am learning to face short-term disappointments and craft creative alternative approaches as I work towards an eventual dissertation and oral defense.
To further strengthen my wet lab experience, I spent the summer before my senior year working at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the neuroimmunology lab of Dr. Beth Stevens. I utilized immunohistochemistry to investigate the function of schizophrenia risk gene Csmd1, finding that it is critical to synaptic pruning in region- and cell type-specific ways. The collaborative atmosphere at the Broad showed me the necessity of sharing data and knowledge and forming cross-disciplinary partnerships to most powerfully and quickly advance science. Based on this experience, I desire to integrate both molecular biology and bioinformatics approaches as I pursue my PhD project.
The Neuroscience track under the Yale BBS program umbrella uniquely enables exactly this sort of cross-disciplinary collaboration in a way I believe necessary to foster the best scientific outcomes. There are many faculty with whom I would value working - either directly under as a member of their lab or via consultation on alternative methods and approaches. I would like to utilize modern bioinformatics techniques such as single-cell transcriptomics as well as bench wet-lab techniques in whatever specific question I choose to pursue. I particularly admire the work of Amy Arnsten as she attempts to identify molecular mechanisms underlying mental illness and age-related disorders in order to develop rational therapies.
As the result of one-on-one conversations with Dr. Michael Crair at the Yale Diversity preview weekend and Dr. Charles Greer at the Society for Neuroscience Annual meeting, I have received insightful recommendations regarding additional labs of interest. Other faculty whose work interests me in the methodologies used and questions pursued include Sreeganga Chandra, Ronald Duman, Junjie Guo, and Christopher Pittenger. Dr. Chandra's work interests me because of its relation to synapses (a personal interest of mine), its disease relevance to Parkinson's, and her incorporation of a variety of techniques including genetics, biochemistry, and cell and molecular biology. I admire the work of Dr. Duman because of its application to psychiatric disorders and his recognition of immune pathways and stress responses in the brain as vital to understanding these disorders. Having done work in a neuroimmunology lab and being passionate about psychiatric disorders, I would be very interested in becoming involved with his research. Dr. Guo's research in RNA biology intrigues me because it utilizes a set of techniques that I first became familiar with during my summer at the Broad Institute. During my PhD, I would like to become adept with analysis of high-throughput data and come to understand its full utility in understanding the brain. Lastly, I am intrigued by the work of Dr. Christopher Pittenger as he strives to better understand OCD. In general, one of my life goals is to develop better therapeutics for poorly-understood psychiatric disorders by first better understanding the underlying cellular and molecular dysfunction. Dr. Pittenger is pursuing precisely that end as he looks at glutamate abnormalities in OCD and whether that can be ameliorated with a therapeutic.
It would be my pleasure to explore rotations and future thesis work with any of these investigators. Thank you for considering my application to Yale!