Current RAT Neuro Lab Team
Lindsay Golan (‘27)
Honors Project Researcher (Neuroscience)
I am a Neuroscience major and Asian Studies minor on the pre-med track from California. This is my second year working in the Honeycutt Lab, and I’m currently focusing on optimizing a new protocol for our lab utilizing DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs). The project’s goal is to establish causation between cellular changes and anxious behavior in a rat model of early life adversity.
In my free time, I enjoy watercolor painting, theater, playing ukulele, and cooking!
Feysal Abdirahaman (‘27)
Research Assistant
Hello! I am a current senior and a Neuroscience major from Lewiston, Maine. This is my first summer working in the Honeycutt Lab after previously completing an independent study in this lab. I am particularly interested in medical psychiatry and psychopharmacology, and I hope to pursue a career in medicine with a focus on psychiatry.
Outside of the lab, I serve as the President of the Muslim Student Alliance and am passionate about supporting and advocating for underrepresented communities on campus.
Kyler Choi (‘28)
Research Assistant
I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and I am majoring in Psychology and Education. I am interested in child development, mainly how people (and rats) come to be who they are! I am also interested in sex differences and women’s health, and I love studying these topics in the Honeycutt Lab. I am also interested in the behavioral and neural effects of ketamine, particularly how ketamine interacts with parvalbumin and perineurional nets. After Bowdoin I hope to attend graduate school studying neuroscience or psychology and later work in a clinical setting.
Outside of the lab I am on Bowdoin’s rowing team. I also love doing puzzles, camping, hiking, going to the beach, and cooking with my friends and family.
Cherish Zhao (‘28)
Research Assistant
I am a Neuroscience and Math major with a minor in Government and Legal studies. I am interested in understanding how components interact in complex systems such as how early life adversity impacts specific neural pathways.
Some of my hobbies include MMA (specifically Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), figure art, and jewelry making.
Haney Haidari (‘27)
Honors Project Researcher (Neuroscience)
I am a senior majoring in neuroscience with a minor in cinema studies from Portland, Maine. I have spent two summers in the Honeycutt RAT Lab, and this academic year I am working on my honors project analyzing oxidative stress, PNNs, and PV cells in tissue from a previous lab project. After Bowdoin, I hope to get my accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. I wish to become a psych RN and eventually a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner to help treat people with mental health disorders.
In my free time, I enjoy reading classical literature, crafting, and watching films. Eventually, I want to get into gardening as well!
Maggie Blanding (Bates ‘27)
Maine INBRE Summer Research Fellow
I am a senior Biology major with a Psychology and Philosophy concentration at Bates College. I am from White Bear Lake, Minnesota and this is my first summer working in the Honeycutt Lab! I am particularly interested in childhood development, specifically the neuronal and behavioral changes that can occur from environmental adversity and drug toxicity early in life.
In my free time I enjoy skiing, running, and spending time with friends and family!
Aiman Limbada (‘28)
Research Assistant
I am a Neuroscience and Anthropology double major from Houston TX. I am particularly interested in the impacts of early life adversity and prenatal stress in preclinical models, and understanding the underlying neural circuitry that alters neuroanatomy. I hope to take what I learn from the Honeycutt lab and apply it in a medical career, with a focus on women's health.
In my free time, I enjoy reading, lifting, and baking. I also enjoy picking up new hobbies, including various crafts and playing the drums!
Sophie Zhang (‘29)
Research Assistant
I’m a prospective Neuroscience and English double major, Italian minor. This is my first summer at the lab and I really enjoyed optimizing the DREADDs procedure and looking at the relationship between parvalbumin interneurons and anxiety behavior in long evans rat!
In my free time, I enjoy drawing, reading, biking, and being outdoors!
Inaugural Summer Research Team: 2021
The Honeycutt Research in Affective and Translational [RAT] Neuroscience Lab officially opened its doors in June 2021 at Bowdoin College. Our inaugural (in person!) research group consisted of some amazing undergraduate trainees, many of whom are Bowdoin Neuroscience majors.
From left to right in photo:
Seneca Ellis (Bowdoin ‘22)
Sydney Bonauto (Bowdoin ‘23)
Emma Noel (Bowdoin ‘23)
Jennifer Honeycutt, PhD (PI)
Erin McCue (SMCC ‘21; INBRE Summer Fellow)
Alissa Chen (Bowdoin ‘22)
In addition to helping get the lab up and running, these students began three core research projects aiming to evaluate how early life adversity influences: 1) reactivity to ultrasonic vocalization playback across sex and development (Bonauto & McCue); 2) behavioral and DNA methylation outcomes across sex and age (Chen & Noel); and 3) behavioral and neural plasticity outcomes following therapeutic ketamine treatment (Ellis).
Lab Alumni
We have been privileged to have some amazing Bowdoin undergraduate researchers as collaborators in the RAT Neuro Lab, many of whom have gone on to pursue new and exciting adventures (though we miss them dearly!). They include:
Maggie Blanding (Bates ‘27 - Maine INBRE Summer Fellow 2026)
Alexander Bloom (‘26 - Honors Project Researcher) - Clinical Research Coordinator, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Lily Curtis (‘26 - Independent Study Researcher) - Watson Fellow
Alena Lemeshova (‘26 - Honors Project Researcher) - University of Minnesota Neuroscience PhD Program
Kaya Patel (‘26 - Honors Project Researcher) - University of Michigan Neuroscience PhD Program
Ayla Taylor (‘26 - Independent Study Researcher) - Associate Consultant, Trinity Life Sciences
Piper Wilson (‘26 - Independent Study Researcher) - Research Assistant, Beth Israel Hospital
Eshani Baez (‘25 - Independent Study Researcher) - Dartmouth College Masters in Data Health Science Program
Quinn Battagliese (‘25 - Independent Study Researcher) - IRTA Fellow, NIH National Eye Institute
Anju Cheneaux-Repond (‘25, Research Assistant) - Clinical Research Coordinator, Mass General Hospital
Lexe Le (‘25 - Research Assistant) - Software Engineer, Loom (Atlassian)
Anna McLaughlin (UMaine Fort Kent ‘25 - Maine INBRE Summer Fellow 2024)
Yanevith Peña (‘25 - Honors Project Researcher) - Dartmouth College Neuroscience PhD Program
Cassidy Scott (‘25 - Honors Project Researcher) - Post Bac Clinical Fellow, McLean Hospital
Madisyn Thomas (‘25 - Research Assistant)
Nuanxi Feng (‘24 - Honors Project Researcher) - Medical Student, Peking Union Medical College
Adelaide Hocking (‘24 - Research Assistant) - Research Associate, AlphaSights
Sara Morcos (‘24 - Independent Study Student) - Researcher, University of Rochester Medicine
Zack Reynolds (‘24 - Honors Project Researcher) - University of California Davis Neuroscience PhD Program
Sydney Bonauto (‘23 - Honors Project Researcher) - Tufts Biomedical Sciences PhD Program
Renata Gonzalez Chong (‘23 - Research Assistant) - Clinical Research Coordinator, Mount Sinai
Emma Noel (‘23 - Honors Project Researcher) - UPenn Neuroscience PhD Program
Lucy O’Sullivan (‘23 - Honors Project Researcher) - Medical Student, Harvard Medical School
Khushi Patel (‘23 - Honors Project Researcher) - Medical Student, New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
Alissa Chen (‘22 - Honors Project Researcher) - Clinical Research Coordinator, Mount Sinai
Seneca Ellis (‘22 - Honors Project Researcher) - Research Assistant, Napadow Lab, Mass General
Maria Camila Riaño (‘22 - Independent Study Researcher) - Clinical Research Coordinator, Mount Sinai
Emanuel Coleman (‘22 - Research Assistant) - Mount Sinai Neuroscience PhD Program
Kate John (‘22 - Research Assistant) - Medical Assistant, New England OB/GYN Associates
Owen Ramberg (‘22 - Research Assistant) - Medical Student, Stanford University
Yasmeen Wirth (‘22 - Research Assistant) - Senior Analyst at MSF Investment
Olivia Greuel (‘21 - Independent Study Researcher) - Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Student, Columbia University
Erin McCue (SMCC ‘21 - Maine INBRE Summer Fellow)