Amber Petersen
Graduate Student Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy
B.S., Carthage College, 2004
Faculty Advisor: Nashaat Gerges, PhD
Mailing Address: Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy 8701 Watertown Plank Road Milwaukee, WI 53226-3548 USA Phone: (414) 955-8132 FAX: (414) 955-6517 Email: apetersen@mcw.edu
Research Area: The role of neurogranin in long-term plasticity
During my undergraduate education at Carthage College, I made an effort to involve myself in various fields of research. Through this, I found that I was most fascinated by questions about how the brain is able to learn and remember information. After entering The Medical College of Wisconsin through the Interdisciplinary Program of Biomedical Sciences in 2008, I chose to pursue my PhD in the Gerges lab. This lab studies synaptic plasticity, which is the cellular mechanism of learning and memory. We combine a number of tools including molecular biology, biochemistry and electrophysiology to explore the underlying mechanism of plasticity in the hippocampus. Neuroscience is a very exciting field and I look forward to discovering more about how neurons enable us to learn and remember during my training in the Gerges lab.