Current Lab Members

Diego Restrepo, Ph.D.
​Principal Investigator

"I am a systems neuroscientist who is interested in how the brain encodes olfactory information at regions relevant to sensorimotor integration. My PhD work was in the Wachowiak lab at the University of Utah, where I utilized glutamate indicators to optically dissect the underlying circuitry of excitatory drive onto mitral/tufted cells in vivo. During my postdoc, I decided to venture into studying the “little brain”, i.e., the cerebellum. The cerebellum is critical for precise movement control via predictive coding through associative learning.

My main project is a collaboration between the Person and Restrepo labs at CU Anschutz, where I am exploring how the cerebellum can encode the position a highly-dynamic, spatial target; such as an odor plume, for accurate nose/limb adaptation. Results from this project will provide better insight into how animals navigate odor plumes (biology), how machines can best utilize odor sensors for precise detection of volatile compounds from bombs/drugs (robotics), and how predictive networks can incorporate/segregate various aspects of an input for corrected output (computer science)."

Serapio M. Baca, Ph.D.
​Assistant Research Professor

"I am a systems neuroscientist interested in the mechanisms underlying migraine and headache. As an Assistant Research Professor, I collaborate with Dr. Restrepo’s team to utilize tools and approaches developed in his lab and in collaboration with bioengineers and apply them to my preclinical migraine studies. These studies use an animal model of migraine called cortical spreading depression. 

I also collaborate and provide assistance for Ethan Guthman’s project that is a collaborative effort between Molly Huntsman and Diego Restrepo."

Dnate' Baxter, MS
Senior Professional Research Assistant, Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology

As part of the Restrepo Lab, I am working on identifying olfactory receptors for semiochemical detection in the main olfactory epithelium (MOE). Data from previous work in the lab shows that a subset of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) expressing Trpm5 detect low levels of semiochemicals in mice. Using RNA isolated from the sorted cells of the MOE, we are examining differential expression in this subpopulation of OSNs to determine which olfactory receptors may respond to semiochemicals and to look at other possible functional differences in these cells.
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I am also working on the collaboration project with Dr. Ramakrishnan to investigate Trpm5 expressing OSNs in human olfactory epithelium.  An additional goal of the project is identifying method(s) of detecting olfactory vs respiratory epithelium in vivo.

Stephanie Meyer, Ph.D. 
Senior Research Associate, Department of Bioengineering

Project: STED Microscopy​
"As part of an NIH Shared Instrument Grant I built the two-color STED microscope that is part of the Advanced Light Microscopy Core on the CU Anschutz medical campus.  More recently I have been working under an NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant to build a live-cell, two-color STED microscope for video-rate imaging that incorporates a photo-activation laser for imaging the dynamic response of the cells to stimulation."

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Former Lab Members

Justin T. Losacco
Graduate Student, Neuroscience Program

Nicholas George
Graduate Student, Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology

Nicole Arevalo, BS, MA
Senior Research Associate, Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology

Andrew Moran, Ph.D.
​Postdoctoral Fellow

Laetitia Merle, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow