Amy Ciceu earned a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2024. As an undergraduate, she investigated molecular and behavioral dysfunction in a Fragile X Syndrome mouse model, demonstrating that early bilateral Neuregulin-1 administration to the hippocampal CA2 rescued deficits in social memory and perineuronal net expression. Before joining Georgetown, Amy conducted research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, where she investigated how Neuregulin-1/ErbB4 signaling regulates basal forebrain cholinergic neuron development using in vivo and in vitro approaches.
As a PhD student in Georgetown’s Pharmacology and Physiology program, Amy hopes to deploy a wide variety of techniques to investigate cellular, molecular and circuit mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders, with particular interest in synaptic dysfunction, cellular homeostasis, intracellular signaling and mechanisms of neuronal resilience and vulnerability. During her first rotation in Dr. Pak’s lab, she will work with a graduate student on a project examining how the activity-dependent Polo-like kinase 2 (Plk2) mediates tau propagation and phosphorylation during neuronal hyperexcitability and whether the APOE4 Alzheimer’s disease risk allele amplifies this process.
Outside of lab, Amy can be found drawing in her sketchbook, reading, or running along D.C.’s many scenic trails.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- PhD Student, Pharmacology & Physiology