Megan Beaver

Thesis Advisors: Dr. Rebekah Evans and Dr. Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss

Research Interests: Electrophysiology, Neurodegeneration, Neuropharmacology, Synaptic Plasticity

Education: Northeastern University, B.S., Behavioral Neuroscience, 2014; Georgetown University, M.S., Pharmacology, 2019

About: Megan’s thesis research focuses on dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), a population known to degenerate in Parkinson’s disease. She studies the characteristics of SNc subpopulations and the differential effects of muscarinic activation on these neurons, primarily utilizing ex vivo patch clamp electrophysiology, two-photon imaging, in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemistry.

Before entering the PhD program, Megan worked for Seracare Life Sciences in their Product Development and Custom Manufacturing teams, producing custom reference materials for diagnostic testing. While completing her Master’s, she worked with Dr. Dan Pak developing new GFP and Luciferase-based assays for understanding the roles of Alzheimer’s Disease risk factors APP and tau. As an undergraduate, Megan worked at Harvard Medical School with Dr. David VanVactor studying the role of microRNA’s in neuromuscular development in Drosophila melanogaster. She also worked in the Laboratory for Neurogenomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital under Dr. Clemens Scherzer contributing to the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Biomarker Study.

Rotations:
Dr. Rebekah Evans
Dr. Tingting Wang

Academic Appointment(s)

Primary
PhD Student, Ph.D. Program in Pharmacology & Physiology
PhD Student, Evans Lab, Department of Neuroscience