Zahren York ’27: Summer Research Fellow

The Che-Girgenti Lab at the Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry seeks to understand how the effects and consequences of early life experiences, such as stress and substance exposure, impact brain circuit assembly and mature function in models of psychiatric illness.

The major project I worked on was assessing the behavioral, circuit, and network effects of early-life 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) exposure on the medical prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and endocannabinoid system in vivo. We hypothesize that early-life cannabis exposure leads to disrupted developmental circuits, potentially creating lasting effects in adult cognition and behavior.

To understand the behavioral effects of early-life THC exposure, I used mouse paradigms such as the maternal pup retrieval assay, ultrasonic vocalization, open field test, novel object recognition, three-chamber social interaction, and tail-suspension. I also learned about 10x genomics multiome (simultaneous snRNA-seq and snATAC-seq from the same nucleus) to see how cannabinoid exposure at different developmental timepoints affects gene expression and chromatin accessibility in the mouse anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

After spending two summers working on this project alongside wonderful scientists, receiving excellent mentorship from Naeem “Nae” Pajarillo, BS, Liyuan Sun, PhD, and Alicia Che, PhD, and shadowing physicians, I think a physician-scientist career would suit me well. Specifically, I am clinically interested in psychiatry and neurology and am curious about developing nondopaminergic treatments for psychosis-based disorders.

Internship funded by: CXD Funded Experiences and Skills