Nicholas Oesch, PhD – Principal Investigator (noesch@ucsd.edu)
Nick received his BS in Biology at Oregon State University, and his PhD in Neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University. He did his graduate research in the lab of Dr. Rowland Taylor, studying mechanisms underlying the computation of direction selective ganglion cells. After completing his doctoral work he began a post doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Diamond, where he studied contrast computation at the rod bipolar cell synapse. In 2015, he traveled back to the West Coast to join the Department of Psychology, Shiley Eye Center and Jacobs Retina Center at the University of California, San Diego.
Maya received her BS in Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience from UCSD. During herundergraduate science career she focused on hippocampal concept cells in the common marmoset. She joined the Oesch Lab as a research technician in 2019 before being admitted into the lab as an experimental psychology graduate student in 2022. Her work in the Oesch lab focuses on retinal circuit processing following the degeneration of photoreceptors from diseases like Retinitis Pigmentosa and Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Specifically she is interested in how the ON and OFF pathways respond to prosthetic stimulation and the critical role inner retinal inhibition plays in stimulus encoding.
Kelsey Schilling, BS – Research Technician (kschilling@ucsd.edu)
Kelsey received her BS in Clinical Psychology from UC San Diego. During her undergraduate research, she worked in the Veterans Affairs TBI Lab, where she investigated the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and environmental exposures on post-9/11 Veterans. She served as first author on a study presented at the International Neuropsychological Society Conference and the UC San Diego Undergraduate Research Conference. Kelsey joined the Oesch Lab to expand her training into electrophysiology to study retinal circuit function, how damage alters processing in the retina, and regenerative approaches to restore visual function. She plans to pursue a PhD soon, with the long-term goal of becoming a professor, mentoring future students, and advancing innovative treatments for brain and visual system injuries.
Brianna Lippert – Undergraduate Research Assistant
Brianna is a fourth year undergraduate student working toward her goal of becoming a Physicians Assistant. Her interest in the Oesch lab comes from her grandfather having Age-Related Macular Degeneration. She is interested in understanding disease mechanisms of retinal degeneration. She is currently assisting with a project looking at the regenerative potential of mammalian retinas. In addition to her work in the lab she also works part-time as an EMT.
Alum:
Pixie Rose, MA
Muqing Fan, MA
Lillian McCormick, PhD
Samir Damle, PhD
Theo Kapogianis, BS
Past Undergraduates:
Zoe Harris, BS
Malachi Allan, BS
Jasmine Lewis, BS
Talon Cantrell, BS
Oscar Arroyo, BS
Annie Gorges