Dr. Angela Mabb, Principal Investigator

Angela "Angie" Mabb earned her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007 in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology. She then became a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Neurobiology Department at Duke University in the laboratory of Dr. Michael D. Ehlers. From there, she continued her postdoctoral training in the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the laboratories of Dr. Ben Philpot and Dr. Mark Zylka. Angela's background is strongly rooted in Molecular Biology. The goal of her lab is to marry modern molecular biology techniques with Neuroscience. The main focus of her lab is to study how ubiquitin-dependent pathways mediate cognition and how deficiencies in these pathways cause neurological disease.

Wei Wei, Postdoctoral Fellow
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Wei Wei received her Ph.D. degree in Immunology from South Medical University, China in 2013 where her project was focused on dysfunctional presynaptic regulation of striatal medium spiny neurons in mouse models of Parkinson’s disease. She then became a Postdoctoral Fellow in the department of Physiology at the University of Tennessee working on neural mechanisms driving food intake in the obese. She was particularly focused on how diet and body weight affect excitability of neuron populations responsible for food intake. With Dr. Mabb, she integrates electrophysiology, optogenetic, and molecular biology techniques to understand pathways associated with neurological dysfunction.

Vishrut Thaker, Neuroscience Undergraduate Student

TBD

Dina Yakout, Neuroscience Institute Graduate Student
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Dina received her degree in Medicine from Alexandria University, Egypt in 2014. After graduation, she moved to the United States and joined Emory University’s Neurology Department to work on Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials. Pursuing her interest in neurodegenerative disease research, she next joined Dr. Morten Raastad’s lab at Emory University’s School of Medicine to investigate the morphological changes that occur in Alzheimer’s disease in unmyelinated grey matter axons. With Dr. Mabb, she is studying the role of protein ubiquitination in synaptic plasticity and is interested in how this pathway contributes to neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.  Link

Zachary (Zack) Allen, Research Associate I

After almost ten years as a commercial fisherman and boat captain in Virginia Beach, VA., Zack jumped ship to pursue his bachelor’s degree at Georgia State. As a recent graduate of GSU’s Neuroscience Institute, Zack remains passionate about research. While his passion is mostly related to cognitive and behavioral modalities, all fields of neuroscience are of interest to him. Zack is currently taking time to expand his experience and knowledge in the laboratory setting before continuing on to graduate school to pursue his Ph.D. While not in the lab, Zack likes to chase big waves as an avid surfer. Link  

Delance Wright, Neuroscience Undergraduate Student

TBD

Welcome to the Mabb Lab!

Dhanya Pyaram, Neuroscience Institute Graduate Student

Dhanya is a first year Neuroscience Ph.D. student who is rotating in the lab.

Mohammad (Amin) Ghane, Postdoctoral Fellow

​Amin graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015 with a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology and recently received his PhD in Neuroscience at GSU. He began his research in neuroscience as a member of the laboratory of Dr. Joshua Gulley, where his undergraduate thesis used biochemical and behavioral techniques to elucidate the mechanisms by which a bioactive metabolite contributed to the amelioration of age-related deficits in learning and memory. Following graduation, Amin spent two years as a research technician for Dr. Catherine Christian. There, he used techniques such as in vivo optogenetics, chemogenetics, and EEG to study astrocytic modulation of seizure susceptibility; explored mechanisms of neuroendocrine dysfunction in a model of temporal lobe epilepsy; and helped to characterize altered behavior and neurotransmission in a mouse strain lacking a key neuropeptide. With Dr. Mabb, he uses cutting-edge in vivo neuroimaging techniques to study the role of ubiquitin-mediated immediate early gene turnover in learning and memory related tasks.  Link

Doyel Datta, Neuroscience 4+1 Master's Student

Doyel graduated with a B.S. in Neuroscience in 2021. Her interest in research sparked after joining Dr. Kyle Frantz’s neuropharmacology lab where she investigated how gut-brain interactions might provide clues to new adjunct therapies for drug addiction. She wanted to continue research as she is curious about mental disorders and neurodegenerative disease. Currently, she is looking at how protein ubiquitination affects sex hormones to gain further insight on the neuroendocrine aspect of neurodegenerative disease.  Link