Mentor Areas
Mesolimbic reward system and caudal brainstem; hormones involved in food intake and body weight regulations including glucagon-like peptide-1, amylin, leptin; researching/developing pharmacological/behavioral treatments for obesity, diabetes, drug abuse, and co-morbid diseases
Description:
A behavioral neuroscience lab primarily focused on understanding the neuroendocrine systems regulating energy balance and motivated behaviors and how changes to these systems can contribute to diseases and illness-like behaviors such as obesity, diabetes, eating disorders, drug addiction, and nausea/malaise using rodent models. Students may get involved with all aspects of research including behavioral, physiologic, endocrine and molecular analyses, data entry and analysis, etc. Students will work closely with research technicians to maintain animal colonies including daily animal husbandry and wellness practices, and assist with executing experiments that involve various measures of feeding behavior and energy homeostasis.
Interested students should contact Halcyon Hu at Jiayin.Hu@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
Preferred Qualifications
No prior lab experience is necessary as students will be fully trained by the Hayes lab members. We are looking for interested students who can make a multi-semester commitment to the lab. The more time and longer duration students can commit to the lab allows for more opportunities to be engaged in ongoing projects. The lab operates weekdays 8am-5pm and undergrads rotate in occasional weekend shifts. We are willing to work around class schedules, but typically look for a minimum of 6 hours/week from each student.
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Volunteer
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.