NIH GPP Student
Research Interests: Spatial navigation, memory encoding and glial cell interactions
Rotations: Yi Gu PhD
Prior Education: BS in Regenerative Bioscience 2025, University of Georgia
Kara graduated from the University of Georgia in 2025 with a B.S. in Regenerative Bioscience. During her time at UGA, she worked under Dr. Yao Yao, where she studied amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by investigating molecular mechanisms and potential therapeutic strategies in a SOD1-mutant mouse model. She also worked under Dr. Franklin West, contributing to a study of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) using a piglet model to investigate sex dimorphisms.
After graduating, Kara worked as a post-baccalaureate IRTA fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the Molecular Pathology Unit under Dr. Elise Marsan. There, she investigated cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) using GRN-mutant human iPSC-derived cortical organoids.
Now, Kara has joined the IPN through the NIH–Georgetown University Graduate Partnerships Program. She will work with Dr. Yi Gu to investigate how the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) encodes spatial information and interacts with other brain regions in both normal cognition and neurological disease. Outside of the lab, Kara enjoys building LEGO sets and baking sweet treats.