Hi! I’m Oliver, a Neuroscience Ph.D. Candidate at Washington University in St. Louis. I work in the lab of Dr. Jordan McCall in the Center for Clinical Pharmacology. My research interests are in the relationships between behavior, neural circuits, cells, and molecular events. My passion lies in taking a cellular and molecular approach to identify mechanisms of psychedelic drug action in the nervous system. I am also interested in mapping the circuitry of neuromodulatory systems, particularly the dorsal raphe nucleus and the locus coeruleus.
Previously, I studied Cognitive Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked in the laboratory of Dr. Linda Wilbrecht at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. My undergrad research focused on sex hormones and structural plasticity in the frontal cortex in a wild-derived species of mouse, Mus spicilegus. Separately, I worked with Drs. David E. Presti and Dacher Keltner to complete an honors thesis on the effects of breathwork on cognition, psychology, and physiology.
I’m originally from Los Angeles but spent much of my youth in Italy where I attended L’Istituto del Sacro Cuore in Florence.