Current Group Members
Marie Labouesse, Group Leader
Marie grew up in France with a short stint in Boston, USA. After her undergraduate studies in Paris, she moved to Zurich for her MSc. then PhD in Neuroscience at ETH. There her work looked at how the early-life environment, such as nutrition, shapes the postnatal development of the brain. In 2016, she moved to New York City for a postdoc at Columbia University. There she acquired new techniques such as optogenetics and in vivo imaging to study how the striatum regulates reward and motor behavior. In 2020, she returned to Zurich, first for a short Postdoc at Uni. Zurich to develop tools to measure dopamine release in vivo. In 2021, she got funding to start her group at ETH Zurich to investigate the postnatal development and adult functions of feeding and reward circuits. Outside the lab, she enjoys hiking and jogging, playing basketball and cooking (or eating) nice meals. She is terrible at keeping plants alive, but working on it.
Kanako Otomo, Postdoc
Born and raised in Tokyo, Kanako moved to Los Angeles to study music where she eventually found her passion for neuroscience. After obtaining her Bachelor’s in Music and Biology, she worked in the entertainment industry until starting her Master’s at the University of Geneva to study prenatal serotonin dysregulation on cortical development. For her PhD, she joined the International Max Planck Research Institute for Neural Circuits in Frankfurt and completed her dissertation work on the subthreshold membrane activity of midbrain dopamine neurons in vivo. In her postdoc project, Kanako plans to dissect the dopamine pathways linked to the pathology of schizophrenia and its circuit mechanism using a developmental schizophrenia model. When Kanako is not in the lab, she can be found binge-watching courtroom and interrogation footages and their behavior analysis on YouTube.
Alina Marinescu, PhD Student, ZNZ PhD Fellow
Alina grew up in Bucharest, Romania. She earned her Master's of Science degree in Biomedicine at the University of Zurich, where she trained in molecular neuroscience. She has a great interest in understanding developmental mechanisms and how neural cell activity and brain circuit wiring control complex behaviors. Therefore she joined the Labouesse research group to do her PhD studies in circuit neuroscience, partly funded by a PhD Fellowship from the Zurich Neuroscience Center (ZNZ). Outside the lab, Alina enjoys watching cooking shows, playing board games, table tennis, badminton, longboarding and collecting fridge magnets from the places she travel to.
Group Alumni
Eshita Kamal, MSc Student
Eshita grew up in Bangalore, India, where she completed her undergraduate studies earning a Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology with a specialization in Medical and Environmental Biotechnology from PES University, India. She then moved to Switzerland to pursue her Master of Science degree in Health Sciences and Technology, major in Neurosciences, from ETH Zurich. She is building upon her interest in neuroscience by exploring various topics in the field of behavioural and developmental neuroscience. Hence, she joined the Labouesse research group for her MSc. Thesis to build upon the required skills in this field. Beyond the lab, Eshita is a keen golfer and horseback rider and she also enjoys photography, sketching, and baking in her free time.
Eshita is now a PhD Student at the University of Zurich working on pain research.
Former Trainees
Mysarah Zahran (BSc. Barnard College)
Research Assistant; Summer Research Institute Scholar
2020-2023
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Alice Tang (BSc. Columbia College)
Research Assistant, 2020-2021
Xiaoxiao Sun (MSc. Columbia College)
Data Science Institute Scholar, 2020-2021
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Shana Gershbaum (BSc. Barnard College)
Senior Thesis & Research Assistant, 2020-2021
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Michaela Tero (BSc. Barnard College)
Research Assistant, 2020
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Anne Cebula (BSc. Barnard College)
Senior Thesis & Research Assistant, 2019-2020
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Joseph Baer (BSc. Columbia College)
Research Assistant, 2019
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Michelle Dandeneau (BSc. Barnard College)
Research Assistant, 2018-2019
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Hannah Staples (BSc. Columbia College)
Research Assistant, 2018
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Clara Prish (BSc. Barnard College)
Research Assistant, 2018
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Flavia Müller (MSc. Degree from ETH Zurich)
Research Assistant, 2015
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Livia Küng (BSc. ETH Zurich)
BSc. Thesis & Research Assistant, 2015
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Selina Frei (BSc. ETH Zurich)
BSc. Thesis & Research Assistant, 2014
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Flavia Caulet (BSc. ISA Lille)
Thesis & Research Assistant, 2014
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Marine Bobin (BSc. Uni Toulouse)
Research Assistant, 2014
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Flavie Bonneviot (BSc. Uni Toulouse)
Research Assistant, 2014
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Sereina de Zordo (MSc. ETH Zurich)
MSc. Thesis & Research Assistant, 2012
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