People

We strive to build a team of motivated young scientists from diverse backgrounds to make discoveries and challenge established dogmas.

Principal Investigator

Munir Gunes Kutlu, PhD

Gunes got his Ph.D. at Duke University under Dr. Nestor Schmajuk’s mentorship. During this time, he was trained as a computational neuroscientist developing neural network models in order to understand the theoretical principles of learning and memory. Following his graduation in 2013, he joined Dr. Tom Gould’s laboratory at Temple University as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. There he studied behavioral, neural and molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of nicotine exposure on acquisition, extinction, and recovery of fear memories. In 2017, Gunes joined Dr. Erin Calipari's lab at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine as a Research Instructor, where he studied dopaminergic mechanisms underlying reward and aversive learning. Dr. Kutlu joined Rowan-Virtua SOM as an assistant professor of neuroscience in 2023.

email: kutlu@rowan.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Our Team

Oyku Dinckol, PhD

Post-doctoral Fellow

Oyku completed her Bachelor’s in Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Master’s in Neuroscience in Istanbul, Turkey. During her Master’s, she worked with Dr. Deniz Atasoy on neural circuitry of appetite by using cutting edge technologies such as chemogenetics-optogenetics. In 2018, she has been awarded with Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)-ITN fellowship and started to work on neurodevelopmental effects of metal exposure with Dr. Gemma Calamandrei in Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health) in Rome, Italy. During her MSCA-ITN fellowship, she carried out the in vivo part of the NEUROSOME project. Oyku received her PhD on Pharmacology & Toxicology from Sapienza University of Rome in 2022.

Noah Wenger,
MS

Lab Manager/Technician

Noah obtained his Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Stockton University in 2020. During that time, he worked under Dr. Nathaniel Hartman for his research in mTOR pathway activation and its role in neural stem cell development using techniques such as cell culturing, immunohistochemistry, western blotting, and confocal microscopy. In 2022 he earned his Master's degree in Biomedical Science from Rowan Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Taylor Good,
MBS

DO/PhD Student

SMRF Fellow

Taylor completed her bachelor’s degree in Cell Biology and Neuroscience in 2020 and completed her Master of Business and Science degree in 2021 from Rutgers University. During her master’s degree she worked with Genomics Inc. collecting epidemiology data on complex polygenic disorders in order to generate polygenic risk scores for in vitro fertilization. Currently, Taylor is pursuing a DO/PhD through Virtua Health College of Medicine and Life Sciences of Rowan University.

Jake Caselli

Undergraduate Researcher

SURE Fellow

Jake is a rising senior undergraduate student pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience and Humanities at Villanova University. He is the research lead in the cognition cluster of the Language Use and Variation Lab under Dr. Grant Berry, studying neurophysiological correlates of cognitive control and mechanisms of speech adaptation using electroencephalography (EEG). Jake will be joining the lab for Summer 2024 as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE).