Lab News
2025
August 7, 2025 – Today we wished Grace Kirkpatrick a “see you later” as she heads back to Philadelphia to start her junior year at Lehigh University. Over the summer, Grace mastered 3D STED nanoscopy, honed her skills in synapse analysis, and even learned about the marvelous Christiaan Huygens 🪐⏳. We look forward to her next visit!.
July 28, 2025 - We’re excited to welcome Anna Hasche-Kluender 🧬🧪 to the lab for her rotation! Anna earned her B.S. and M.H.S. from Johns Hopkins University 🎓 and brings expertise in microbiology 🦠, antimicrobial resistance 💊, and pathogen–host interactions 🧫. Her experience includes a Fulbright Research Scholarship 🌍 at the Helmholtz Institute, an Antimicrobial Resistance Fellowship at the CDC 🏥, and work at Shape Therapeutics. She is also active in community health initiatives 🚑. We look forward to her contributions! 🔬
May 30, 2025 - 📢 Our new preprint is out! We’re excited to share our latest work: "Increased Complement C4 in a Sparse Neuronal Subset Induces Network-Wide Transcriptomic Alterations in the Prefrontal Cortex", now available on bioRxiv. This study reveals how pathological overexpression of complement C4 in just a small population of neurons can induce widespread transcriptional changes, including upregulation of cholesterol biosynthesis and synaptic plasticity pathways, shedding light on how local immune dysregulation may drive brain-wide circuit dysfunction.
👏 Congratulations to Sonia Bolshakova, Sheyla Carmen Sifuentes, and Paige Caley for their outstanding contributions!
🔬 This marks our first collaboration with the Dias Lab (Department of Pediatrics at CU Anschutz), and we’re excited for what’s ahead.
🧠 Read the full preprint here: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.29.656749
👏 Congratulations to Sonia Bolshakova, Sheyla Carmen Sifuentes, and Paige Caley for their outstanding contributions!
🔬 This marks our first collaboration with the Dias Lab (Department of Pediatrics at CU Anschutz), and we’re excited for what’s ahead.
🧠 Read the full preprint here: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.29.656749
May 15, 2025 - Juan Ávila Pagán recently joined the lab. He completed his BS in Industrial Microbiology at the University of Puerto Rico and is currently completing his lab rotations. Juan’s research interests span gene editing, gene therapy, GWAS, and neurological disorders.
First assembled V4 miniscope from UCLA
May 14, 2025 - We’re thrilled to welcome Grace Kirkpatrick to the lab for the summer! Grace is an undergraduate student in the IDEAS Honors Program at Lehigh University, where she is pursuing an Integrated Bachelor of Science with planned concentrations in Neuroscience and Biocomputational Engineering.
May 12, 2025 - We’re excited to welcome Juan Ávila Pagán to the lab! Juan recently earned his B.S. in Industrial Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and is now a first-year Ph.D. student in the Human Medical Genetics & Genomics program at CU Anschutz.
April 4, 2025 - Congratulations to Alison Brack, who successfully defended her dissertation, “Unraveling Schizophrenia Risk: Contributions of High-Risk Genes and the Impact of Early Life Stress." Her work provides important insights into how genetic vulnerability and early environmental factors intersect to influence brain development and psychiatric disease risk. We’re so proud of her accomplishments and excited to see what she does next!
2024
December 2, 2024 - Lily Ferguson joins the Cruz-Martín lab as a research technician. She recently received her BS in Neuroscience from Regis University, Denver. We’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone with her and look forward to her contributions to the lab!
October 14, 2024 - October 14, 2024 - Paige Caley joins the Cruz-Martín lab as a research technician. She recently graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Congratulations to Paige on this significant achievement, and welcome to the team!
Cover from our blog in Springer Nature Science Communities
September 20, 2024 - Our paper describing a new transgenic line to study complement dysfunction and providing a causative link between C4 and the vulnerability of PV cells in brain disease. has been published: https://tinyurl.com/PVdysfunction
September 4, 2024 - Behind the Paper Blog titled, "Beyond Phagocytosis: The Intracellular Complement Pathway in Synaptic Dysregulation," https://go.nature.com/46PTDXb
September 3, 2024 - Our paper describiing an intracellular complement pathway in neurons is online: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-024-02701-7. See also our blog: https://go.nature.com/46PTDXb
August 2024 - Ali Brack presented her project titled, Early life stress affects spatiotemporal expression of schizophrenia high-risk genes at the Glia in Health & Disease Cold Spring Harbor Meeting (2024)
March 22, 2024 - Rushikesh Phadke defends his thesis titled "Non-Canonical Mechanisms of Complement-Dependent Pathological Synaptic Loss." Rhush and his colleagues demonstrated for the first time that complement proteins have an intracellular function in the nervous system, regulating synaptic strength during development (Phadke et al., 2023, bioRxiv). This new mechanism could underlie some of the synaptic deficits observed in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
June 3, 2024 - Alberto starts at CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
July 19, 2024 - Luke Fournier defends his thesis titled "Cell-type specific contributions to synaptic and behavioral dysfunction in mouse models of complement overexpression. Using a unique mouse model to specifically overexpressed C4 in PV cells, Luke and colleagues demonstrated that this overexpression caused sex-specific changes in anxiety-like behavior and deficits in synaptic connectivity and excitability in the prefrontal cortex's PV cells (Fournier et al., 2024, bioRxiv).
July 30, 2024 - Our paper, titled "Overexpression of the schizophrenia risk gene C4 in PV cells, drives sex-dependent behavioral deficits and circuit dysfunction," is now in press. Congratulations to Luke and the team!
September 4, 2024 - Behind the Paper Blog titled, "Beyond Phagocytosis: The Intracellular Complement Pathway in Synaptic Dysregulation," https://go.nature.com/46PTDXb
September 3, 2024 - Our paper describiing an intracellular complement pathway in neurons is online: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-024-02701-7. See also our blog: https://go.nature.com/46PTDXb
August 2024 - Ali Brack presented her project titled, Early life stress affects spatiotemporal expression of schizophrenia high-risk genes at the Glia in Health & Disease Cold Spring Harbor Meeting (2024)
March 22, 2024 - Rushikesh Phadke defends his thesis titled "Non-Canonical Mechanisms of Complement-Dependent Pathological Synaptic Loss." Rhush and his colleagues demonstrated for the first time that complement proteins have an intracellular function in the nervous system, regulating synaptic strength during development (Phadke et al., 2023, bioRxiv). This new mechanism could underlie some of the synaptic deficits observed in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
June 3, 2024 - Alberto starts at CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
July 19, 2024 - Luke Fournier defends his thesis titled "Cell-type specific contributions to synaptic and behavioral dysfunction in mouse models of complement overexpression. Using a unique mouse model to specifically overexpressed C4 in PV cells, Luke and colleagues demonstrated that this overexpression caused sex-specific changes in anxiety-like behavior and deficits in synaptic connectivity and excitability in the prefrontal cortex's PV cells (Fournier et al., 2024, bioRxiv).
July 30, 2024 - Our paper, titled "Overexpression of the schizophrenia risk gene C4 in PV cells, drives sex-dependent behavioral deficits and circuit dysfunction," is now in press. Congratulations to Luke and the team!
