Shrutika Lokkapure

Shrutika earned her dual-degree Bachelors in Science and Masters in Biology from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune in 2024. Before joining the lab, she has worked on understanding the role of protein and carbohydrate ratio in driving the feeding behavior of Drosophila melanogaster for her Master’s thesis and has also worked with mosquitoes through a brief summer internship at the Rockefeller University on finding the ATP receptor candidate genes involved in the neuronal activation in Aedes aegypti mosquito stylet neurons. 

Shrutika is a Research Assistant in the lab who has a special fascination for all kinds of animal behavior especially that of the mice! She is currently leading the behavioral experiments of the mice foraging project investigating the pharmacological effects of stress and anxiety on decision making in mammals. She has contributed to the design and development of the automated operant chamber based foraging task paradigms to study decision making behavior in normal, stressed and epileptic (diseased) mice models. She further aims to record the EEG data of these trained mice as they perform these tasks under normal and pharmacological conditions to quantify and better understand their decision making strategies in sub-optimal conditions. 

Apart from her love for behavior, Shrutika tries to keep up with her love for dancing & Kathak. When not in the lab, you can often find her in the animal house or holding a cup of Latte!