PEOPLE

Alexey Ostroumov, PhD

Principal Investigator

Email: ao711@georgetown.edu

2002 – 2006, B.S. in Physics, Kazan State University, Russia.
2006 – 2010, PhD in Neuroscience, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Italy. Mentor: Dr. Andrea Nistri.
2011 – 2013, Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine. Mentor: Dr. John A. Dani.
2013 – 2016, Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Pennsylvania. Mentor: Dr. John A. Dani.
2016 – 2020, Research Associate at University of Pennsylvania.
2020, Assistant Professor, Georgetown University

Aelon Ketema Samuel

Research Assistant

Email: as4056@georgetown.edu

Aelon joined the Ostroumov lab as a Research Assistant in October 2022. She graduated in May 2022 with a bachelor's, majoring in Neurobiology and minoring in Studio-Art. During her undergrad, Aelon used boolean modeling to simulate the neuronal cell cycle and resulting cell-fates of an aberrant cell cycle entry (associated with Alzheimer's disease). In the Ostroumov lab, Aelon learned multiple experimental approaches and she plans to apply for graduate school in Behavioral/Cognitive neuroscience.

Joyce Woo

Graduate Student

Email: jw1936@georgetown.edu

Joyce is a graduate student in the Pharmacology and Physiology program who joined the lab in June 2021. Joyce graduated from NYU with a Bachelor’s in Neuroscience in May 2020. Previously, Joyce worked in the Sullivan Lab at NYU Langone and Nathan Kline Institute, where she looked at the neural circuits underlying lasting social deficits after early life adversity. Her current research interests include: electrophysiology, behavioral neuroscience, neural plasticity, development, and computational neuroscience.

Anna Pearson

Graduate Student

Anna earned her BA in Neuroscience with minors in Biology and Psychology from DePauw University in May of 2020. At DePauw, Anna worked with Dr. Henning Schneider to study behavioral responses to nicotine and vaping liquids in zebrafish. After graduating, Anna received a fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct research at the Section on Behavioral Neuroscience. Under the supervision of Dr. Yogita Chudasama, she worked with rodents and non-human primates to investigate the development of social-executive behavior. In 2022, Anna joined Georgetown’s Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience as a PhD student. Her dissertation research seeks to understand changes in neural activity that result from drug addiction using electrophysiology, behavior, and machine learning analysis techniques.

Helena Schuch

Graduate Student

Helena (Elena) joined the lab in May 2023 as a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience. Helena graduated from the University of Brasilia (UnB) with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a M.S. in Health Sciences: Neuroscience. During her time at UnB, Helena worked in a neurophysiology lab characterizing the impacts of fasting upon epileptic seizures induced in rodents, and the modulation of these effects through endocannabinoid administration. Helena’s current interests involve investigating the underlying neuro dynamics of social anxiety and its interconnections to addiction and learning processes.

Michaela Fisher

Graduate Student

Hassan Hosseini

Rotation Student

Sophie Lenschow

Undergraduate Student

Email: sgl58@georgetown.edu

Sophie joined the Ostroumov Lab in October 2025. She is studying Neurobiology at Georgetown University and is also pursuing an Economics minor. Sophie was drawn to the lab’s focus on dopamine regulation and the neural mechanisms underlying maladaptive reward learning, particularly when looking at chronic stress and addiction. She is excited to contribute to projects examining how these environmental contexts alter reward processing and decision-making circuits.

LAB ALUMNI

Daniel Reid (2021-2025) Research Assistant and Laboratory Manager

Ajay Uprety (2021-2025) Postdoctoral Fellow

Irene Chang (2020 - 2024) Undergraduate Research Assistant

Anna Douglas (2020 - 2024) Undergraduate Research Assistant

Caroline Swain (2021) Research Specialist

Hannah Kugler (2022) Research Technician

Joseph Abergel (2023) Undergraduate Research Assistant