Image: Hannah Owens
Michael Hendricks
Michael started at McGill in 2013. He currently holds a Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology & Behaviour and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology. He has a BA in Biology from Bowdoin College, a PhD from the National University of Singapore, and did postdoctoral research at Harvard University. He was drawn to studying C. elegans under the false pretense that having fewer neurons would make it easier.
Lilly Guisnet
Lilly joined the Hendricks lab in 2017 where she developed her interest for C. elegans research and novel methods. As a PhD candidate, she studies environmental enrichment in C. elegans using decellularized fruit tissue as a living medium, investigates the proprioceptive qualities of the RIA interneurons' calcium dynamics and creates an automated deep learning-based tool for the analysis of calcium imaging recordings.Outside of her degree, Lilly co-founded Anatomist.ai where she builds custom automated solutions for image recognition. Lilly also owns a small farm in the mountains near Ottawa where she provides fresh vegetables to the local community and develops tools and techniques for small-scale farming. In her free time, she enjoys roadtrips (when possible), photography, long hikes, growing gourmet mushrooms and watching animes with her cat.
Nour Halaby
Nour Halaby is an international PhD student in the Biology department at McGill. She is currently working under the guidance of Dr. Michael Hendricks to study learning and memory in C. elegans. Nour Halaby holds a masters degree in Biology from the American University of Beirut (AUB) where she worked in a neuroscience lab on characterization of the molecular mechanisms by which the Rb/E2F pathway regulates adult neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb. During her academic years at AUB, she was an elected member of the student representative committee for the faculty of arts and sciences. While Nour is career-focused, she enjoys traveling the world and exploring new cultures. Nour is also passionate about gym and staying active; however she is constantly torn between looking like a snack or eating one.
Jorge Luna-Herrera
“Maybe I was born to feed the worms… but will they feed my soul?”
- Jorge, after drinking several cups of coffee
Jorge joined the Hendricks Lab in 2019. He is interested in understanding how stressors shape the behavior of C. elegans, particularly in animals that go through dauer stage. He is pursuing to elucidate the mechanisms that modulate foraging in postdauer worms. When he is not in the lab, he enjoys jogging, photographing nature and buildings, listening to music, and sketching.
Marie-Hélène Ouellette
Marie-Hélène obtained a BSc in Biochemistry, then a MSc’s in Molecular Biology and Genetics focussing on collective cell migration in vivo (using Caenorhabditis elegans). In addition to her background and interest in immunology and microbiology, she is always fascinated by neurobiology and believes model organisms are great tools to investigate essential biological questions. As such, she stuck with C. elegans during her PhD and is now studying the neurogenetics of active sensing at the single neuron level in the Hendricks lab. She addresses her project using a multidisciplinary approach uniting genetics, molecular biology, live microscopy and calcium imaging as well as genetic engineering. A movie and art buff, when she isn’t at the lab wrangling worms, you can find Marie reading, walking her dog, Watson, biking, spending time outdoors, testing out new recipes and learning about a variety of subjects!
Hannah Owens
Hannah is a PhD candidate in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience. She uses calcium imaging to study how reciprocal connections between head motor neurons and interneurons in C. elegans allow the animal to monitor its forward locomotion and adjust motor output accordingly.
When she isn’t looking after her worms, you can find her cycling, canoeing, or camping. She also enjoys eating St-Viateur bagels, listening to way too much Taylor Swift, and petting dogs.
Sebastian Wittekindt
Sebastian is a PhD candidate in the Integrated Programme in Neuroscience at McGill. His research project in the Hendricks Lab seeks to understand the way that the RIA interneuron integrates sensory and reafferent motor signals to calculate the strength and direction of a chemical gradient during food seeking behaviour. To do this, he is adapting a computer vision system to record the neural dynamics inside RIA using calcium imaging, while the worms are performing natural motion. This approach combined with deep learning inference and computational modelling will hopefully give us a better understanding of how this complex calculation can be performed in such a simple circuit.
After a long day of angrily debugging unexplainable errors, Sebastian like to unwind by rock climbing, listening to music, reading about history, and cosplaying as a digital viking.