Katerina Panti

Katerina holds a First-Class BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences and an MRes in Neuroscience with Distinction from Newcastle University. For her undergraduate research project, Katerina studied cognitive and motor dysfunction in patients with Lewy Body Disease. During her MRes., she investigated the role of the hippocampus in shaping subcortical auditory processing in rodents. Her research project involved multi-channel in vivo electrophysiological recordings combined with methods for manipulating neuronal activity.

Katerina joined the group of Professor Andrew Sharott in 2023 as a Research Assistant to provide support to ongoing projects involving large-scale in vivo electrophysiological recordings that examine motor and cognitive functioning in mice.

Katerina returned to the Unit in October 2024 as an MRC-funded DPhil candidate and an Onassis Scholar to continue her research on circuit mechanisms in genetic animal models of schizophrenia. In her project, Katerina will employ an array of experimental approaches including high-density electrophysiological recordings, viral tracing, as well as optogenetic and chemogenetic tools. Katerina aims to provide valuable insights into the neural circuits implicated in the manifestation of schizophrenia to potentially uncover novel circuit-specific therapeutic targets.