Daniel Frozenfar

WHERE I'M FROM

I'm from the South Bay Area.

BEFORE VS

As an undergraduate student, I worked in Professor William Saxton's lab at UC Santa Cruz for 2 years. In the Saxton lab, we studied the structure-function of the cytoskeletal motor protein Kinesin 1. Our goal was to find specific amino acid interactions in the heavy chain of kinesin that enabled each of its interesting functions. After graduating, I worked with Professor Richard Kramer for 3 years. In the Kramer lab I studied the effects of retinoic acid signaling on the progression of vision loss in mouse models of retinitis pigmentosa.

WHY I’M HERE

The visual system, and specifically the retina, were my favorite neural circuits from undergrad. After graduating, I wanted to switch from molecular biology to neuroscience research, and joined the Kramer Lab to learn more about the retina and electrophysiology. I've been in Berkeley since then.

MY RESEARCH

I'm interested in studying functional architecture - how the structure of a neuron or circuit implements its computations. I rotated with Professor Teresa Puthussery this Fall, where we searched for novel neuron types in the primate retina. I am now rotating with Professor Michael Yartsev, where we are studying the role of bat hippocampus in spatial mapping and social behavior.

MY GOALS

Nobel laureate for the parking spot.

MY HOBBIES

Board games, DIY projects, beach volleyball.

PUBLICATIONS

2022 Mar 18;8(11):eabm4643. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abm4643. Epub 2022 Mar 18.