My PhD is from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine. I was a graduate student in Ron Davis' lab, where I examined the alterations in neuronal activity underlying learning and memory in D. melanogaster. Following that I did a brief postdoc investigating the regulation of gene expression by nuclear receptors in a non-neuronal context. My interest in the Ingraham lab is to integrate my previous training experiences to investigate how nuclear receptors can modulate neuronal activity to influence behavioral and physiological states.
My current work describes how the female brain promotes spontaneous activity in response to estrogen - this has been uploaded as a Preprint in BioRxiv - Krause, W, Rodriguez, R, Gegenherber, B, Matharu, N, Rodriguez, AN, Padilla, AM, Herber, CB, Correa, S.M. Ahituv, N., Tollkuhn, J. and HA Ingraham, Estrogen Drives Melanocortin Neurons to Reduce Sedentary Behavior. I was also the co-lead author on the 2024 Nature paper, which described a new anabolic hormone for bone formation.