Sarah Mohr, PhD Jan-25

My fascination with neuroscience began during a summer internship where I collected wild insects and characterized their visual abilities. I was amazed by the morphological diversity of their eyes, how their form influenced function, and how the selection of function was ultimately determined by environmental demands. I wanted to understand how brains adapt to meet specialized natural needs. This curiosity led me to focus on sensory perception during my undergraduate studies at Kenyon College. In Dr. Andrew Engell’s lab, I used electroencephalography to characterize the neural potentials of facial recognition in humans, who experience high social demand.

My interest in adaptive physiology and behaviors deepened during my Ph.D. at Yale University in Dr. Elena Gracheva’s lab, where I studied the thirteen-lined ground squirrel. This remarkable creature survives extreme cold and resource scarcity by hibernating for half of the year. I investigated the neuronal and hormonal mechanisms that suppress hunger during hibernation, known as seasonal anorexia. My ongoing interest in the brain-body connection, biological rhythms, and neuronal and hormonal function during natural states brought me to Dr. Holly Ingraham’s lab at UCSF. Here, I am exploring how key hormones, such as thyroid hormone and estrogen, facilitate brain-body communication during incredibly dynamic female physiological states: pregnancy and lactation.