Welcome!

Hi, I'm Daniel Bazan! I'm currently a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP). I earned my B.S. in Neuroscience then performed research as a Postbac Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, characterizing structural covariation throughout the brain and identifying neural circuits and neuromodulators involved in waking arousal. I am dedicated to utilizing my research, teaching, and leadership experiences to make meaningful contributions to neuroscience research and promote equity within academia. Read about some of my life here. A glimpse of my research is explained below, and more can be found here

• Cognition and Behavior: My passion for understanding the brain led me to join Dr. Le Dantec's lab, where I explored various aspects of learning, working memory, time perception, emotional processing, and human cognition. The lab focuses on two important aspects of adaptation using distinct and complementary approaches (behavioral and electroencephalographic): The first one deals with our ability to process temporal information, which is crucial for a number of human activities ranging from motricity to language. The second is interested in understanding how neural plasticity serves as support to the development of various skills like being able to interpret medical exam such as a CT scan or becoming an expert in specific video game.

• Physiology: Simultaneously, I explored animal models in research by joining a marine invertebrate physiology lab under the guidance of Dr. Lloyd Trueblood. In the lab, I studied the effects of ocean acidification on octopus, salps, and crabs, with a particular focus on understanding how Octopus developed efficient oxygen transport in environments across varying pH levels. We characterized the impact of Short- and Long-Term Exposure to Elevated Seawater Pco2 on Metabolic Rate and Hypoxia Tolerance throughout the Salish Sea and were the first to record metabolic rates at varying pCO2 levels in various deep-water species. Our research garnered attracted international attention and has been published with ongoing work in progress.

• Behavioral Neurogenetics: After my senior year, I was accepted as a post-bac research fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), working in Dr. Harold Burgess's lab. Here, I actively investigated the behavioral neurogenetics of autism and schizophrenia. My research contributions involved characterizing vlumetric structural covariation throughout the brain and identifying neuromodulators associated with waking arousal. I have also developed ablation methods to ablate specific brain regions associated with waking arousal and startle behavior to provide insights into the behavioral changes associated with internal mechanisms processing external stimuli resulting in fixed behaviors.