Schoppik Lab

David Schoppik, PhD
Associate Professor, Depts. of Otolaryngology, Neuroscience, and the Neuroscience Institute

David received a BA from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU concentrating in computer science, philosophy, and neuroscience. He did his PhD work with Steve Lisberger at UCSF, and then trained as a postdoc in Alexander Schier’s group at Harvard University. Scientific genealogy at Neurotree. List of publications can be found at Google Scholar and yes, he’s now at @schoppik.bsky.social

The lab has room. If you’re interested please reach out.

Previous Postdoctoral Fellows:
David Ehrlich, PhD’s first paper showed that zebrafish learn to move to balance. His second discovered a surprising role for the vestibular system in cerebellum-dependent coordinated movements. David went uptown for a short stint in Nate Sawtell’s lab at Columbia before starting his own lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Get in touch with him here.

Previous Graduate Students:
Dena Goldblatt, PhD did her undergraduate work (and a Masters) at Brandeis University where she studied synapse development. She did fantastic work to understand the development of balance circuits at both cellular and molecular levels, funded by an NINDS D-SPAN F99/K00 award. She’s joined the Levine lab at the NIH. @denagoldblatt.bsky.social

Kyla Hamling, PhD did her undergraduate work at Lewis & Clark College studying neural development. She investigated how the development of vestibulospinal neurons helps fish learn how to balance and was funded by her NIH F31 award. She’s joined the Monk lab at OHSU. 

Paige Leary, PhD was previously at New College, FL where she studied neurodegeneration. Her thesis work focused on how the neural circuits that stabilize gaze develop and mature, and was funded by her NSF GRFP, then her NIH F31. She’s joined the Dunn lab at UCSF. @paigel.bsky.social

Kristen P. D’Elia, PhD started by optimizing a technique to birthdate developing neurons during her rotation (paper). Her thesis work in the Schoppik and Dasen labs, funded by an NIH F31 award, uncovered a set of transcription factors that determine motor neurons that control fast muscle types. She now works at Regneron.

Previous Technicians:
Hannah Gelnaw: Hannah joined us after completing her undergraduate work at Vanderbilt. She was a powerhouse in the lab, studying how Tau disrupts postural behavior when expressed in neurons and astrocytes and using CRISPR/Cas9 to mutate candidate genes that cause strabismus, a common developmental disorder of vision. She’ll stay on at NYU to get her Ph.D. as a member of the neuroscience graduate program.

Hanna Hameedy: Hanna joined the Schoppik and Dasen labs while an undergraduate at NYU and stayed on as a technician. She did beautiful work to understand the transcription factors that specify functional subtypes of zebrafish motor neurons. She’s off to Brown to pursue her Ph.D. and they are lucky to have her!

Basak Rosti got her Bachelor and Master's degrees at Istanbul University and spent five years running the zebrafish research arm in Joseph Gleeson's laboratory. She worked on the molecular logic that controls development of neurons in the vestibulo-ocular reflex circuit.

Katherine Harmon, MD: Katherine received a bachelors degree in neuroscience from Bowdoin College in 2014, where she learned to be an ace in vivo intracellular electrophysiologist. Her research focused on the developing vestibulo-spinal neurons responsible for balance. Katherine’s since received her MD from SUNY Stonybrook and works at NYU(!).

Marie Greaney: Marie transitioned from plant-coaxing to fish-wrangling after graduating from Haverford College in 2014. She published her first paper on the development of ocular motoneurons in 2016. She built a bleeding-edge microscope in collaboration with Elizabeth Hillman's group and used them to study the neural circuits responsible for locomotion. Marie is now at the University of Chicago for graduate school in the Heckscher lab. 

Previous Rotation/Summer/Undergrad Students:

Stephanie Huang (UG) did beautiful work on the development of the vestibular system and is currently part of NYU’s M.D./Ph.D. program.

Nitika Kamath (UG) worked on zebrafish models of navigation and is off to Mt. Sinai for her masters degree.

Kate Cruite (rotation) measured activity after vestibular nerve injury and recovery and joined the Nelson lab.

Cassie Conlan (rotation) measured development of vestibular neurons and joined the Knaut lab.

Katherine Nardone (UG) measured balance behavior of developing zebrafish after manipulation of cerebellar activity.

Prash Allam (UG) measured the development and organization of vestibulospinal neurons.

Cheryl Quainoo (UG) measured the development of the neuromuscular junction in developing zebrafish extraocular motor neurons.

Grace Xiang (UG) measured development of extraocular motor neurons.

Rhoshini Rhaghuraman (UG) measured escape responses in a model of neurodegeneration. She is now at the Kharas Lab.

Mercer Kriese (summer UG) analyzed gene expression in spinal motor neurons. They are back as a graduate student at NYU neuro!

Keelin O’Neil (rotation) classified motor neurons in mutant fish and their wildtype siblings to determine if losing a particular transcription factor changed the fate that they adopted. She joined the Basu lab.

Aaron Lanz (rotation) developed a pipeline for presenting visual stimuli that evoke reflexive swimming to test for locomotor deficits in mutant fish. He’s joined the Nagel lab as a graduate student (good choice!)

Zoë Dobler (summer) kicked off our research into the neural mechanisms that give rise to the debilitating symptoms of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a neurodegenerative disease. She graduated with her Ph.D. from UCLA as part of the Portrera-Cailliau lab.

Paula Cruz Vázquez (summer) joined us through NYU’s SURP program for the summer. She worked on identifying genes expressed in the motoneurons that move the eyes.

Ali Ehrlich (rotation) looked at gene expression patterns in developing vestibular neurons for her rotation. She joined Justin Blau’s lab.

Brooke Holey (rotation) built an apparatus to look at how fish balanced in flowing water, and how fish responded to olfactory cues for her rotation. She joined David Schneider’s lab.

Vaishali Talwar (rotation) looked at the neurons responsible for posture for her rotation in the lab..

Ann Privorotskiy (UG) studied the development of oculomotor neurons while she was an undergraduate at the Macaulay Honors College at Baruch.  

Mahdi Choudhury (UG): Mahdi joined us as an NYU undergraduate and looked looking into how zebrafish learn to stabilize their gaze as they grow.

Zhiwei Li (rotation): Zhiwei rotated in the lab, where she worked to develop our pipeline to analyze data generated by combined imaging and electrophysiology. She’s got her Ph.D. in the Ma lab, works at BlockScience, and is a Feldenkrais practitioner!

Avenelle Onaifo (summer): Avenelle also spent the summer in the lab (2016) as part of NYU's Girls in Science, Technology and Medicine summer program. She too worked on coding eye movements to understand how gaze stabilization develops.

Margaret Zhang (summer): Maggie spent the summer in the lab (2015) as part of NYU's Girls in Science, Technology and Medicine summer program. She worked on coding eye movements to understand how gaze stabilization develops.  

Simóne Sun (rotation): Simóne was a graduate student in Dick Tsien's lab and went to work with Jessica Tollkuhn for a postdoc.

David Tingley (rotation):  David graduated from Gyuri Buzsaki's lab and went to the Andermann lab for a postdoc.