Principal Investigator
Justin Botterill
I earned my PhD in Cognition and Neuroscience (Department of Psychology) at the University of Saskatchewan in 2016 under the supervision of Dr. Lisa Kalynchuk. I then completed two postdoctoral fellowships in the laboratories of Dr. Helen Scharfman (Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research & New York University Langone Health) and Dr. Maithe Arruda-Carvalho (University of Toronto).
Graduate Students
Sarah Shaban (Master's Student)
Sarah joined the lab in September 2023. Sarah is focused on studying hippocampal circuits that contribute to temporal lobe epilepsy. Her project utilizes rodent stereotaxic surgery, adeno-associated viruses, fiber photometry, 24/7 video EEG, and microscopy.
Alina Trofimova (Master's Student)
Alina joined the laboratory in January 2024. Alina has over 7 years of experience in slice electrophysiology with a special focus on epilepsy. Alina is using whole-cell patch clamp recordings and optogenetics to study how long-range projections to the hippocampus may influence seizures. Alina is also studying how novel cannabinoid receptor compounds may influence seizures in a slice model of epilepsy.
Undergraduate Students
Royce Hermanson
Royce is currently working in the laboratory as a summer student with support from the USASK BioMed Summer Research Project program. In the fall, Royce will enter his 4th and final year of Biomedical Neuroscience, and complete his honours thesis investigating the roles of mossy cells in affective and anxiety-related behaviours.
Zachary Berardi
Zach is an undergraduate student entering his 4th and final year of the Biomedical Neuroscience program. He recently joined the Botterill lab with support from the USASK Biomedical Summer Research Project program to explore the role of hippocampal mossy cells in cognition. He will continue research as part of an Honours project this fall.
Dara Kwochka
Dara recently joined the Botterill lab as an undergraduate summer student. She is going into her third year as a Biomedical Science student majoring in Cellular, Physiological, and Pharmacological Sciences. She is studying hippocampal pathways in mouse models of epilepsy.
Angela Wang
Angela is a high school student from Saskatoon that volunteers in the laboratory on a weekly basis. Angela is an expert at sectioning brains, performing immunofluorescence staining of brain tissue, and mounting brain tissue on microsope slides. Angela is currently learning immunofluorescence microscopy techniques.
Laboratory Alumni
Tye Morin (2023-2024)
Tye joined the laboratory in 2023 and won an NSERC USRA and USASK BioMed Summer Research Project Grant. Tye continued in the lab in the Fall of 2023 and completed an Honour's project that used Targeted Recombination in Active Population (TRAP2) mice to study engram cells involved in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory. Tye was recently accepted into Medical School at the University of Saskatcheawn and will begin his program in September 2024.