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
Alina Trofimova (PhD Student, 2025-present)
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. Alina received a USASK 75th entrance scholarship in 2024 and transfered to her PhD program in January, 2025. Alina is currently funded by the USASK Dean's International Doctoral Scholarship.
McKenna Bolger (MSc student, 2025-present)
McKenna joined the laboratory in 2024 for an Honour's project. McKenna developed expertise in animal models of epilepsy, video EEG, DREADDs, fiber photometry, and microscopy. After a successful Honour's project, McKenna started a MSc degree in May 2025.
Royce Hermanson (MSc student, 2025-present)
Royce joined the laboratory as an undergraduate student in 2024 with support from the USASK BioMed Summer Research Project program. Royce then completed an Honour's project that used fiber photometry to study mossy cells in cognitive and affective behaviours. Royce officially started his MSc program in May 2025 and will continue to study mossy cells using fiber photometry and optogenetics and recently received a USASK 75th entrance scholarship to support his MSc degree.
Staff & Undergraduate Students
Dr. Kirk Mulatz (PhD, 2025-Present)
Kirk joined the laboratory in January, 2025 as a part-time research assistant. Kirk is currently contributing to all experiments in the laboratory and is an expert at complex stereotaxic surgeries (e.g., multi-site fiber photometry, EEG recording assemblies, optogenetic implants, and combined optogenetic + EEG implants).
Dara Kwochka (2024-present)
Dara joined the Botterill lab as an undergraduate summer student in 2024. She is entering her fourth 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 (2024-present)
Angela joined the laboratory in 2024 as a high school volunteer! 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. Angela recently received a USASK Best and Brighest Entrance Scholarship for the 2025 academic year.
Jamila Jalilova (2025-present)
Jamila joined the laboratory in May 2025 with support from the USASK BioMed Summer Research scholarship. Jamila is working with Alina to learn slice electrophysiology (field recordings, whole cell patch clamp) to study circuit mechanisms of temporal lobe epilepsy.
Katherine Chang (2025-present)
Katherine joined the laboratory in May 2025 with support from the NSERC USRA scholarship program and the USASK BioMed Summer Research Project Scholarship. Katherine is currently studying hippocampal-dependent learning and memory circuits using TRAP2 mice.
Laboratory Alumni
Sarah Shaban (Master's Student, 2023-2025)
Sarah joined the lab in September 2023. Sarah's MSc project focused on studying a supramamillary nucleus-hippocampal circuit in the context of temporal lobe epilepsy. Her project utilized rodent stereotaxic surgery, adeno-associated viruses, fiber photometry, 24/7 video EEG, and microscopy. Sarah recently defended her MSc degree (July 2025) and entered Medical school at USASK.
Zachary Berardi (Summer Student + Honour's student, 2024-2025)
Zach received funding from the USASK Biomedical Summer Research Project program to explore the role of hippocampal mossy cells in cognition over the summer of 2024. He continued this work for an Honour's degree (2024-2025) and he recently started Medical School at USASK (2025).
Tye Morin (Summer Student + Honour's student, 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 started Medical School at USASK in 2024.