Principal Investigator
Dayu received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of neurobiology at Duke University in 2005, mentored by Dr. Lawrence C. Katz. She then continued her postdoctoral training at Caltech with Dr. David J. Anderson. In November 2010, she started her independent research group at NYU Langone medical center studying the neural mechanisms of social behaviors.
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Postdoctoral Fellows
Takashi received his Ph. D. degree from Osaka University under the supervision of Prof. Shigetada Nakanishi in 2013. After his Ph. D. and postdoctoral training in Nakanishi's lab, he jonined Lin's lab in the spring 2015. He is interested in the neural substrates of mating and fighting circuits beyond the hypothalamus.
Takuya received his Ph. D. in Agriculture at The University of Tokyo in 2017. During postdoctoral training under Prof. Kazushige Touhara at the Department of Applied Biological Chemistry at The University of Tokyo, he worked on the ERATO Touhara Chemosensory project. Takuya joined the Lin Lab in the Fall of 2018 and is interested in social and maternal behaviors.
Rongzhen received her Ph.D. degree from the School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology at Peking University in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Qiang Zhou. She then continued her postdoctoral training at University of Pittsburgh with Prof. Yanhua Huang. She joined the Lin lab in January 2021. By combining a wide range of approaches, she is interested in understanding the neural mechanisms of aggressive and defensive behaviors. She aims to determine the effects of different external factors on social behaviors and the potential neural mechanisms that lead to deficits in disease models.
Jing Cai, Ph.D.
Jing obtained her P.h.D. degree from UTHealth Houston under the supervision of Dr. Qingchun Tong in the end of 2023. She then joined Lin lab in the same winter. Jing is interested in how chronic winning affects behaviors that are essential for animal survival.
Takayoshi Kuwabara, Ph.D.
Takayoshi received his Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Tokyo in March 2024 under Prof. Takeo Kubo. After completing his Ph.D., he joined the Lin lab in April 2024. He is interested in the neural mechanisms underlying social behaviors and emotions.
Graduate Students
Bing received his Bachelor’s degree from Southeast University, and he joined the lab in Spring 2018. He is interested in mouse aggression behavior and neural plasticity behind it.
Patrick received a B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University. In collaboration with Dr. Robert Froemke, he is interested in understanding how social experiences alter the function of neural circuits – particularly in the context of parental behaviors. He plans to use a combination of in vivo recording techniques, functional manipulation approaches, and behavioral experiments to study sensory and conspecific representations in hypothalamic circuits.
Research Associates
Yiwen received a B.S. in Biotechnology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an M.S. in Biology from NYU. They joined the lab in the summer of 2019, pursuing their interest in learning neural mechanisms underlying social behaviors, including social avoidance, social hierarchy, and territory formation.
Research Associate / Lab Manager
Undergraduate Students
Rina Tabuchi
Rina Tabuchi is an undergraduate student at Montclair State University in NJ. She majors in Music Therapy and minors in Psychology. She is pursuing a career in neuroscience or medicine to study how music may impact our physical and mental health in the scope of neuroscience. She joined the lab in August 2021 as a research volunteer. She is interested in learning experimental techniques in neuroscience and studying how emotions may play a role in the perception of environmental stimuli, including auditory information, and physiological responses, which result in behavioral changes.
Aishu Gollamudi
Aishu is an undergraduate at NYU pursuing a neural science major. She joined the lab in September 2021 as a research volunteer. She is currently interested in the relationship between certain neural pathways along with cells and behavioral responses.
Dylan Rhodes
Dylan is an undergraduate student at New York University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Neural Science with a minor in Music on the Pre-Med Track. He joined Dayu Lin's lab in Fall 2022, where he aims to learn about the neural circuitry behind how sensory phenomena modulates behavioral responses. Moreover, he is interested in studying neurologically/psychiatric-related disease etiologies and how knowledge about behavioral mechanisms can yield potential therapies for depressive, anxious, trauma-related, or other conditions in humans in the near future.
Matthew Tokar
Matthew is an undergraduate student at New York University pursuing a Degree in Behavioral Biology at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. He joined Dayu Lin's lab in Summer 2023 to explore his interest in neuroscience research and the applications of optogenetics. He is interested in the study and treatment of mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, psychosis, and eating disorders. He hopes to gain a better understanding of fundamental behaviors motivated by aggression, fear, empathy, and more in order to make an impact in the mental health care system.
Benjamin Choi
Ben is an undergraduate student at New York University pursuing a Degree in Psychology and Writing at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. He joined Dayu Lin’s lab in the Winter of 2024 to explore his interest in neuroscience research and essential survival behaviors. He is primarily interested in studying the cross sections between neuroscience and psychology and its application to mental health.