Roberto Lopez Cervera
Entering Class - 2019
Member of MSTP (MD/PhD) program
E-MAIL: [email protected]
PhD 2023
PhD Thesis
Navigating curiously and vigorously: distributed encoding of complex behavior in the primate brain.
Current Position:
Medical Student, University of Minnestoa
Undergraduate Institution and Major:
University of California Santa Cruz, B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2014
Graduate Advisor:
Benjamin Hayden, Ph.D., Department of Neuroscience
Graduate Publications
- Cell Rep. 2023 Aug 31;42(9):113091. Hierarchical action encoding in prefrontal cortex of freely moving macaques.
- Curr Biol. 2023 Jul 26:S0960-9822(23)00931-4. Widespread coding of navigational variables in prefrontal cortex.
- Lopez Cervera R, Wang MZ, Hayden BY. Systems neuroscience of curiosity. Curr Opin Behav Scien., 2020;35:48-55.
Undergraduate Publications
- Yang J, Lopez Cervera R, Tye SJ, Ekker SC, Pierret C. Adolescent mental health education InSciEd Out: a case study of an alternative middle school population. J Transl Med. 2018;16(1):84.
- Lee HB, Schwab TL, Koleilat A, Ata H, Daby CL, Lopez Cervera R, McNulty MS, Bostwick HS, Clark KJ. Allele-specific quantitative PCR for accurate, rapid, and cost-effective genotyping. Hum Gene Ther. 2016;27(6):425-435.
- Westcot SE, Hatzold J, Urban MD, Richetti SK, Skuster KJ, Harm RM, Lopez Cervera R, Umemoto N, McNulty MS, Clark KJ, Hammerschmidt M, Ekker SC. Protein-trap insertional mutagenesis uncovers new genes involved in zebrafish skin development, including a neuregulin 2a-based ErbB signaling pathway required during median fin fold morphogenesis. PLoS One. 2015 Jun 25;10(6):e0130688
Awards and Honors:
- MSTP Leadership in Diversity Fellow 2021
- Presidential Student Leadership and Service Award 2020
- Sping and Ying Ngoh Lin Award 2020