Roberto Lopez Cervera

Entering Class - 2019

Member of MSTP (MD/PhD) program

E-MAIL: lopez927@umn.edu

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

  • Voloh B, Maisson DJ, Cervera RL, Conover I, Zambre M, Hayden B, Zimmermann J. Hierarchical action encoding in prefrontal cortex of freely moving macaques. Cell Rep. 2023 Aug 31;42(9):113091. 
  • Maisson DJ, Cervera RL, Voloh B, Conover I, Zambre M, Zimmermann J, Hayden BY. Widespread coding of navigational variables in prefrontal cortex. Curr Biol. 2023 Jul 26:S0960-9822(23)00931-4.
  • 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
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