Isabel D'Alessandro

Hi! I'm Isabel D'Alessandro, a second-year PhD student in the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard. Previously, I worked as a research assistant in the lab of Rachel Wilson at Harvard studying sensory-guided navigation in Drosophila. I'm interested in studying how the brain integrates sensory information to drive complex behaviors.


Publications

Fechner S, D’Alessandro I, Wang L, Tower C, Tao L, Goodman MB (2021) DEG/ENaC/ASIC channels vary in their sensitivity to anti-hypertensive and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; Journal of General Physiology doi:10.1085/jgp.202012655
Rayshubskiy A, Holtz SL, D’Alessandro I, Li AA, Vanderbeck QX, Haber IS, Gibb PW, Wilson RI (2020) Neural control of steering in walking Drosophila. bioRxiv bioRxiv: 2020.04.04.024703
Okubo. T.S., Patella, P., D’Alessandro, I., Wilson, R.I. (2020) A neural network for wind-guided compass navigation. Neuron doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.06.022
Fisher, Y.E., Lu, J., D’Alessandro, I., Wilson, R.I. (2019) Sensorimotor experience remaps visual input to a heading-direction network. Nature doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1772-4

Education

Harvard University

PhD, Program in Neuroscience
2021 -

Wellesley College

BA, Neuroscience
2014 - 2018

Experience

Research Assistant, Harvard Medical School

Specialized in computational neuroanatomy. Collaborated on projects studying the integration of sensory cues in the Drosophila heading compass.

June 2018 - 2020

Undergraduate Research Assistant, Wellesley College Neuroscience Department

Investigated the integration of visual and thermal stimuli by Drosophila in flight, and the effects of hydration state on behavioral responses to water and visual stimuli.

September 2016 - June 2018

Amgen Scholar, Stanford University

Functionally and pharmacologically characterized the pore-forming subunits of mechanosensitive ion channels expressed in C.elegans touch receptor neurons using electrophysiology

June 2017 - August 2017