Heather Ross
Graduate Student
heather.e.ross@gmail.com
My undergraduate degree is in zoology from the fabulous Michigan State
University (Go Spartans!), where I did field studies on beldings
ground squirrels (Kay Holekamp) and laboratory research on zebra
finches (Juli Wade) and nile grass rats (Laura Smale). At Emory, I
have worked on social discrimination using oxytocin receptor knock-out
mice and prairie voles. To further understand how rodents might
acquire individual recognition, I looked into the link between
olfactory circuits and oxytocin using a trans-neuronal viral tracer.
My thesis work investigates the oxytocin neurons that project to the
nucleus accumbens and influence affiliative behavior and how this
circuit contributes to individual variation in behavior. My techniques
of choice include viral vector gene transfer, retrograde tracers, IHC,
and social behavior testing. For my future work, I am intersted in
immunology and its effects on the develping social brain.
