Sara Freeman
Graduate Student
freeman.sara.m@gmail.com
After graduating from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in French, I was hired by Dr. Robert Liu at Emory University to study the role of ultrasonic vocalizations in social communication in mice. A year later, I started my PhD in Neuroscience at Emory and became interested in the neural and genetic basis of social behaviors, specifically the mechanism of action and circuitry of the neuropeptide oxytocin and its role in mediating maternal behavior. In all of my work, I would like to study neuroscience in the context of behavioral ecology to better understand how evolution has shaped the nervous system to allow animals to perceive relevant social stimuli in their environment and react appropriately. I hope to use viral vector techniques and mouse mutants to manipulate gene expression and evaluate the effects using behavioral assays. And I also hope to pursue some experiments to better understand how monogamous prairie voles choose their lifelong mate.