Principal Investigator
Tomás J. Ryan, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Biochemistry & Immunology
Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institutes
& Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience
Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
Honorary Senior Research Fellow
The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
University of Melbourne, Australia
Email / ResearchGate / Google Scholar / Twitter / Profile
Staff Members
Postdoctoral Researchers
Clara Ortega de San Luis
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Email / ResearchGate / LinkedIn
Clara holds a B.Sc. in Biology (University of Jaén, Spain). She joined the lab of Dr. Alberto Pascual at the Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (Spain) where she received her M.Sc. and PhD in Neuroscience. During her Ph.D., Clara studied GDNF (Glial-cell derived neurotrophic factor) and its role on Parkinson’s disease physiopathology. She also studied microglial response to hypoxia in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. As a Postdoc in the Ryan Lab, Clara is interested in the molecular basis of memory engram function, to better understand the link between fundamental brain function and memory. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and listening to podcasts.
James O’Leary
Postdoctoral Research Associate
James originally graduated with a B.Sc. in Psychology from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia and an M.Sc. from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He then conducted his Ph.D. in Behavioural Neuroscience in the research groups of John Cryan, Yvonne Nolan and Olivia O’Leary at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. His Ph.D. research focussed on the effects of stress and exercise during adolescence and adulthood on hippocampal neurogenesis and cognition. As a Postdoc in the Ryan Lab, James is interested in the neurobiology of learning and memory throughout development. Outside of the lab James enjoys travelling, reading and is passionate about programming and electronics.
Marius Rosier
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Marius originally graduated with a M.Sc. in Neurosciences and Cognition from the Claude Bernard University in Lyon, France. During Marius’ undergraduate studies, he completed two research internships at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CNRL), working on the involvement of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep on hippocampal plasticity and contextual memory. Marius then gained his Ph.D. from CNRL where his doctoral thesis research was focused on the role of REM sleep on emotional regulation and on remote consolidation of memory. For his post-doctoral research in collaboration with the Palmer Lab (Florey institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne), Marius is interested in studying the modifications of signal integration in engram cells.
Rasmus Bruckner
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Rasmus is an affiliated postdoctoral researcher mainly based at Freie Universität and the Max Planck Institute Berlin, Germany. His PhD research focused on computational modelling and adaptive learning in humans. In his projects with the Ryan lab, he builds computational models of natural forgetting based on reinforcement-learning theory and Bayesian inference. In his free time, Rasmus likes running and cooking.
Graduate Students
Antoine Harel
Graduate Student
After obtaining a B.Sc. in Life Sciences from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris, France, Antoine joined the two-year international Dual Masters in Brain and Mind Sciences programme at University College London (UCL), U.K. In Hugo Spier’s research group at UCL he studied spatial cognition and memory in humans. He then worked on Sidney Weiner’s team at Collège de France in Paris. There, he researched learning and cognitive flexibility at the scale of neuronal networks in freely moving rats, using electrophysiological techniques. Antoine’s primary scientific interest and the focus of his Ph.D. research in the Ryan Lab is the biology of memory formation and maintenance, and how these mechanisms relate to behaviour. In his free time, Antoine enjoys travelling, listening to podcasts, hiking and running.
Livia Autore
Erika Stewart
Graduate Student
Erika graduated with a B.A in Neuroscience from Trinity College Dublin. Her final year research project focused on investigating the impact of inflammatory driven glial metabolites on neuronal integrity and synapse formation. Since graduating, Erika spent some time working as a research intern in Trinity Biomedical Science Institute (TBSI) before joining the lab of Dr. Lorina Naci in the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN) as a research assistant working on the PREVENT Dementia Neuroimaging project. In 2020 she joined the Ryan lab as a PhD student and her research focuses on the investigation of memory engrams across development. Outside of the lab, she enjoys climbing, hiking and travelling.
Paul Conway
Graduate Student
Paul graduated with a B.A. in Neuroscience from Trinity College Dublin. For his final year project he joined the Ryan and Ramaswami labs to investigate the variation in innate olfactory behaviour of the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup and how this may be modified by learning. In the summer of 2019, he joined the Walsh lab in Ulster University to investigate how changes in DNA transcriptional regulation are implicated in mental health disorders. Paul joined the Ryan Lab as a PhD student in 2020 to research how instinctive behaviours can be modified by experience and how instincts can evolve. In his free time, Paul enjoys Taekwondo, rock climbing and coding.
Andrea Muñoz Zamora
Graduate Student
Andrea originally graduated with a M.Sc. in Neuropsychology and a Research M.Sc. in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. After graduating, she spent a year at the laboratory of Dr. Christine Denny (Columbia University, New York) investigating how multiple memories are co-stored in the brain. Andrea joined the Ryan lab in 2020 and is interested in studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie instincts, memory and learning. Andrea likes to dream big with regards to science in general and is passionate about promoting underrepresented minorities and women in science. In her free time, Andrea loves cooking and sharing good food with friends and family, yoga and coffee.
Louisa Zielke
Graduate Student
Louisa graduated with a BSc in Psychology from Maastricht University in The Netherlands. For her bachelor’s thesis she joined the department of clinical genomics at the Maastricht University Medical Center and investigated the underlying mechanisms of mitochondrial dysfunction in neurons of zebrafish. During her time in Maastricht, Louisa was actively involved in the research group on perception, attention, learning, and memory led by Prof. Peter de Weerd. In the summer of 2021, Louisa joined the Ryan lab as part of her current master’s programme ‘Fundamental Neuroscience’ and is involved in projects on the neural correlates underlying engram storage across development. In her free time, she enjoys travelling, classic literature, and environmental activism.
Fionn O’Sullivan
Graduate Student
Fionn graduated with a B.A. in Neuroscience from Trinity College Dublin. For his bachelor’s thesis he conducted an EEG study on the effects of mental imagery on perceptual decisions in the lab of Prof. Redmond O’Connell (TCIN). Long interested in the fundamentals of biology as a discipline and its intellectual history, Fionn joined the Ryan lab in 2022 as a research MSc student to explore how fields such as philosophy, biosemiotics and evolutionary theory can provide neuroscientists with new ways of interpreting biological data. He practices meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, undertaking retreats in Europe and South Asia when possible, and writes fiction, non-fiction and poetry, which all indirectly inform his approach to neuroscience. Fionn also cares deeply about science communication, diversity of intellectual traditions in science, the mountains and the sea.
Past Members
Sarah Power
Graduate Student
Sarah graduated with a B.Sc. in Neuroscience from University College Dublin (UCD) in 2016. She conducted undergraduate research at the Institute of Biochemistry and Pathobiochemistry in Ruhr-Universitat, Germany, on the cellular mechanisms underlying aberrant protein folding and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. Following graduation, Sarah worked as a research assistant for the APC Microbiome Institute at University College Cork (UCC) before beginning her current position as a doctoral student in the Ryan Lab. Sarah’s current research focuses on studying the neurobiological mechanisms of memory storage across development. In her personal time, Sarah likes to sail, swim, and travel.
Mariia Yurova
Lab Manager
Lydia Marks
Lab Manager
Maurizio Pezzoli
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Alumni
Hugh Delaney
Undergraduate Student
Hugh is in his final year studying Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin. During the summer of 2017 he was an Amgen scholar at Institut Pasteur in Paris. He studied a novel protein shown to be involved in the regulation of recycling endosomes. Hugh is doing his final year research project in the Ryan lab where he is working with Dr. Clara Ortega-de San Luis on the molecular basis of memory storage. Outside of science Hugh enjoys playing the piano and sport.