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                Fabienne E. Poulain
                   Principal Investigator
                   fpoulain@mailbox.sc.edu

​Dr. Poulain is  originally from France and obtained her PhD from the University Paris 6-Pierre et Marie Curie,  studying  the roles of microtubule-regulating proteins stathmins in neuronal morphogenesis. She became convinced that  observing axon growth directly in the embryo in vivo would provide invaluable insights on how axons integrate different signals  from the environment to navigate properly. She  joined  the laboratories of Drs. Chi-Bin Chien  and Joseph Yost at the University of Utah to study the roles of Heparan sulfate proteoglycans in axon guidance in vivo in zebrafish. Her work led to the discovery that selective axon degeneration is an essential correction mechanism that establishes topographic ordering of retinal axons during development. She also developed new transplantation approaches and transgenic lines to study retinal axon development and topographic map formation.

Trevor Moreland
Graduate student
trevoram@email.sc.edu

Trevor obtained his B.S. in Biology from Erskine College in South Carolina. His experience as a research technician at the Greenwood Genetics Center motivated him to pursue a PhD in neuroscience at UofSC. Trevor joined the Poulain lab in 2021 and is studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of circuit wiring during brain development.

Lexie  Schmidt
Post-doc
as294@mailbox.sc.edu

Lexie obtained her B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience from Bowling Green State University, where she studied the biology of affect and motivation. She then joined the lab of Dr. Sadie Bergeron at West Virginia University to study the transcriptional control of visual circuit formation in zebrafish. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biology in 2022 and joined the lab in 2023 to pursue research on the formation of visual circuits.

Quill Thomas
Zebrafish facility manager
cmt2@email.sc.edu

Quill Thomas obtained his B.S. in biology from the University of South Carolina. He recently joined the lab to share his technical expertise and supervise the zebrafish facility. 

Anna Raffo
Undergraduate student

Eesha Gurav
Undergraduate student

Tremayne  Ansani
Undergraduate student

Tucker Hadley
Undergraduate student

ALUMNI

Post-docs

Dr. Cory Weaver (Assay Development Scientist at SC DHEC)
​Dr. Tine Verreet (​Research Associate, KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research)

Graduate  students

Olivia Spead (postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore).

Undergraduate students

Kate Roge-Jones (MUSC)
Izlen Peksenar
Joshua Wiltse
Brianna Hegarty (Graduate School, Georgia Institute of Technology)
Bradley Brodie (Medical School, MUSC)
Madison Boylan (Medical School, Mercer University)
​Ryan Woodard (Medical School, UofSC)
​Rosemary Neigenfield (Graduate School, NYU)
​Leila Nguyen
​Jacob Espinoza

Zebrafish facility managers

Cory Donelson
Brian Wheeler