معرفی
Hannah M. Shoenhard serves as Assistant Professor of Biology at Bryn Mawr College, where she leads research in the Biology department with a specialized focus on neuroscience. Her work investigates fundamental mechanisms linking sleep, learning, and memory consolidation using Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) models, operating from her laboratory in Park 114.
Her primary research explores how sleep facilitates long-term memory consolidation at cellular and molecular levels, comparing sleep-dependent versus sleep-resilient memory forms to identify critical neurobiological processes. She concurrently examines autophagy's role—a cellular recycling mechanism regulated by sleep—in memory formation through confocal microscopy visualization, while modeling rare neurological conditions with impaired autophagy to establish potential treatment screening platforms.
Dr. Shoenhard actively mentors undergraduate researchers, as evidenced by her documented milestones including summer research initiatives, student posters, and inaugural student collaborations. Her lab website details ongoing projects aimed at deciphering memory mechanisms in health, aging, and disease states, with emphasis on translating findings to rare neurological disorder therapeutics despite limited industry interest in such conditions.
