CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
The Roossien Lab is driven by a dedicated and inquisitive group of undergraduate scientists!
Douglas Roossien
Principal Investigator
Favorite taco: al Pastor
Douglas received his B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2009 from Grand Valley State University and his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Michigan State University in 2014. He spent 5 years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan before starting his lab at Ball State University in August 2019. Douglas moved his lab to Mount Holyoke College in July 2025.
Morgan Trudeau
Class of 2027
Favorite taco: al Pastor
Morgan was in the first cohort of students to join the Roossien Lab at Mount Holyoke College! Morgan works on developing Drosophila as a model system to study the role of hallucinogens on mental health disorders. She is presenting her work at the American Psychology Society meeting in May 2026!
Jessie Rhodes
Class of 2026
Favorite taco: Carnitas
Jessie was in the first cohort of students to join the Roossien Lab at Mount Holyoke College! Jessie's work has focused on generating and analyzing microscopy images of serotonergic neurons. She is an author on our 2026 microPublication Biology paper!
Megan
Class of 2028
Favorite taco: Black bean
Megan was in the first cohort of students to join the Roossien Lab at Mount Holyoke College! Megan is working to map the expression of serotonin autoreceptors throughout development.
Irene Lamperti
Class of 2026
Favorite taco: Chicken
Irene was in the first cohort of students to join the Roossien Lab at Mount Holyoke College! Irene has been testing the role of serotonin autoreceptors in adult locomotion and circadian rhythms.
Arianna Urcuyo
Class of 2028
Favorite taco: Carne Asada (soft shell)
Arianna joined the lab in Spring 2026 and is working to understand the role of the serotonin system in Drosophila associative learning.
Madeline Jacobs
Class of 2028
Favorite taco: Shrimp
Madeline joined the lab Spring 2026 and grew the first neurons in the lab at Mount Holyoke! She is working on discovering the intracellular mechanisms of serotonin signaling.
Brigitte Potter
Class of 2028
Favorite taco: Quesabirria
Brigitte joined the lab Spring 2026 and grew the first neurons in the lab at Mount Holyoke! She is working on discovering the mechanism of serotonin receptor sensitization.
Wenxi Shan
Class of 2028
Favorite taco: Shrimp with avocado
Wenxi joined the lab Spring 2026 and was the first student in the lab to use the Zantiks system for optogenetics! She is working on optimizing and using optogentic activation of serotonergic neurons to study the role of serotonin autoreceptor signaling in behavior.
Mara Branch
Class of 2027
Favorite taco: Steak
Mara joined the lab in Spring 2026 and is the first student to start fly crosses in the lab at Mount Holyoke! Mara is using new genetic tools such as SuRE to create useful Split-Gal4 lines for the lab and future projects.
Bianca Blackwood
Class of 2028
Favorite taco: Veggie
Bianca joined the lab in Summer 2026, and is developing and optimizing methods for growing functional serotonergic circuits in culture.