People

Principal Investigator

B.A. Washington University 1995-1999

Ph.D. Harvard University 2000-2005

Postdoc UCSF 2006-2011

Dion was born in Hawaii (in the same hospital as Barack Obama) on Valentine’s Day (a true romantic) and has lived in Hawaii, Santa Barbara, Washington State, Nebraska, St. Louis, Boston, and San Francisco, before finally planting roots in Southern California. Besides research and teaching, he enjoys pursuing his other passions which include reading spy thrillers and following politics as well as his beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers and Boston Red Sox (and USC Trojans ofcourse!).

Graduate Student

B.A. in Biological Sciences, Cornell University 2015

Jerry was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan and moved to the suburb of Philadelphia for high school education when he was 14. During his undergraduate years working with Dr. Chun Han, Jerry was fascinated by the powerful genetic tools that Drosophila as a model system can bring to answer some of the biggest questions in neuroscience: How do different cell types interact with each other? How do neurons adapt to environmental perturbations such as injury or stress? After graduating from Cornell, Jerry moved to New York City to work as a research technician to study stem cell biology in tendon regeneration at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai under the guidance of Dr. Alice Huang. Now he is studying synaptic morphology and homeostasis at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction using molecular approach and electrophysiology. Outside of the lab, Jerry is also a big tennis fan and moving to the sunny Los Angeles makes him very happy to escape the real weather from the East Coast.

Graduate Student

B.S. in Biochemistry (Medicinal Chemistry), Arizona State University, 2014

M.S. in Biology, Arizona State University, 2018

Nancy was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona (home of the Sun Devils!), so it’s not surprising that she attended ASU for both her B.S. and M.S. degrees. Her fly research journey began in Dr. Stuart Newfeld’s lab working on TGFβ signaling players. Late in her undergrad years, Nancy started working with dCORL, a gene necessary for neuronal pruning in the fly brain. Continuing the project as a Master’s student gave Nancy a greater appreciation for flies as models in neuroscience. Now, she continues working with her fly buddies to study axonal injury and neurodegeneration. When Nancy isn’t in lab, she enjoys exploring LA and trying all of the food the area has to offer.

Graduate Student

B.A. in Neuroscience & B.A in Psychology, Boston University, 2018

Jiawen was born and raised in Guangzhou, a beautiful city in Southern China. Despite being an only child, her childhood was not lonely— she was accompanied by the world’s cutest dog, Harry. To this day, dogs are still such an integral part of her life. Her love for dogs and other animals led her to work in an animal-based neuroscience lab at Boston University during her undergrad. After spending three years working there, she has developed a passion for learning about the nervous system. She then moved to LA and joined Dr. Dickman’s lab to continue her study. She is also a big Kpop fan!

Graduate Student

B.S. from Tsinghua University

Made in China, Kaikai received his bachelor’s degree at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His interest in understanding why he has thoughts drives him to chose neuroscience as his major. During his undergraduate, he studied molecular mechanisms of learning and memory at Dr. Yi Zhong’s lab for two years. Then he extended his interest to novel neuroimaging tools by working at Dr. Yulong Li’s lab at Peking University, and there he developed a genetically encoded sensor that can visualize how marijuana works on nervous system. At Dr. Dickman’s lab, he is excited to exploit powerful fly genetics to decipher the brain codes from synaptic level.

Graduate Student

B.S. in Biological Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology, 2019

Chengjie was born in Nanjing, a beautiful city in East China. During his undergrad time in Southern University of Science and Technology, he got interested in neuroscience and worked with Dr. Xuejun Song to study peripheral and spinal mechanisms of neuropathic pain in rodents. Meanwhile, he joined Dr. Ming Guo’s lab as a summer student in UCLA, where he was impressed by the power of fruit fly as a model in studying neurodegenerative diseases. Here at USC, he wants to explore how synapses develop and maintain robust functions under stress at the molecular level. He joined Dickman lab in 2020 and started working on the postsynaptic induction mechanisms of homeostatic plasticity. Outside of the lab, he enjoys traveling and watching anime and reality TV shows.

Graduate Student

Graduate Student

Elizabeth Loxterkamp was raised in Maine and in 2018 received two Bachelors degrees from Wellesley College, one in neuroscience with a concentration in molecular biology and the second in French. While at Wellesley, she worked in the lab of Dr. Deborah Bauer studying the effect of mutations in glutamate transporters on mechanosensory and chemosensory behavior in C. elegans. In Dr. Dickman’s lab she continues her research on glutamatergic synapses in drosophila, where she studies Neto, the obligatory auxiliary subunit of glutamate receptors at the drosophila neuromuscular junction. Outside of lab, she enjoys archery and exploring indie film and theater in LA.

Graduate Student

Lab Manager

Lab Manager