Lab Member Profiles

2023 The hot and cold effects of our hormones, The Science Show with Robyn Williams

2022 U Magazine (UCLA Health) Spotlight on Stephanie “What’s the Difference?”

2021 Daily Bruin Article: “Latino scientific researchers reflect on achievements, importance of mentorship” with MS student Amanda Misquez

2021 UCLA College Featured Story “Stronger Together” with doctoral student, Norma Sandoval

2021 Career Pathway profile in Nature Metabolism, doi: 10.1038/s42255-021-00379-7

2021 Knowing Neurons neuroscience education website, interview by Arielle Hogan

Lab Member Accomplishments

November 2023: Stephanie is named an Allen Distinguished Investigator for a collaborative project on Sex Hormones working with Dr. Annegret Falkner (Princeton) and Dr. Ed van Veen (UCLA).

September 2023: Maria Fernanda Cassol attended the 25th Anniversary Symposium of the Center for Neuroendocrine Studies at U Mass Amherst and received a Best Poster award. Congratulations, MaFe!

September 2023: Laura Cortés received a Young Investigator Award from the UCLA Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center! Congratulations, Laura!

August 2023: Summer student Maggie Gonzales won Third Place for her poster presentation at for Superior Opportunities for Maximizing Access (SOMA) to Neuroscience Program. Congratulations to Maggie and her mentor Ally!

July 2023: Undergraduates Erica Chavez and Maggie Gonzales join us for the summer. Erica comes from Northwestern and will work with Paul Vander. Maggie comes from Cal State San Bernardino and will work with Ally Cara.

June 2023: Congratulations to Adriana Vree, Samiha Molla, Hannah Azadi, Jackie Gallardo-Beltran, Maria Fernanda Cassol, Aeron Christy, and Nathan Robbins for graduating with bachelor’s degrees from UCLA! Congratulations to Amanda Misquez and Weronika Budek for graduating with master’s degrees in Integrative Biology and Physiology!

June 2023: Congratulations to Jackie Gallardo-Beltran and Maria Fernando Cassol for winning the 2023 Science Dean’s Prize!!!!

June 2023: Congratulations to Laura for being selected for the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program Award!

June 2023: Congratulations to Adriana Vree, Mia Hansen, Sakina Rashid, Megan Singer, Samiha Molla, Hannah Azadi, Sam Duong-Brett, Alauki Patel, Kelsey Perlman, Jackie Gallardo-Beltran, Maria Fernanda Cassol, and Nathan Robbins for presenting their research at Undergraduate Research Week! We had a total of 12 presenters and 10 presentations from the Correa and van Veen groups!

March 2023: Congratulations to Shomik Ati for finishing his MS in Integrative Biology and Physiology!

February 2023: Congratulations to Jackie Gallardo-Beltran for being accepted to two PhD programs!

February 2023: Congratulations to Weronika Budek for being accepted to two PhD programs!

February 2023: Congratulations to Weronika Budek for making it to the UCLA Grad Slam Semifinals. Good luck!

January 2023: Norma Sandoval received one of the inaugural UCLA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Student Leadership Awards. Congratulations, Norma!

December 2022: Jackie received an Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program award to support their time in the van Veen lab!

December 2022: Paul received a Predoctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association. Congratulations, Paul!

November 2022: Congratulations to Rachel for advancing to candidacy!

October 2022: Congratulations to Paul for advancing to candidacy!

September 2022: Ally received a Young Investigator Pilot Grant from the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center/UCLA National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. Congratulations, Ally!

August 2022: Ed received a Core Grant from the UCLA CTSI for exciting sequencing projects. Congratulations on the first independent funding for the Van Veen Lab!

July 2022: Congratulations to Rachel for passing her Written Qualifying Exam!

July 2022: #TeamCorreaLab had a fantastic time at the Hypothalamus Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, CA. Paul Vander, Rachel Scott, and Norma Sandoval presented posters and Stephanie presented Megan Massa’s research in the Neuroendocrine hypothalamus session. Congratulations to Norma for being recognized with a poster award! Stephanie was elected co-Vice Chair (with Annegret Falkner of Princeton) for the 2024 meeting.

June 2022: #TeamCorreaLab takes the 2022 SBN meeting by storm. Dr. Ally Cara received a Sue Bodine Travel Award from our department and was selected for a talk. Dr. Laura Cortés received the New Investigator award and will give a talk. Dr. Megan Massa received a travel award from the UCLA Brain Research Institute and will Chair a session. Norma Sandoval received a Travel Award from SBN and will present a poster. Rachel Scott received a Welcome Initiative Award, will present two posters, and will give a lightning talk. We will be well represented in Atlanta.

June 2022: Megan defended her dissertation! Congratulations to Megan. The celebration was a blast.

May 2022: graduating seniors Alejandra Barón and Sahara Ali presented their independent research projects at the annual UCLA Undergraduate Research Showcase. Congratulations to both for great talks and to Alejandra for being recognized with a Dean’s Science Prize!

April 2022: Paul passed his written qualifying exam. Congratulations, Paul!

April 2022: Megan Massa was selected by the UCLA Academic Senate Committee on Teaching for the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants. Congratulations, Megan, on this huge honor!

April 2022: PhD candidate Megan Massa accepts a position as Visiting Assistant Professor at Haverford for 2022-2023, and will then start her NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with Dr. Kelli Duncan at Vassar College.

March 2022: Megan receives a NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for her post-PhD studies! Woohoo!

March 2022: Rachel receives Honorable Mention in the Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship competition. Congratulations Rachel!

March 2022: Paul Vander competes in the UCLA Grad Slam Finals and wins “Audience Choice”. Congrats, Paul!

October 2021: Soon-to-be postdoc Laura Cortes had her K00 transition application approved by NIH Blueprint DSPAN. She’ll join the lab with funding from NICHD!

October 2021: Megan Massa wins a UCLA Brain Research Institute travel award to attend the 2021 Society for Neuroscience meeting.

August 2021: Undergraduate Sahara Ali and PhD candidate Megan Massa had a review paper accepted in the Journal of Student Research. Congratulations!

July 2021: Amanda Misquez is admitted to the Integrative Biology and Physiology MS program. Congratulations, Amanda! We’re so excited that she’ll stay with the lab for her MS studies.

July 2021: Rachel Scott is awarded a diversity supplement from NIA to fund her first two years in the lab. Congratulations, Rachel!

July 2021: Ed van Veen joins the IBP faculty as an Adjunct Assistant Professor. Congratulations to Ed and watch out for the van Veen lab group!

June 2021: Megan Massa was awarded a Dissertation Year Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year! Congratulations!

June 2021: New postdoc Laura Cortés is joining the lab in 2022! So excited to welcome her to the team.

June 2021: Congratulations to Alexia for receiving the 2021 Chancellor’s Service Award! And MCDB Highest Departmental Honors! And the Senior Research Award! Woohoo!

June 2021: Congratulations to Graduating Seniors Alexia Joseph and Amanda Misquez! Both presented their independent research at Undergraduate Research Week Poster Day. Congratulations!

May 2021: We are growing! New PhD students Paul Vander and Rachel Scott are joining in July and new postdoc Dr. Alexandra Cara is joining in September! So excited to welcome these talented scientists to our team.

April 2021: Megan Massa is selected for the Collegium of University Teaching Fellows and will teach her own seminar in Physiological Science titled: Sex, Gender, & Feeding – Intersections in the Brain. Coming Spring 2022!

April 2021: So much!: Megan Massa and Zhi Zhang received travel awards to attend the 2021 meeting of the OSSD. Norma Sandoval received a Welcome Initiative award to join the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Zhi Zhang received the Sue C. Bodine Postdoctoral Scholar Travel Award from the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology to attend the 2021 Steroids in the Nervous System meeting. Go Team Correa Lab!

March 2021: Norma Sandoval is selected for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship AND the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations², Norma!

March 2021: Liz Dilday is a board certified OB/GYN! Congratulations, Liz!

January 2021: Elizabeth Dilday, MD joins the lab for the research portion of her Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship. Welcome, Liz!

January 2021: Zhi Zhang’s second first-author paper with the lab was accepted in eLife! Congratulations to Zhi, second author Jae Park, and co-corresponding author Ed van Veen. The paper would not have been possible without the expertise of our collaborators, Xia Yang and her lab.

November 2020: Megan Massa received the 2021 K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She is recognized for her innovative approach to student learning, commitment to equity, and contributions on and off campus. Yay Megan!

November 2020: Stephanie received the 2020 Frank A. Beach New Investigator Award from the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Woohoo! The award recognizes all of the amazing work done by Correa Lab members since 2016.

November 2020: Postdoc Zhi Zhang’s first first-author paper with the lab was accepted in Nature Communications! Congratulations Zhi! The paper benefitted from the expertise of our amazing collaborators, Dr. Olu Ajijola, Dr. Ketema Paul, Dr. Marc Liesa, Dr. Yong Xu, and Dr. Avi Adhikari.

September 2020: We received an R01 to study how estrogens modulate temperature regulation in mice. We are recruiting talented humans to lead these studies!

September 2020: We welcome new MS student Shomik Ati, MCIP rotation student Rachel Scott, and NSIDP rotation student Caitlin Goodpaster.

September 2020: Alexia Joseph is selected for the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program and Departmental Honors in MCDB. Congratulations, Alexia!

July 2020: MCIP PhD student Norma Sandoval joins the lab. Welcome Norma!

Spring 2020: The lab received fundable scores on an R21 (4th percentile) and an R01 (2nd percentile). The R21 through NCI proposes studies to define the effects of tamoxifen therapy on thermoregulation in mice and the R01 through NIA proposes to dissect how estrogen signaling regulates thermoregulatory neural circuits.

May 2020: Graduating MS student John DiVittorio was awarded the Distinguished TA Award for his teaching dedication and creativity in the Physiological Science Core courses. Congratulations, John!

May 2020: Graduating senior Nilla was awarded a Dean’s Prize for her research. Big congratulations to Nilla!

May 2020: Stephanie was awarded an Undergraduate Faculty Mentor Award and the lab earned its third Dean’s Prize since 2017!

May 2020: Megan’s review article was accepted in BBA Molecular Basis of Disease. Congratulations Megan! The published version is available here.

May 2020: Ed and Stephanie contributed toward a study of Sry gene expression in rat testes with the Prokop Lab at Michigan State and the Arnold lab at UCLA. See the paper here in Biology of Sex Differences.

May 2020: Former rotation student Norma Sandoval was awarded the Graduate Council Diversity Fellowship for Summer 2020. Congratulations Norma!

April 2020: Laura’s FISH image is featured on the cover of Nature Metabolism. Congratulations to former PhD student, Laura!

April 2020: Our paper is published Nature Metabolism. Congratulations to co-first authors Laura Kammel and Ed van Veen! The paper is here and the UCLA press release is here. We are thankful to our collaborators in the Yang lab (Doug Arneson and Xia Yang), Liesa lab (Michael Shum and Marc Liesa), and Arnold lab (Haley Hrncir and Art Arnold) for their critical contributions to this study.

March 2020: Lab shut down due to COVID-19. It was a series of difficult and sad decisions, as projects were going well and two were nearing completion. Please stay safe.

December 2019: We are grateful for a holiday gift from the V Foundation for Cancer Research: a Designated Grant for our studies on the effects of tamoxifen on the hypothalamus.

November 2019: Congrats to undergrads Betty and Nathan who have been admitted to medical school!

November 2019: Megan and Stephanie presented our results at Obesity Week 2019, the meeting of the Obesity Society in Las Vegas. Megan was selected to present a Basic Science Lightning Talk and successfully presented her dissertation research in just 3 minutes.

October 2019: undergraduate Sahara Ali was selected as a CARE Fellow. Congratulations, Sahara!

October 2019: We are excited to welcome rotation students Norma Sandoval and Alex Bedard from the MCIP program.

September 2019: Zhi wins best talk at the IBP departmental retreat. Congratulations, Zhi!

August 2019: Laura defended her dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Kammel! The lab celebrated her accomplishments with food, cake, drinks, and night swimming.

August 2019: Ed presents our work on the effects of tamoxifen on the hypothalamus and thermoregulation at the 2019 Mechanisms and Models of Cancer meeting. These studies have been generously supported by the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

June 2019: Stephanie presents our work on thermoregulation by estrogen-sensitive neurons at the 2019 meeting of the Society of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology.

June 2019: Nilla is selected as a Scheibel Neuroscience Research Fellow. Congratulations, Nilla!

June 2019: Betty wins 2nd place in our departmental undergraduate research poster competition!

April 2019: Congratulations to Megan for passing her oral qualifying exam! Her performance inspired a tweet.

February 2019: Laura and Stephanie presented our work at the 2019 meeting on Steroids and the Nervous System. Congratulations to Laura for being selected to give a talk and winning a scholarship to attend the meeting!

February 2019: Check out our first preprint. Excellent work by everyone, led by Ed and Laura / Laura and Ed.

January 2019: Our paper on hypothalamic regulation of bone formation with the Ingraham Lab at UCSF is out. See the paper in Nature Communications and the press release here. Congratulations to UCLA co-authors Zhi Zhang and Michelle Reid.

October 2018: Congratulations to Laura for being awarded a Research Grant from the UCLA Brain Research Institute to make the lab’s first genetically engineered mouse!

September 2018: Congrats to Zhi for being awarded a Young Investigator Grant by the Iris Cantor UCLA Women’s Health Center/UCLA National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health & UCLA CTSI.

August 2018: undergraduate Jose Mendez Avila was awarded a Dean’s Award for summer research.

June 2018: Laura was awarded a Dissertation Year Fellowship by the UCLA Graduate Division. Congratulations!

June 2018: Congratulations to Megan for being awarded a CTSI core voucher to fund her behavioral experiments.

June 2018: Patricia graduated summa cum laude and with highest departmental honors. Congratulations! Her story was written up here.

May 2018: Patricia Bunda was awarded a Dean’s Science Prize! Congratulations to Patricia and her mentor Laura Kammel.

May 2018: Estrogen signaling in the arcuate powerfully regulates bone. Here’s the preprint.

April 2018: Check out this video we shot at the V Foundation for Cancer Research V Scholar Summit.

April 2018: Zhi Zhang was awarded an AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship!

April 2018: Megan was awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!

March 2018: Congratulations to Laura for passing her oral qualifying exam with flying colors!

March 2018: Patrick was admitted to the David Geffen School of Medicine!

March 2018: Check out guidelines for making conferences more inclusive and family friendly: How to tackle the childcare-conference conundrum by Rebecca Calisi and 45 mothers in science.

March 2018: Carolina De La Cruz is selected for UCLA’s CAMP undergraduate research program.

February 2018: Laura presents our single cell RNA-seq project at the MCIP retreat.

November 2017: We are honored to be supported by the V Foundation for Cancer Research for our work on the effects of tamoxifen on the hypothalamus.

October 2017: MS student Jae Park joins the lab.

September 2017: Congratulations to Megan for winning best talk at the Neuroscience IDP retreat.

June 2017: Stephanie presents our research in the “New Techniques for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology” Symposium at SBN 2017 in Long Beach.

May 2017: Selena Gonzalez wins Dean’s Research Prize at UCLA Undergraduate Poster Day. Congratulations Selena!

Spring 2017: Grad Students Laura Kammel and Megan Massa join the lab.

March 2017: Postdoc Zhi Zhang joins the lab from the Kalsbeek and Fliers groups at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN).