As a person born with severe-to-profound hearing loss, Uri has always been fascinated by the biological mechanisms of health and disease. As a beneficiary of hearing aids, without which his life would be entirely different, Uri has a deep-seated gratitude and enthusiasm for the power of technology to treat disease and make the world a better place for everyone. Uri’s research is thus perhaps unsurprisingly focused on the development and application of new technologies that facilitate a better understanding of how biological systems work in health and disease, and the treatment thereof. Major areas of focus are deep learning-based imaging methods, the cytoskeleton, and organelle dynamics in neurodegeneration, hearing loss, and cancer. In his free time, Uri enjoys spending time with his family, listening to stand-up comedy, long bike rides, running on the beach, playing guitar, and photography.

Elena received her undergraduate degree in Physiology and her Master’s degree in Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Bristol, UK. She completed her Ph.D. in Auditory Neuroscience at the University College London Ear Institute in the Daudet Lab. Her Ph.D. research involved visualizing the dynamics of the Notch signaling pathway and investigating the role of Notch ligand Delta-like 1 during the development of the chick inner ear sensory epithelia. Elena completed a post-doctoral fellowship at John’s Hopkins University in the Doetzlhofer Lab where she investigated the roles of Notch ligand, Jagged1, during supporting cell development in the mouse inner ear. Elena joined the Hertzano Lab at the University of Maryland to expand her knowledge of genomics and bioinformatics and to contribute to the development of two multi-omic data portals, gEAR, for the ear and NEMO-AD for Alzheimer’s disease. Elena joined as a Research Assistant for the Manor Lab at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 2021 to further advance her career in the inner ear field and contribute to potential therapeutic developments for hearing loss. In her free time, Elena enjoys dancing salsa and bachata.

 Linda received her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Research in the Netherlands where she interrogated genomic organization using DNA-FISH. Later, she worked on various research topics specializing in molecular imaging techniques and teaching in the Gadella lab (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands), including the development of the novel cyan fluorescent protein “mTurquoise2” and the investigation of the signaling regulatory role of endocytosis in RhoGEF and MAPK pathways using genetically encoded biosensors. Before moving back to the USA, Linda worked in the Lenstra group (NKI, Amsterdam) focusing on transcription regulation in living cells by using advanced single-molecule techniques. In 2021, she joined the Lyumkis lab and is a collaborator with the Uri Manor’s lab, to elucidate early steps of HIV infection in mammalian cells by using Cryo-CLEM techniques. When you can’t find Linda behind a microscope she likes to go hiking, travel, meet up with friends and photography.

Yuzuru is a postdoctoral fellow in the Manor lab, interested in inner ear development and function. As a board certificated otolaryngologist in Japan, he has been engaged in treating patients with pre-and post-linguistic hearing loss and with disequilibrium. These clinical experiences give him full motivation to work for conquering hearing loss throughout basic research. He obtained PhD at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, where he studied the role of DIAPH1 in the cochlear hair cell and revealed the hearing loss mechanism of DFNA1.

Aaditya is a third year undergrad in the Manor lab studying bioinformatics at UCSD. He is working on developing deep learning-based image analysis techniques with Arlo Sheridan. Aaditya is interested in the synergy between computational neuroscience and deep learning – how deep learning can be used to elucidate the structures and functions of the brain through both modeling and tool development as well how the brain’s underlying computations and decision making abilities can become the basis for new deep learning architectures. Upon graduating from UCSD, he hopes to do a phd in computational neuroscience focusing on computational neuroscience as well as neuromorphic AI and eventually become a professor at a research institution. Outside of the lab, Aaditya loves to spend his time watching anime, gaming, reading books, or with his friends.

David’s passion for hearing research is personal: in his sophomore year at Cornell, he was diagnosed with a vestibular schwannoma. After studying medicine at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, he spent two years in the lab of Artur Indzhykulian, MD, PhD at The Massachusetts Eye and Ear working with viral vectors in vivo and helping to develop a machine learning algorithm for data analysis. This led to industry, where he spearheaded in vivo studies for a candidate GJB2 gene therapy. In the Manor Lab, David hopes to continue research on novel gene therapies for hearing loss and to expand his surgical and imaging skills. In his free time, David can usually be found collecting and listening to records, riding his 80’s randonneuring bicycle around Mission Bay, rock climbing, or skiing in the San Juan Mountains.

Arlo is an image analysis specialist focused on the development of deep learning approaches for microscopy data. After receiving a bachelors in neuroscience he went to the Janelia research campus to trace neurons in large electron microscopy datasets. Upon realizing that this process could be automated, he decided to shift to deep learning and joined the Funke lab. Together, they developed a new approach to automated 3d neuron segmentation in multi-terabyte connectomics datasets. He joined Salk in 2020 to work on more generalized microscopy tasks and is very pleased that most datasets now fit in RAM.

Cara Schiavon is a Postdoctoral Fellow residing in both the Manor and Shadel labs. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Cell Science from the University of Florida and later completed her PhD studies at Emory University where she studied the role of small GTPases and their effectors in the regulation of mitochondrial dynamics. Cara’s expertise is in various cell culture techniques and a wide variety of fluorescence imaging modalities with a current focus on live-cell imaging. Presently, she is studying how the actin cytoskeleton regulates organellar dynamics with a focus on disruptions of organelle dynamics in the context of neurodegenerative diseases such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

Yuning Wang is a Research Assistant in the Manor Lab. She graduated from UCSD with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and a master’s degree in biology. During her contiguous BS/MS program, she was introduced to confocal microscopy and membrane structure segmentation in electron microscopy images. Now in the Manor Lab, she is interested in visualizing and analyzing organelle dynamics in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease models with Cara and also in neuronal models with promoted neural plasticity. Inspired by her previous and current research work, she is very keen to learn about deep learning and how it can be applied to enhance data analysis (including the experience) associated with various imaging techniques. When not working, she enjoys taking her dog out for a spin, reading & watching sci-fi / fantasy related books & shows and learning new pieces on her guitar.

After completing his B.S. in Biomedical Toxicology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, Sammy Weiser Novak moved to the University of Victoria to perform his M.S. in the laboratory of Dr. Patrick Nahirney, the author of Netter’s Histology. There Sammy used electron microscopy and computational image analysis to study the ultrastructure and morphology of hippocampal synapses in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome. Afterwards, Sammy worked in Dr. Joel Kubby’s lab at UC-Santa Cruz developing a 2-photon microscope with adaptive optics, gaining valuable hands-on experience with custom hardware and advanced light microscope systems. He then joined the laboratory of Dr. Marie-Eve Trembley to establish 3D electron microscopy using a new FIB-SEM system recently acquired for her lab. Sammy’s current research interests include synapse structure and function, 3D electron microscopy techniques including correlative and cryo-electron microscopy, and machine-learning assisted image processing, analysis, and segmentation.

Leonardo Andrade received his PhD in Morphological Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in the lab of Drs. Marcos Farina and Gilberto Amado-Filho. While a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Leo took a 4-year sabbatical as a visiting professor in the Kachar Lab at the NIH, learning cutting edge electron microscopy from one of the leaders in the field. Leo has extended experience with multiple advanced electron microscope techniques including cryofixation (slam freezing, plunge freezing, high pressure freezing), freeze substitution, cryo-ultramicrotomy, freeze-fracture, deep-etching, immunoTEM, immunoSEM, EM-tomography, EDS, EELS, and ESI. His main biological interests are age-related hearing loss, biomineralization, magnetoreception, and the actin cytoskeleton.

Rebecca is the Core Manager and Light Microscopy Specialist for the Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Core at the Salk Institute. Rebecca received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in Saint Louis where she designed and tested new fluorescence probes and photosensitizers used in the treatment of cancer via Photodynamic Therapy. After graduating, Rebecca moved to Sydney where she completed her postdoctoral training with Katharina Gaus in the Single Molecule Sciences consortium within UNSW. There Rebecca studied the clustering of transmembrane proteins using single molecule tools such as: TIRF, dSTORM, and FCS. After moving to San Diego, Rebecca worked as a Field Application Scientist for ONI, a microscope company that develops and builds bench-top single-molecule microscopes. Now, at Salk, Rebecca, educates researchers on cutting-edge microscopy techniques and aids with research design, execution, and analysis.