Commons Laboratory

Lab Members

Actual Photos of Lab Members are Pending Approval

Dr. Kathryn Commons (Katie) was the first member of the Commons' lab. She has steadily risen through the ranks and is currently Principal Investigator. She has a wide variety of responsibilities however, including WebMaster. This means she gets to choose the temporary pictures of lab members, which explains the wonderful picture of Mia Farrow.

Dr. Commons is originally from Port Washington, NY. She's lived and worked in Manhatten then Philadelphia and now Boston. She likes the Red Sox.

Dusica Bajic, Ph.D. M.D. "Laser focus" characterizes our Clincian-Scientist. Dusica did a superb doctoral thesis in the lab of Herb Proudfit, now at the University of Iowa. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago before completing her clinical training, which has culminated here at Children's Hospital. Her interest includes the effects of analgesic and anesthetic agents on the developing central nervous system.

I suspect Dusica is not particulalry excited about the Red Sox.

Dr. Sun Jung Bang, Ph.D. (Sunny) is our new post doctorate research fellow who earned a Ph.D in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Brown at Yale University in May, 2009. Her doctoral thesis focused on the function of rat Perirhinal cortex in acquired emotion of cortically-mediated fear. Her expertise is in behavioral neuroscience with a strong background in psychological and biological sciences. Upon graduation, she joined our lab with a great interest in neurobiological mechanisms of drug addictions. Her current research focuses on the developmental effects of nicotine on the central serotonergic (5-HT) system. In collaboration with Dr. Susan Dymecki s lab (in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School), she also works on the anatomical connections of genetically-defined 5-HT neurons in raphe nuclei.

Sunny is originally from South Korea. She is a really hard-worker, but outside of work, she enjoys being lazy like this sleeping cat (see the image). Her piano skills are as good as her research skills as she played a piano for about 11 years! She is a huge fan of MC Mong, a South Korean hip hop artist. And she likes Boston!

Caitlin Massey
Caitlin is an undergraduate student majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience at Northeastern University in Boston. She plans on attending Medical School to pursue her curiousity of the human body. This is her first professional lab experience and she plans on continuing her role in research. Her interests include learning more about the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems, and their role in movement, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders.On her time off, Caitlin enjoys traveling, reading, and exploring new things.

Mariano Soiza-Reilly, PhD Mariano obtained his PhD from the Univ. of Buenos Aires in Argentine. There, he studied a developmental critical period of activity-dependent plasticity in rat striatum using biochemical, molecular biology and behavioral pharmacology tools. He joined the Lab in June, 2009 and his research is focused on the development of connectivity patterns of 5-HT neurons located in the dorsal raphe nucleus and its role in affective disorders such as anxiety and depression.

He enjoys playing the guitar, swimming and soccer. He also likes Boca Juniors and the Celtics.

Santiago Ramon y Cajal Santiago is the oldest member of the lab, and his aspiration to be an artist is seen in his work. Although it is hard for him personally to do much lab work nowadays, he has been on the bench for many years, and he is referred to as THE LITTLE OLD DUDE by those who are in the lab for a short period of time, or, THE MAN by people who stay longer.