Dani Lab

John A. Dani, Ph. D.
David J. Mahoney Professor of Neurological Sciences

Chair of the Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania Health System

Director of the Mahoney Institute of Neurosciences (MINS) 

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Marion Scott
 mos@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
 215-573-5035

Kechun Yang, Ph. D.
 kechuny@pennmedicine.edu

Kechun's research mainly focuses on cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying dopaminergic modulation of learning memory and drug addiction employing patch-clamp recording technique in acute brain slices.

Theodoros Tsetsenis, Ph. D.
 theot@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Theo received his PhD in Natural Sciences from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) jointly with University of Heidelberg. During his doctoral studies, he investigated forebrain circuits that regulate fear and anxiety. For his postdoctoral work, he joined the lab of Thomas Sudhof at Stanford where he developed imaging tools for synapse formation and studied the role of synaptic cell adhesion molecules in learning and memory. In the Dani lab, Theo is interested in dissecting the role of monoaminergic signaling in aversive learning and hippocampal plasticity. 

Manivannan Subramaniyan, Ph. D.
 msumi@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Mani obtained his PhD in Neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, and joined Dr. Dani's lab in 2013. His goal is to understand the neural mechanisms of memory. Currently he is working on understanding how dopamine and other neuromodulators contribute to long-lasting memory. Mani uses various in vivo electrophysiological techniques such as local field potential and single unit recording and combined optical-electrophysiological techniques.

Olivia Swanson, Ph. D.
 Olivia.Swanson@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Olivia received her PhD in Neuroscience from SUNY Stony Brook, where she studied motor cortex pathophysiology in a mouse model of Parkinson’s Disease. Her current project investigates inhibitory circuitry in regions involved in drug addiction.

Shannon Wolfman, Ph. D.
 shannon.wolfman@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Shannon received her PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Chicago, where she investigated the neural circuits underlying aversion to nicotine. In the Dani lab, she is working to understand the synaptic changes underlying drug addiction.

Daniel Kalamarides
 dkal@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Dan received a bachelor's degree in Neuroscience from Swarthmore College in 2014. He worked as a research technician at Temple Medical School for two years before joining the Neuroscience Graduate Group at Penn. In the Dani lab, he uses behavioral pharmacology and electrophysiology to research the progression to drug addiction.

Ruthie Wittenberg
 wittenb@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Sumithrra Manivannan
 msumi@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Sumithrra obtained her undergraduate degree in Engineering. She works as a Research specialist in Dr.Dani's lab on projects related to learning and memory. She performs in vivo recordings from the mouse brain and make micro drives for in vivo electrophysiology.