CELLAS ARI'KA HAYES, BA

PhD Candidate, Ashpole Lab
Department of Biomedical Sciences             School of Pharmacy
University of Mississippi

FIRST GEN. TO FIRST DOCTOR

My Journey

I am a neuroscientist completing my PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences with an emphasis in Pharmacology at the University of Mississippi. I am currently a Southern Regional Education Board Scholar at the University of Mississippi and a Smith Scholar at the Graduate Training Educational Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. I also serve in several multi-cultural capacities on our campus such as being a graduate student ambassador and the graduate student representative on the School of Pharmacy’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Before pursuing my graduate education, I studied how reductions in neuronal Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 in the hippocampus alters learning and memory in adulthood using transgenic mouse models. As a graduate student, I currently study how neuroendocrine modulators such as IGF-1 in both glial cells and neurons combat neurological and physical deficits caused by ischemic stroke.