CELLAS ARI'KA HAYES, PHD

My Journey

I am a neuroscientist training advancing my training in the Mormino Lab at Stanford University. My PhD is in Pharmaceutical Sciences with an emphasis in Pharmacology at the University of Mississippi. As a graduate trainee, I was 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 served in several multi-cultural capacities at the University of Mississippi 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 alter learning and memory in adulthood using transgenic mouse models. As a graduate student, I studied how neuroendocrine modulators such as IGF-1 in both glial cells and neurons combat neurological and physical deficits caused by ischemic stroke. For my postdoctoral training, I chose to deviate into clinical neuroscience. Specifically, I am now utilizing neuroimaging modalities like tauPET to understand the aging brain and preclinical Alzheimer's Disease. In addition, I work with large datasets better understand which neuropathologies are associated with cognitive decline.