Pratyush Kandimalla

Pratyush is interested in exploring circuitry that underlies sensorimotor integration, and how variations in circuit elements across taxa yield differences in neural computations. He received his BS in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology with a minor in Biomedical Research from the University of California, Los Angeles. During his time at UCLA, Pratyush worked in the lab of Volker Hartenstein, studying the connectivity and functional organization of neurons in the fly brain involved in, among other higher order processes, goal-directed navigation. He also worked at Janelia Research Campus, in the lab of Michael Reiser, to study the role of these neurons in spatial learning. Unlike most of his flies, Pratyush’s navigational and spatial orientation abilities are quite poor and he gets lost all the time.