Marina Carlson, BS, MPhil

Marina earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at California State University Fresno in 2019. During her undergraduate degree, she worked in Dr. Joy Goto’s lab studying neurodegenerative disease in human neuroglioma cell culture and Drosophila. She also participated in the Harvard Amgen Scholars Program, conducting research in Dr. Amar Sahay’s lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. There she studied the differences in hippocampal neurogenesis in young and aged mice. She joined Yale as part of the MCGD track in 2019, and since joining the Hoffman lab is now affiliated with the INP PhD program. She is most interested in performing comprehensive functional analyses of high confidence autism risk genes to identify their role in early neurodevelopment, using zebrafish. Beyond science, Marina serves as a graduate coordinator for the Yale STARS program to support undergraduates through their independent research projects. She has also served as Secretary for the Yale SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in STEM) chapter, which organizes and executes outreach, social, and professional development events.