Neurosciences (MSc/PhD/MD-PhD)

Robert Mihai Haret

EDUCATION

College / University

Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy

Highest Degree

Doctor of Medicine (MD)

Major Subjects

Human anatomy, physiology & genetics; biochemistry; microbiology; cell biology; biophysics; histology; pharmacology; internal medicine; surgery.
Haret

Country

Romania

Lab Experience

Stereotaxic injection of kainic acid in the mouse hippocampus; Electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings; Microtome & vibratome sectioning of mouse brain; Primary cell culture technique; Confocal microscopy; Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence techniques; Fly husbandry, genetics & dissection of Drosophila CNS; Using Fiji (ImageJ), Python (NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib and PyTorch), Adobe Illustrator, GraphPad Prism and SPSS.

Projects / Research

  • 2020 – 2021: Dissertation: Optimizing a temporal lobe epilepsy mouse model induced by intrahipocampic injection of kainic acid
  • 2016 – 2020: Investigating neuroprotective strategies for primary rat hippocampal cell cultures subjected to oxygen - glucose deprivation
  • 2019: Investigating the role of decorin, an autophagy – activating extracellular matrix protein, in Alzheimer’s Disease using novel in vivo mouse models
  • 2018: Investigating the neuron – glia communication via Reactive Oxygen Species in an in vivo Drosophila model

Scholarships / Awards

2021 – 2022: Stipend by the International Max Planck Research School
2018: Gurdon/The Company of Biologists Summer Studentship

SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS AND GOALS

My laboratory experience so far has focused on ischemia, epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases. I have worked with neuronal cell cultures, Drosophila as well as Alzheimer’s and epilepsy in vivo mouse models. Given my work so far, as well as my medical background, I am particularly interested in pathologies of the CNS. I did have a brief chance to work in computational neuroscience as well. I was amazed to discover how powerful certain techniques, deep learning for instance, can be for both generating and analyzing data. I believe that combining conventional experimental techniques and computational ones has a tremendous potential for answering fundamental questions and finding translational applications that can address the major pathologies of the CNS.