Neuro-parasitogy of the Jewel Wasp and its Zombie Cockroach Host
Featuring Gal Haspel (any relation to Gina?)
https://biology.njit.edu/faculty/haspel
Haspel, Gal
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences
420B CKB
About me
I am a neuroethologist with a passion to understand the neuronal mechanisms underlying natural animal behavior at the cellular and network levels. I am particularly interested in the neurobiology of locomotion and the networks of neurons and muscles that drive it. All animals use a nervous system to move in their environment and we are figuring out how.
I bring to the classroom the passion that drives my research and my enthusiasm for neuroethology and imaging methods. I use evidence-based practices to improve students’ outcomes and my courses are strengthened by recently published research, based on students’ curiosity. My students present their exploration of selected subjects in reports, short talks, and posters to improve their STEM skills and engage them with course material. I was recently honored to be awarded for Excellence in Teaching by the students of Albert Dorman Honors College.
Education
Ph.D. 2003
Neuroscience; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Title: Biochemistry and Physiological Action of Ampulex Compressa Venom on Cockroach Prey. Advisor: Dr Frederic Libersat.
B.Sc. 1996
Life Sciences (with high honors); Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Major: Cell and Animal Physiology. Class Rank: First.
My BSc degree (1996) at the Ben-Gurion University (Israel) was followed by a PhD in Neuroscience and Life Sciences (2003) at the same university under the mentorship of Frederic Libersat, on the behavior-changing sting of the parasitoid wasp Ampulex Compressa and its effect on motor output of its cockroach prey. During my graduate school I took the Neurobiology course at the Marine Biological Laboratory (2001), where during a 12 hour period I heard a lecture on the emerging technology of genetically encoded calcium indicators from the late Roger Tsien, followed by an introductory lecture about the neurobiology of C. elegans from Anne Hart. Combining the two was obvious. I began studying the neurobiology of C. elegans during a summer of independent research as a Grass Fellow (2003) in the same institution. Before the word optogenetics was coined, I expressed three opsin-related proteins in nematode neurons and muscle and tested the induced effect of light on behavior. I joined the laboratory of Anne Hart at Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA) where I was the locomotion-guy in a worm lab and then joined the laboratory of Michael O’Donovan as the National Institutes of Health (USA) where I was the worm-guy in a locomotion lab. I was fortunate to have learned immeasurably from my three official mentors and to have spent time learning, researching, and teaching at the MBL.
