Meet Fernanda

When I moved from Brazil to the United States in 2019, I never imagined that this journey would lead me to a research lab at Harvard and pave the way for a career in neuroscience.

During college, I discovered a deep passion for neuroscience, sparked by a question that still drives me: how do organisms interact with their environment, and what brain mechanisms underlie these interactions? My early research explored connections between circadian rhythms, hormones, and metabolism, which inspired my lasting interest in the biology of sex differences—an important area that remains underexplored.

Through the PiNBAC program at Harvard, I was able to pursue these questions in greater depth. In the Wilson Lab, I studied how the brain processes and integrates visual information. Using male Drosophila melanogaster, I combined a virtual reality setup with optogenetics to activate male-specific neurons that trigger courtship-like behavior. This makes the fly engage with a visual object, allowing me to investigate how they interpret cues like object size and motion. My work helped reveal basic brain computations that shape behavior across species.

PiNBAC provided the mentorship, training, and community I needed to grow as a scientist and solidify my goals. The program helped me gain skills and confidence I might not have had if I went straight from undergrad to graduate school. I am now thrilled to begin my PhD at Yale, ready to build on my experiences and contribute to a more inclusive and innovative scientific community.