Current Students
NRU Lab Members
Without our many bright, hardworking students, the NRU wouldn't be much. Our facility remains a learning environment, while still producing quality research results. Below is a list of our current students. You can read a little bit about them to see where their interests lie.
Thesis Students
Aimee Laronde
Aimee is finishing the 4th year of a psychology degree at Nipissing University. Last summer Aimee worked as a research assistant in the NRU and she currently volunteers a lot of time in the lab. Her major project for the summer consisted of becoming the resident expert with cytochrome oxidase staining and developing an appropriate protocol for cytox standards which we will use for all future projects involving cytox staining. Aimee's 4th year thesis project follows on this same theme as part of a collaboration with former NRU student Preston Williams who is now at the University of Lethbridge finishing up his PhD. Their project involves using cytochrome oxidase staining as a way to visualize a motor map of the developing rat brain.
Stacey Kimball
Stacey has volunteered in the NRU for a couple of years now and is currently finishing up the final year of her psychology degree here at Nipissing University. She has taken several Neuroscience courses including Behavioural Neuroscience 2605 and Advanced Neuroanatomy 4701. Stacey's 4th year thesis project involved trying to induce taste aversion in anesthetized rats to show another type of learning that can occur while under anesthsia.
Sheila MacIntosh
Sheila is in the fourth and final year of her Psychology BA degree. Her interest in neuroscience at Nipissing peaked in her first year Psychology class, when the professor gave a talk about Dr. Saari and his work in the Neuroscience Research Unit. She has taken Psychology 2605 - Behavioural Neuroscience and has been involved in many experiments, including several of her own over the past two years. Her research has involved creating an activity recording device in order to objectivly examine the paradoxical response of 10 day old rat pups to isoflurane anaesthesia. Sheila's thesis project involved using the activity recording device to look at the reaction of rat pups, which had been pharmacologically manipulated, in response to isoflurane anesthesia. She has presented her research in Victoria, BC at BBCS in June, 2007 and at Nipissing in July, 2007 at our 30 Year NRU conference.
Research Assistants
Nicklaus Csuzdi
Nick has been involved with the NRU since his start at Nipissing University. He is currenty finishing his third year of the psychology program and has already worked as a research assistant for two summers. He recently finished the Behavioural Neuroscience 2605 course during which he played a dual student/assistant role. He presently works in the NRU as a student research assistant. He has participated in many experiments in the lab and recently ran his own experiment using Wistar rats to look at social interaction which is one of his main interests. He will be participating in many more experiments in the next couple of years. He is also very flexible from all that yoga.
Jedidja van Rooij
Jedidja is one of the newest members of the NRU. She currently works as a student research assistant in the lab and is taking the Behavioural Neuroscience 2605 course. She has learned a lot about research in the past months and will continue to participate in experiments in the future working towards running her own studies.
Volunteers and Experimenters
The Neuroscience Research Unit is always recruiting volunteers that want to get involved in the research. Without their help, the studies would not be completed since one study requires numerous people to make it work.
Brittany Stillar 
Britt is in the 4th year of her Biology BSc degree at Nipissing University and is also working towards obtaining the Neuroscience certificate. She has taken Behavioural Neuroscience 2605 and most recently Advanced Neuroanatomy 4701 with Matti. She has volunteered in the lab for the past 2 years and will be starting her thesis next year. Her thesis will be a collaboration between the Biology Department and the NRU supervised by Matti and Dr. Tony Parkes.
Christopher Langan 
Chris is slowly being converted to a scientist from a philosopher while providing the lab with a different perspective. He first became involved in the NRU last year during the Behavioural Neuroscience 2605 course and is now in his 3rd year at Nipissing University. He is presently running his very first study after a year of volunteering and learning the ropes. His project is similar to those of Sheila, but he is using 6-OHDA to try to manipulate the day 10 peak while the rat pups go under isoflurane anesthesia. Next year he will be running his 4th year thesis project in the NRU.
Jennifer Bloomfield
Jenn works in the lab of Dr. Andrew Weeks here at Nipissing University and is in her final year. She spends a great deal of time in the NRU running her own experiments with Andrew and also volunteering for other experiments. She has taken the Behavioural Neuroscience 2605 course and also Advanced Neuroanatomy 4701 with Matti. Jenn finished her thesis project last year and will be graduating in May. After graduation Jenn plans to continue research in graduate school.
Samantha Van De Wal
Sam first came to visit the NRU last summer before her first year at Nipissing University. She is currently finishing up her first year in Psychology and also as a volunteer in the NRU. Sam will become the resident cytox expert once Aimee has graduated and is currently learning everything she needs to help with future experiments and to eventually run her own.
Yvonne Henderson
Yvonne is the newest member of the NRU and has quickly become involved in as many projects as she can get her hands on. Next year she will be taking Behavioural Neuroscience 2605 and will become more involved in studies.
