ABOUT

Stephanie Mok

Stephanie Mok graduated from Harvard University with an artium baccalaureus (A.B.) in Neurobiology and secondary concentration in Health Policy. Throughout her undergraduate career, she researched in a developmental Neurobiology laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Greenberg at Harvard Medical School where she characterized the function of two transcription factors, Bhlhb5 and Prdm8, in the development and maturation of the mouse central nervous system. In her senior honors thesis work, she analyzed the mechanistic relationship between Bhlhb5 and Prdm8 in the regulation of target genes crucial in the formation of neurons in the neurosensory and motor pathways in mice.

For her PhD study, Stephanie will conduct a collaborative project under the dual mentorship of Dr. Scott Young at the National Institute of Mental Health and Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen at the University of Cambridge Autism Research Centre. Stephanie's graduate work will involve a translational magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in mice and humans where she will examine the role of oxytocin on activity in the amygdala of the brain during the processing of emotion-associated social stimuli. Through her research, Stephanie hopes to better understand the neuronal processes underlying deficits in social behaviors that are exhibited commonly in patients of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In addition to her research interests, Stephanie is a violinist in the NIH Philharmonia, pianist, and aspiring bass guitarist.