Dr. Brandon Henderson (Principal Investigator) - Dr. Henderson is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Marshall University's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. Brandon received a BS (with distinction) in Chemistry at The Ohio State University. There he started research, initially as an Analytical Chemist in the lab of Dr. John Olesik. He then received his PhD in Pharmacology at The Ohio State University in the lab of Dr. Dennis McKay. He then continued his development as a NIDA-NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in the lab of Dr. Henry Lester. Before starting his faculty position at Marshall University, Dr. Henderson also trained as a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Yale University under Dr Nii Addy and Dr. Marina Picciotto. In addition to his responsibilities at Marshall University, Dr. Henderson is now one of two co-Chairs for the Basic Science Network in the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (www.SRNT.org).
Aiden and Noah - The Henderson Twins - Aiden and Noah are the unofficial mascots of the lab since they arrived in March of 2018. Their main responsibilities are dancing around the lab, slapping high fives, distracting graduate students.....all the things necessary to boost morale.
Nate Olszewski - Nate rotated in the Henderson lab in 2021 and in his first attempt to patch a neuron in a brain slice he got a gigaseal (with a little help). Fortunately, after his rotations were done, he wanted more electrophysiology in his life and is now working in the Henderson lab to examine nicotine-induced changes in brain circuits with patch-clamp electrophysiology. He is also almost as big of a Star Wars nerd as Dr. Henderson….almost.
Samuel Tetteh-Quarshie - Samuel is a semi-retired semi-pro soccer player. Samuel has become the point person in the lab for diet-induced changes in physiology and is currently interested in investigating how diet changes nicotine intake in our animal models.
Sabrina Swenson - Sabrina is a MD/PhD student at the Joan C Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University. Sabrina comes from a background of using rat self-administration models and has been applying that experience to our mouse vapor self-administration assays. Sabrina has also become of the the three main brain slice patch-clamp electrophysiologists in the lab along with Brandon and Nate. Sabrina is also becoming the lab’s brain slice FSCV guru.
Sarah Maddox - Sarah is a member of the Early Assurance Program in the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. As such, she is currently an undergraduate with an accelerated pathway to medical school. Sarah has been involved with mouse behavioral assays, confocal imaging, and most recently an FSCV project focused on examining how chemical flavorants alter dopamine release.
Mason Kyle Sword - Kyle is the current Henderson laboratory technician. Kyle comes from an educational background as a former High School science teacher, but luckily for us he wanted to do bench-top research and not just teach it. Kyle has become an expert in mouse vapor self-administration and is currently in the training pipeline for conducting fiber photometry experiments. Sometimes, we are lucky enough to have Kyle’s two kids, Sebastian and Amelia, show up to the lab so they can play two-on-two basketball with the Henderson twins.
We have been lucky to host a lot of summer fellows from our medical school and as far away as the University of Pennsylvania. We have an almost 100% success rate for getting people to patch neurons in a brain slice (Sorry Z, looks like you have an excuse to come back and visit us).
FORMER LAB MEMBERS
Dr. Skylar Cooper - Skylar joined the Henderson lab as a graduate research assistant in the summer of 2018 and earned her PhD in 2022. Skylar is focusing on e-cigarette flavors and their role in enhancing addiction to nicotine. This involved self-administration, microscopy, and ultimately electrophysiology. She wass also the acting President of the Graduate Student Organization at Marshall University. She is actually a Med student now but still graces us with her presence (almost every day).
Lauren Young - Lauren is the Henderson lab’s technician. She eventually will join a PhD program; but is currently enjoying her time being back in Huntington where she grew up. She currently was our mouse whisperer, handled a lot of vapor self-administration, lots of confocal microscopy, and was current fiber photometry padawan. Sadly for the Henderson lab, she was so successful that she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and moved to South Korea to pursue independent research and the chance to hang out with J-Hope from BTS.
Montana Richardson - Montana was the Henderson lab technician from 2020-2022. He got his BS in Psychology from Marshall and gained an interest in studying drug dependence and psychiatric illnesses through his coursework.
Sheavonnie Wright - Sheavonnie was a Masters student in Marshall University’s Biomedical Research program. She is a native of the Bronx and a graduate of Lehman College. In the Henderson lab, Sheavonnie spent most of her time examining how vaping flavorants alter receptor trafficking.
Clay Willis - Clay started working in the Henderson lab during the 2020 era of COVID shutdowns. As such, he started by doing a lot of analysis of confocal imaging and quickly became one of the gurus of the lab. Clay is now attending Medical School at Marshall University and Dr. Henderson and his mom are both happy that he’ll be around for four more years.
Dr. Arrin Carter Brooks - Arrin was a MD-PhD student and graduated from the Henderson lab in 2022. On the clinical side, Arrin is receiving training with the ultimate goal of becoming a neurosurgeon. On the research side, Arrin’s background is the study of neural recovery following brain injuries. In her ‘off time’ you can find her running at Ritter Park.
Dr. Alicia Avelar - Alicia joined the Henderson lab to examine the co-use of nicotine and opioids using fluorescence microscopy and behavior (conditioned place preference). She now has a joint postdoctoral position at UCSD/Scripps in La Jolla, CA.
Austin Akers - Austin is currently a graduate student in Arizona living his West-Coast dreams. During his undergraduate tenure at Marshall University, Austin was an undergraduate researcher in the lab of Dr. Piyali Dasgupta. Austin joined the Henderson lab as a Research Technician and was in charge of managing the mouse colonies. He also learned the ins-and-outs of fluorescence microscopy and became well-versed in the methods.
Zachary Baumgard - Zach is currently a medical student at Pikeville School of Osteopathic Medicine. Like Austin, Zach was a 2017 graduate of Marshall University. Zach was recruited into the Henderson lab to become a guru of fluorescence microscopy. Outside of labwork, Zach is a nationally ranked player of Super Smash Bros. This gives him an edge in calculating pixel intensities of our fluorescent experiments.
Gabriella Casinelli - Gabriella is a current Resident MD at West Virginia University. While at the Henderson lab she was a class of 2020 medical student and conducted much of the animal behavior that occurred in the early years of the lab. She is an alum of Marshall University's INBRE summer research program and before starting medical school, Gabriella worked at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh doing animal research for ~5 years.
Awero 'Faye' Osseni - Faye was an undergraduate at Marshall University and worked in the Henderson lab for the summer of 2017 as a SRIMs Research Fellow. Faye spent the summer learning about mouse brain anatomy, fluorescence laser microscopy, and how both help us understand the neuroadaptations that come with nicotine exposure. Faye is still involved in every club that exists at Marshall University and runs the annual African Fashion show.
recruitment
We are currently not actively recruiting; but are always interested in helping others find research opportunities. If you are trying to find a research position in the nicotine field, please contact Dr. Henderson directly.
Contact Dr. Brandon Henderson - hendersonbr_at_marshall.edu
