My C.V. can be found here!

Contact: ccazares@salk.edu

Hello! I’m a postdoctorate fellow in Dr. Kay Tye’s lab at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Let me tell you a bit about what I am working on!

Throughout the animal kingdom, social species establish social hierarchies and use social rank to guide the appropriate expression of dominance behaviors that are critical for survival. My mouse research will characterize how orbitofrontal cortex neurons process social ranking information and evaluate how their interactions with serotonergic systems influence the expression of social dominance behaviors. I believe that developing a better understanding of the neuronal mechanisms governing the appropriate expression of social behaviors will provide great value to clinicians and translational researchers wanting to treat impairments in control of social behaviors that are found in psychiatric disease. My work uses an interdisciplinary approach that combining genetically encoded calcium indicators, optogenetics, and computational analysis.