About Me
I am a PhD student at the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at University of St Andrews, where I am part of the Allodi Lab. In my research I am studying how emotion processing changes in health and disease. Specifically I investigate changes in emotional processing in a mouse model of Frontotemporal Dementia using machine-learning based behavioural analysis, calcium imaging, and histology. I’m an advocate for open-source software, and am part of the 2024 cohort of the DeepLabCut AI Residency program.
Education
Ph.D. Student in Neuroscience
2023 - Present · University of St. Andrews
Thesis: Facing Dementia: Investigating Disease Onset in a Mouse Model of Frontotemporal Dementia via Artificial Intelligence
- I am pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience, where I will be studying Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) in a transgenic mouse model of the disease. The project investigates emotion expression changes as a symptom of the disease and seeks to classify emotions in mice based on facial expressions when navigating a VR environment, and during social interaction, and compare this ability in sick and healthy mice, and furthermore look at the neural correlates of disease and causal mechanisms using calcium imaging and optogenetics.
M.Sc. in Neuroscience
2021 - 2023 · University of Copenhagen
Thesis: Rescuing the Locomotor Phenotype by Systemic Administration of Extended Synaptotagmin 1 in a Mouse Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
- MSc in neuroscience teaching molecular and cellular neurobiology, systems neuroscience, higher brain functions, and methodology within neuroscience including genetics, bioinformatics, neuroimaging, animal models and epidemiology. I have taken electives in computational neuroscience and genetic and viral technologies in animal models. I completed my master’s thesis in Allodi lab, working with systemic administration of gene therapy using an AAV-PHP.eB viral vector in a mouse model of ALS, with the goal of rescuing the motor phenotype and improving survival by stabilizing connections from inhibitory interneurons to motor neurons via hEsyt1 overexpression.
B.Sc. in Cognitive Science
2018 - 2021 · University of Aarhus
Thesis: What Does Your Heart Tell You? Investigating the Role of Interoception in Risk Preference and Bias
- BSc focusing on cognition and neuroscience, as well as statistics, data science and programming for conducting our own experiments and simulation studies. In my thesis I investigated the interaction between interoception and decision-making. I have worked with eye-tracking, EEG, and fMRI, analysis and visualization of data, as well as manuscript writing. I took elective courses in memory, stress, biology of behavior, consumer behavior, and psychiatric disorders for one semester at Western University, Canada.
Experience
Postgraduate Demonstrator
2023 - Present · University of St Andrews, School of Psychology and Neuroscience
- I am demonstrating and/or marking on the following courses:
- PN2202 Neuroscience, marking exams
- PN3313 Neuroscience, demonstrating and marking lab exercises on axonal conductance in earthworms
- PN4108 Neuroscience, organization of and demonstration on computational lab sessions on behavioral analysis of animal models in neuroscience using DeepLabCut
DeepLabCut AI Resident
2024 · Mathis Labs, EPFL Geneva
- I was part of the 2024 DeepLabCut AI Residency group in the Mathis Labs (founders of DeepLabCut). The residency furthered my knowledge of and experience in developing in deep learning methods aimed at animal behavior tracking and developing foundation models for behavior tracking, as well as open source software development, including documentation development and GitHub workflows, both for DLC and scikit-learn. The program offered talks and workshops with a host of inspiring speakers from Jupyter, scikit-learn, HuggingFace and previous DLC AI residents.
Bonsai Course Organiser
2024 · University of St Andrews, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Allodi Lab
- Organised and TA’ed a course on the software Bonsai.
Laboratory Assistant and MSc Thesis Student
2022 - 2023 · University Of Copenhagen, Department Of Neuroscience, Allodi Lab
- Worked on a project investigating gene therapy in SOD1 ALS mouse models, with tasks including developing machine-learning based models of gait analysis, behavioral assessment, maintenance of transgenic mouse colonies, viral delivery (intravenous and intraspinal injections), tissue collection (perfusion and fresh-frozen collection), confocal microscopy, cryostat sectioning, biochemical assays including immunohistochemistry, genotyping, qPCR, as well as quantification of spinal cord motor neurons and their synaptic connections.
Core Team Member
2022 - 2023 · Synapse Life Science Connect
- As a core team member of Synapse, I participated in the planning and execution of our activities such as workshops and events, including the Synapse Life Science Career Fair hosting around 500 students, and Clinical Winter School. Our aim is to spread insight into broadly spanning scientific areas, bridge the gap between life science academia and industry, and inspire, develop and connect students within the life science field.
Mentor
2020 - 2021 · Aarhus University, Special Educational Support Centre
- Worked as a mentor in the BSc Cognitive Science program, helping students with course material, with emphasis on assisting them in learning coding and statistics.
Research Assistant
2020 - 2021 · Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine And Department Of Nuclear Medicine And PET-Centre
- Assisting a PhD project investigating biomarkers of and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, with my primary task being app-based cognitive testing of preclinical AD patients with ApoE4.
Research Assistant
2020 - 2021 · Aarhus University, Center For Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Embodied Computation Group
- Research Assistant at a large-scale neuroimaging study investigating interoception, metacognition, learning, decision-making, and psychometrics. My tasks involved piloting, experiment development, data collection of ECG, HRV, fMRI, and behavioral data, data analysis, and manuscript writing. I also assisted the lab with data analysis, visualization and reporting of a survey study of COVID-19 and mental health.
Research Assistant
2019 - 2021 · Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine, Danish Pain Research Center
- Assisting with data collection and experiment optimization on a study investigating spinal integration of thermal pain, a study on lidocaine and pain perception, and a study on olfaction and pain perception.
Research Assistant
2019 - 2021 · Aarhus University, Interactive Minds Center, Crafa Lab
- Assisting on a study on neuroscience of social interaction and culture, helping with coding and translating the experiment, participant recruitment and data collection. Moreover, assisting with data analysis of an eye-tracking experiment investigating gaze patterns in ASD children across cultures.
Publications and Presentations
Journal Articles
2024. Stabilization of V1 interneuron-motor neuron connectivity ameliorates motor phenotype in a mouse model of ALS. Mora, S., Stuckert, A., von Huth Friis, R., Pietersz, K., Noes-Holt, G., Montañana-Rosell, R., ... & Allodi, I. Nature Communications, 15(1), 4867.
2022. The heart rate discrimination task: A psychophysical method to estimate the accuracy and precision of interoceptive beliefs. Legrand, N., Nikolova, N., Correa, C., Brændholt, M., Stuckert, A., Kildahl, N., ... & Allen, M. Biological Psychology, 168, 108239.
2024. Disentangling the spinal mechanisms of illusory heat and burning sensations in the thermal grill illusion. Mitchell, A. G., Ehmsen, J. F., Christensen, D. E., Stuckert, A. V., Haggard, P., & Fardo, F. Pain, 165(10), 2370-2378.
Presentations
2024. Facing Dementia: Investigating Disease Onset in a Mouse Model of Frontotemporal Dementia via Artificial Intelligence. Stuckert, A., Selvan, R., Allodi, I. Research Postgraduate Poster Session, University of St Andrews.
2024. Facing Dementia: Investigating Disease Onset in a Mouse Model of Frontotemporal Dementia via Artificial Intelligence. Stuckert, A., Selvan, R., Allodi, I. Psycholoquia, University of St Andrews.
2023. Rescue of ALS phenotype by Esyt1 systemic overexpression in the SOD1G93A mouse. Stuckert, A., Mora, S, Pietersz, K., Selvan, R, Verhaagen, J., Allodi, I. . Abstract No. 6417, Society for Neuroscience conference.
2023. Rescue of ALS phenotype by Esyt1 systemic overexpression in the SOD1G93A mouse. Stuckert, A., Mora, S, Pietersz, K., Selvan, R, Verhaagen, J., Allodi, I. . Abstract No. 60, pre-SfN Motor Symposium.
2023. Rescue of ALS phenotype by Esyt1 systemic overexpression in the SOD1G93A mouse. Stuckert, A., Mora, S, Pietersz, K., Selvan, R, Verhaagen, J., Allodi, I. . Abstract No. 21, St. Andrews Motor Meeting.
Skills
- Python/DeepLabCut (gait analysis and software development)
- R/Rstudio (data analysis, visualization, machine learning
- Behavioral Experiments
- Transgenic Mouse Colony Management
- Immunohistochemistry
- ImageJ (motor neuron quantification)
- Godot/Blender (VR video game and stimuli creation)
- Bonsai (stimulus and VR workflow setup)
- Frequentist and Bayesian statistics
- Meta-analysis
- Python/PsychoPy (coding experiments)
- MATLAB/SPM12/CONN (fMRI and EEG analysis)
- Eye- and mouse tracking