Nadezhda Velichkova

Nadezhda Velichkova is a Ph. D student working on the effects of ageing and changes in neurotransmitter release on CNS lipid composition and learning and memory formation in the pond snail Lymnaea Stagnalis. She works in Dr. Mark Yeoman’s lab, with supervision from Professor B. Patel and Dr. M. Dymond.

Her interest in learning and memory began during her master’s degree, where under the supervision of Dr. Ildiko Kemenes, she worked on a project investigating how the feeding behavior of the pond snail Lymnaea Stagnalis might be influenced by its motivational state and how exogenous application of the polypeptide PACAP might affect its ability to learn and consolidate long term memories.

In her current project she is using carbon fiber microelectrodes in combination with amperometry to investigate the effects of aging on the kinetics of serotonin release from the cell body of a defined neuron, involved in the learning and memory formation in Lymnaea.