Liftoff: New lab alerts

Learn about early-career scientists starting their own labs.

Are you a new principal investigator? Email Francisco J. Rivera Rosario at [email protected]. Selected new labs may be featured in our Launch monthly newsletter.

Interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

June 2025

Samuel Muscinelli, incoming assistant professor of neurobiology, University of Chicago
Lab start date: August 2025

What do you study? What part of your research are you most excited about?

My lab aims to understand how the anatomical structure of brain circuits shapes learning and adapts in response to it. As a theorist, I approach this question from multiple perspectives across different brain regions, using a combination of analytical theory, machine learning and data analysis. I’m especially excited about the growing availability of detailed data on neuronal connectivity, which presents an opportunity to use computational modeling to explore how structural features influence brain function.

Are there any traditions or practices from the labs you trained in that you will implement in your own lab?

During my postdoc, we occasionally organized hackathons—full-day sessions where we would independently explore a dataset, either guided by a specific question or entirely open-ended. These sessions were a great way to push ourselves to learn something new, test ideas quickly and get our hands dirty with data. I hope to carry this initiative forward in my lab.

What is the best advice you received from a mentor or colleague before opening your lab?

It might be a common one, but a piece of advice that stuck with me is: Give your trainees a project they can and want to do, not just one you want them to do. It is easy to fall into the trap of projecting our own interests or strengths onto our trainees, but I think it is crucial to find a balance between guiding someone’s growth and giving them the freedom to leverage their unique skills and curiosity.

Sophia Shi, incoming Rowland fellow and principal investigator, Harvard University
Lab start date: September 2025

What do you study? What part of your research are you most excited about?

My lab investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying brain aging and neurodegenerative disease, with a focus on glycans—complex sugars that decorate cell surfaces and shape the brain’s extracellular environment. Although glycans play essential roles throughout biology, their functions in the nervous system remain largely unexplored, which makes them incredibly exciting to research. Studying brain glycobiology feels like exploring an entirely new planet, where we’re just beginning to decode its fundamental rules and language. I’m driven by the challenge of unraveling how these molecules influence brain function and using that knowledge to guide new treatments for neurological and neurodegenerative diseases.

Are there any traditions or practices from the labs you trained in that you will bring over and implement in your own lab?

One practice I valued from a previous lab was the “safety minute” at the start of each lab meeting, where the presenter would briefly highlight a safety procedure relevant to the lab. It created a culture where safety wasn’t an afterthought or something to be considered only in the case of high-risk experiments, but a regular part of our scientific thinking and planning. I plan to carry that forward in my lab: Safety always comes first.

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