About me

Dylan Terstege

I recently completed a PhD under the supervison of Dr. Jonathan Epp wherein we extensively invesitaged factors influencing the resiliency and vulnerability of the retrosplenial cortex in Alzheimer’s disease. In doing so, we incorporated clinical neuroimaging (FDG-PET and rs-fMRI), examined human tissue samples, and utilized rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease to study transcriptional and functional changes within this region. The Epp Lab is a part of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute within the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine.

I obtained a BSc from the University of Prince Edward Island, where I completed an honours thesis under the joint supervision of Drs. Catherine Ryan and Tracy Doucette. Here, I studied the relative preference for scotoxais vs thigmotaxis in the zebrafish stress response behaviour. During this time, I also concurrently worked in the lab of Dr. R Andrew Tasker, where I used behavioural pharmacology to assess antidepressant effects of several herbal compounds in rodent models.

Academic Interests

My primary academic interest is studying the brain-wide dynamics supporting learning and memory

My prefered techniques for these investigations include (but are not limited to):

• Batteries of sophisticated behavioural analyses
• Brain-wide mapping of immediate early gene expression and the graph theoretical analysis of these functional connectivity networks
• In vivo monitoring of cell type specific activity in specific target regions, at both a single cell level and at the level of regional population activity
• Opto- and chemo-genetic manipulations
• Advanced histology and microscopy techniques, including various tissue clearing approaches, and sophisticated analysis of these images
• The analysis of clinical neuroimaging data (fMRI, MRI, PET)
• The analysis of transcriptomic data (Xenium, GeoMX)
• 3D CAD modelling and the prototyping of scientific hardware

Publication Repository

• GitHub Repositories with all code and supplementary files used for published menuscripts
• Further information on these publications can be accessed through the Publications tab, or through Google Scholar and Research Gate