Dr. Ksenia Kastanenka is an independent investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. Ksenia received her Doctorate of Philosophy in Neuroscience from Case Western Reserve University under the mentorship of Dr. Lynn Landmesser. During doctorate training, Ksenia has developed her expertise in optogenetic control of neuronal circuits by studying and manipulating motoneuron pathfinding during development. Subsequently, Ksenia has joined the laboratory of Drs. Brian Bacskai and Brad Hyman in the Neurology Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School to apply optogenetics and multiphoton microscopy in order to dissect the role neural activity plays in onset and development of Alzheimers disease (AD).