Postdoctoral
Faculty | Staff | Graduate Students | Alumni
Alyse N. Maksimoski, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Office: Gale Life Sciences Bldg Room 316
(She/They)
Research Interests:
My research seeks to better understand social brains in free-living animals, particularly in species that have evolved complex social lives. My doctoral studies in European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, focused on how flock experience related to changes in social valence as mediated by neurocircuitry involved in reward and motivation. After I graduated in December of 2023, I transitioned to a postdoctoral position where I piloted translational site-specific siRNA downregulation of proteins in these starlings. At ISU, I began as a staff scientist in the de la Cruz lab studying pancreatic function in mice where I implemented the use of qPCR, QuPath imaging software, and expanded upon existing histology methods by incorporating macrophage staining and more extensive tissue sources.
My postdoctoral work in the Pradhan lab explores the unusual phenomenon of sexual plasticity in the bidirectionally hermaphroditic bluebanded goby, Lythrypnus dalli. I am currently working to establish high throughput transdisciplinary approaches (such as LC/MS) and other methods not commonly used in non-model species (site-specific pharmacological manipulations, systemic synthetic cell markers). The emphasis of my postdoctoral work is elucidating the neuroendocrine mechanisms that shape adult feminization (protandrous sex change) in L. dalli. I am particularly interested in how the brain and gonads are restructured during protandry and how this is regulated by sex steroid hormones.
Courses Taught:
BIOL 2280/4480/5580 Vertically Integrated Project (VIP): Gene Regulatory Networks
Education:
2023 - Ph.D. Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2017 - B.Sc. Zoology, Michigan State University
Selected Publications:
Alyse N. Maksimoski, Taviah A. Levenson**, Changjiu Zhao, Lauren V. Riters. In prep. Evidence that flocking behavior is rewarded by singing, flock mates, and mu-opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens. PLOS One.
Patrick K. Monari, Xin Zhao, Emma R. Hammond, Alyse N. Maksimoski, Radmila Petric, Candice Malone, Lauren V. Riters, Catherine A. Marler. 2024. Conditioned preferences: Gated by experience, context, and endocrine systems. Hormones and Behavior 161; DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105529. Invited contribution
Alyse N. Maksimoski, Sharon A. Stevenson, Brandon J. Polzin, Changjiu Zhao, Elsa M. Luebke**, Lauren V. Riters. 2023. The motivation to flock correlates with vocal-social behaviors and dopamine-related gene expression in male European starlings. Hormones and Behavior 153; DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105374. Invited contribution
Chinweike N. Asogwa, Changjiu Zhao, Brandon J. Polzin, Alyse N. Maksimoski, Sarah A. Heimovics, and Lauren V. Riters. 2023. Distinct patterns of activity within “columns” of the periaqueductal gray are associated with functionally-distinct birdsongs. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1530; DOI: 10.1111/nyas.15066. Invited contribution
Lauren V. Riters, Brandon J. Polzin, Alyse N. Maksimoski, Sharon A. Stevenson, Sarah J. Alger. 2022. Birdsong and the neural regulation of positive emotion. Frontiers in Psychology 13; DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903857. Invited contribution
Brandon J. Polzin, Alyse N. Maksimoski, Sharon A. Stevenson, Changjiu Zhao, and Lauren V. Riters. 2022. Mu opioid receptor stimulation in the medial preoptic area and nucleus accumbens facilitates song and reward in flocking European starlings. Frontiers in Physiology 13; DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.970920.
Alyse N. Maksimoski, Brandon J. Polzin, Sharon A. Stevenson, Changjiu Zhao, Lauren V. Riters. 2021. μ-opioid receptor stimulation in the nucleus accumbens increases vocal-social interactions in flocking European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris. eNeuro 2 September 2021, 8 (5); DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0219-21.2021. Featured Research