# @oberlincollege on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C8IB3McM7yz
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/26215644-oberlincollege-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/957e7f08ad.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-06-12T18:19:21.000+00:00

## Caption

Give a big round of applause to Oberlin’s 2024 Nexial Prize winner: Haoyuan Gao ’24, a biology and neuroscience double major with minors in book studies, chemistry, and East Asian studies! 

At Oberlin, Gao conducted independent honors research with Associate Professor of Neuroscience Christopher Howard, using fiber photometry to study the interactions between striatal patches and midbrain dopamine neurons and their roles in locomotor function, reward prediction, and action selection. He also studied the polymerization mechanisms of a bacterial tubulin-homologous protein TubZ with Associate Professor of Biology Laura Romberg. 

Gao’s research and studies also focused on the East Asian rare book collections in Oberlin’s Terrell Special Collections, encompassing things like cataloging and scanning Chinese rare books and using the Mary A. Ainsworth Collection of Illustrated Japanese Books. 

“As a STEM major student with interest in arts and humanities, I used to think that it was hard to find connections between them, but book studies formed a bridge between these two paths,” Gao says. “More importantly, it forms connections between different cultures and opens new angles to view the world.”

For the next two years, Gao will be working as a research associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, as part of a team studying natural variations of the human brain, with plans after that to apply for PhD programs in biology or neuroscience.

Learn more about Gao’s research and academic interests by tapping the link in our bio.

📸: @trosenjones

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 400
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- **Comments:** 4

## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| oberlincollege | @oberlincollege | https://gondola.cc/oberlincollege | University |
| Dae Williams | @daeqwill | https://gondola.cc/daeqwill | Social Media Strategist |

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