Renzo Huarcaya

Renzo Huarcaya is a first-generation college student entering his fourth year of neuroscience studies at Santa Clara University. He is originally from Lima, Peru, where his first encounters with inadequate access to health care paralleled his experiences in the Bay Area. As his interest in medicine sprouted, Renzo has been passionate about research on neurological disease and understanding the neural underpinnings of memory systems detailed by prior projects in Alzheimer’s disease treatment, and about addressing ethno-racial clinical disparities affecting patient care. His current behavioral animal research aims to understand the psychological definition of conditioned reinforcement and the role of motivation. Renzo will be working in the Druckmann lab at Stanford University recreating neural circuits through holographic simulation and calcium imaging. Understanding the projective field of a neuron will contribute to reverse engineering a model of the brain, which will unlock a multitude of clinical applications.

Mentor: Tyler Benster