Lab Members

Wenda joined the Berendzen Lab after working for over a decade at the Grinberg Lab, where she developed strong expertise in histology and wet lab techniques, including tissue processing, embedding, and sectioning. With her exceptional organizational skills and background in operations, she helps ensure smooth workflows and supports the lab’s research activities. Outside of work, Wenda enjoys traveling, photography, and music.

In the Zen lab, I am investigating the impacts of neurodegeneration on the neuromodulatory circuits that mediate social behavior. Previously, I completed my PhD in Allan Basbaum's lab studying cortical regulation of pain perception by general anesthesia in mice. Outside of lab, I enjoy reading, hiking, and hanging out with my cat.

Brenda received her Bachelor’s degree in Biopsychology from UC Santa Barbara. She previously worked as an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Ron Keiflin’s lab and later as a technician in Dr. Vijay Namboodiri’s lab, where she studied associative learning and memory in both roles. In the Zen lab, she is excited to explore how progranulin loss affects social attachment behavior in prairie voles. Outside the lab, she enjoys watching basketball, playing guitar, and taking long walks.

Denis is an Assistant Specialist in the Zen lab. He has a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from SFSU. He manages the vole colony and is interested in studying the aging brain and changes in social behavior as we age. He also has done an internship which led to a job at UCSF where he assisted Kristen with behavioral assays, histology, genotyping and more. Aside from all the voles he manages he has a small white bellied parrot named Mango and a tiny old Maltese dog named Max.

Kristen is a physician scientist and Assistant Professor at UCSF. She completed her MD and PhD training at UC San Diego and at the Salk Institute. Her graduate work in Andrew Dillin's lab focused on understanding cellular stress regulation with aging and proteotoxicity. She then moved up to the Bay Area for psychiatry residency at UCSF and joined Dev Manoli's lab for her postdoc to study the genetic regulation of social attachment behavior in the prairie vole.