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Assistant Professor

Ryan Maloney graduated from Brandeis University in 2011 with degrees in Biology and Neuroscience, where he studied the effects of neuropeptides on rhythmic muscle activity in the crustacean stomach with Eve Marder. He completed his Ph.D. at Brown University, where worked in the lab of David Berson to understand the input of intrinsically photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGCs) to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, studying the role these luminance sensing cells play in our ability to perceive brightness. After a short postdoc with Matt Pecot at Harvard Medical School studying the development of the fruit fly visual system in Drosophila melanogaster, he moved to Ben de Bivort’s lab at Harvard University to study idiosyncratic individual preferences in Drosophila, where he was awarded the Harvard Brain Institutes Postdoctoral Pioneer grant. 

Ryan joined Â鶹ÊÓƵ in 2024 as an Assistant Professor.

Also, please see the Neuroscience website.

Assistant Professor of Psychology: 2024-present
First Year at Â鶹ÊÓƵ: 2024

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

What makes one individual different from another? Ryan’s interests center on this basic question, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to understand what factors lead individual flies, even with identical genetics and environmental backgrounds, to have different behaviors. Ryan’s lab investigates this using high throughput behavioral screening, genetic and pharmacological manipulations and a focus on the neural circuits underlying behavior.

Representative Publications & Presentations

Publications

Maloney, R., Quattrochi, L., Yoon, J., Souza, R. & Berson, D. Efficacy and specificity of melanopsin reporters for retinal ganglion cells. J. Comp. Neurol. 532, (2024).

Bivort, B. de, Buchanan, S., Skutt-Kakaria, K., Gajda, E., Ayroles, J., O’Leary, C., Reimers, P., Akhund-Zade, J., Senft, R., Maloney, R., et al. (2022). Precise Quantification of Behavioral Individuality From 80 Million Decisions Across 183,000 Flies. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 16, 836626. 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.836626.

Maloney, R.T. (2021). Neuromodulation and Individuality. Front Behav Neurosci 15, 777873.
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Xu, C., Theisen, E., Maloney, R., Peng, J., Santiago, I., Yapp, C., Werkhoven, Z., Rumbaut, E., Shum, B., Tarnogorska, D., et al. (2019). Control of Synaptic Specificity by Establishing a Relative Preference for Synaptic Partners. Neuron 103, 865-877.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.06.006.

Szabo, T.M., Chen, R., Goeritz, M.L., Maloney, R.T., Tang, L.S., Li, L., Marder, E. (2011). Distribution and Physiological Effects of the B-Type Allatostatins (Myoinhibitory Peptides, MIPs) in the stomatogastric nervous system of the crab, Cancer borealis. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 519 (13), 2658-2676.

Presentations

Maloney, R.T., Ye, A., Alisch, T., Saint-Pre, S., de Bivort, B. (10-5-2023). Phenotypic Drift in Individual Preference as a Strategy for Unpredictable Worlds. Poster, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Neurobiology of Drosophila Conference

Maloney, R.T. (6-14-2023). Phenotypic Drift in Individual Preference as a Strategy for Unpredictable Worlds. Talk, Boston Area Drosophila Conference

Maloney, R.T. (12-9-2022). Phenotypic Drift in Individual Preference as a Strategy for Unpredictable Worlds. Invited Talk, University of Iceland

Maloney, R.T., Ye, A., Bivort B. de. (2021). Drift in Individual Preference as a Population-level Strategy for Environmental Adaptation. Poster Session: Drosophila Research Conference (Online)

Maloney, R.T., Cruickshank, S., Berson, D.M. (2017). Properties of Retinogeniculate Synapses of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells. Paper Presentation: ARVO Annual Meeting. Baltimore, MD.

Maloney, R.T., Yoon, J.S., Berson, D.M. (2015). A Viral Method for Optogenetic Control of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells. Poster Session: ARVO Annual Meeting. Denver, CO.

Maloney, R.T., Goeritz, M., Szabo, T., Marder, E. (2010). Localization and Effects of B-Type Allostatin Peptides in the Stomatogastric Nervous System. Poster Session: Society for Neuroscience Meeting, San Diego, CA

Awards & Honors

• 2022 HBI Postdoctoral Pioneers Award, Harvard Brain Institute
• 2015 ARVO MIT Outstanding Poster Finalist, ARVO 2015 Annual Meeting
• 2015 Retina Foundation Travel Award, ARVO 2015 Annual Meeting

Regular Classes

PY451 Final Project
PY408 Animal Personality
PY305 Advanced Methods and Statistics
PY300 Computational Neuroscience
PY299 Neuroscience
PY296 Functional Neuroscience
PY251 Psychological Investigations