Jose Castillo-Lara

Jose joined the Broad Summer Scholars Program eager to gain experience with experimental neuroscience techniques that directly link genetic variation to functional outcomes. At the Stanley Center, he worked alongside fellow scholar Dylan to study eight missense variants in the CACNA1A gene, which encodes the CaV2.1 calcium channel — a critical protein for neurotransmitter release at synapses. Changes in this channel’s activity have been tied to a range of neurological conditions, including epilepsy, episodic ataxia, and familial hemiplegic migraine.