• B.S. Microbiology

    University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA                    

    Ph.D. in Integrative Neurosciences                                        

    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN                                                                    

  • Postdoctoral Research   

    Department of Neuroscience, University of California Berkeley

    Research Advisor: Dr. Richard Kramer

    Current Project: Determine how synaptic physiology between the retina and the brain is altered following photoreceptor degeneration.

    • Discovered altered synaptic release probability from retinal ganglion cells into the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus affecting action potential probability.

    • Utilized a parasagittal brain slice preparation to electrically and optically stimulate retinal afferents and record responses in postsynaptic thalamocortical neurons.

    Completed Project: Investigate how photoreceptor degeneration alters the physiological function of downstream surviving retinal neurons.

    • Discovered photoreceptor death leads to lower calcium current in ON bipolar cells.

    • Leveraged optogenetics to demonstrate diminished synaptic transmission in the blind retina.

    • Investigated glutamate release in retinal sublamina with 2-photon iGluSnFR imaging.

    • Utilized an operant conditioning paradigm to evaluate drug effects on mouse vision.

    Graduate Research

    Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University

    Research Advisor: Dr. Yuk Fai Leung

    Thesis: Leverage zebrafish models of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) to create the first functional drug screen to identify compounds that improve rod vision and survival in a cone-dominant animal.

    • Developed a scotopic visual startle assay to assess rod-mediated vision in larval zebrafish.

    • Discovered visual impairment of Q344X rhodopsin zebrafish due to rod death.

    • Utilized the behavioral characteristics of the Q344X zebrafish model to develop a high-throughput drug screen FDA-approved to identify compounds that ameliorate the RP phenotype.

    • Discovered the beta-blocker carvedilol improves rod number and visual behavior of Q344X larval zebrafish.

    • Investigated drug hit mechanisms of action using Y79 retinoblastoma cell culture.

    Undergraduate Research

    Department of Biology, University of California Riverside     

    Research Advisor: Dr. Bradley Hyman

    Project: Characterize atypical methods of mitochondrial DNA replication in the nematodes C. elegans and C. briggsae.

    • Extracted intact mitochondria utilizing differential ultracentrifugation.

    • Performed 2-D agarose gel electrophoresis and southern blotting to identify structure of DNA replication intermediate isoforms.

  • Daggers† denote equal co-authorship

    Mann L, Ganzen L, Nawy S, Thoreson W, Kramer RH. Knockout of Calcium Dependent Neurotransmitter Releases from Rods and Cones Triggers Downstream Retinal Remodeling. In preparation.

    Ko MJ, Jaques Y, Khera R, McKinney D, Redmond J, Rorie B, Wang C, Jacobowitz A, Shankar S, Langlois S, Ganzen L, Phumsatitpong P, Yang L, Kaufer D. Psychedelic drug action requires oligodendrocyte 5-HT2A receptors and myelin plasticity (Under peer-review Neuron)

    Yadav SC, Ganzen L, Nawy S, Kramer RH. Retinal bipolar cells borrow excitability from electrically coupled inhibitory interneurons to amplify excitatory synaptic transmission. bioRxiv

    PMID: 39005421

    Ganzen L†, Yadav SC†, Wei M, Ma H, Nawy S, Kramer RH. Retinoic Acid-Dependent Loss of Synaptic Output from Bipolar Cells Impairs Visual Information Processing in Inherited Retinal Degeneration. J Neurosci. 2024 PMID: 39060177

    Ganzen L, Ko MJ, Zhang M, Xie R, Chen Y, Zhang L, James R, Mumm J, van Rijn RM, Zhong W, Pang CP, Zhang M, Tsujikawa M, Leung YF. Drug screening with zebrafish visual behavior identifies carvedilol as a potential treatment for an autosomal dominant form of retinitis pigmentosa. Sci Rep. 2021 PMID: 34075074

    Ko, MJ. †; Ganzen, L. †; Coskun, E.; Mukadam, A.; Leung, YF.; Van Rijn, R.; A Critical Evaluation of TRPA1-mediated Locomotor Behavior in Zebrafish as a Screening Tool for Novel Anti-nociceptive Drug Discovery. Sci Rep. 2019 PMID: 30787340

    Ganzen, L.†; Venkatraman, P. †; Pang, C.P.; Leung, Y.F.; Zhang, M. Utilizing Zebrafish Visual Behaviors in Drug Screening for Retinal Degeneration. Int J Mol Sci. 2017 PMID: 28574477

    Carrillo, A.; Schacht, P.; Cabrera, I.; Blahut, J.; Prudhomme, L.; Dietrich, S.; Beckman, T.; Mei, J.; Carrera, C.; Chen, V.; Clark, I.; Fierro, G.; Ganzen, L.; Orellana, J.; Wise, S.; Yang, K.; Zhong, H.; Borkovich, K. Functional Profiling of Transcription Factor Genes in Neurosopora crassa. 2017 PMID: 28696922

  • Leung, Yuk Fai; Ganzen, Logan; Wang, Beichen. 2026. Compounds and Methods of Use Thereof for the Treatment of Photoreceptor Rod Degenerations and Generation of Photoreceptors. 19/541,307. Filed 02/16/2026. Pending.

Curriculum Vitae