Karla Kaun, Ph.D.

Karla entered post-secondary education through the Coordinated Science Program at the University of British Columbia in 1997, and quickly learned a love for interdisciplinary science. She completed a B.Sc. in Psychology  with a minor in Linguistics at UBC in 2001. While completing her B.Sc. she had the fortune to work as an undergraduate researcher in the lab of Dr. Janet Werker who worked on infant language acquisition, and with Dr. Cathy Rankin, who worked on the mechanisms of learning and memory using the nematode C. elegans. There, Karla acquired a deep appreciation for the use of invertebrate models in Neuroscience. 

 

Karla  conducted her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto with Dr. Marla Sokolowski. Karla's thesis was focused on understanding how natural variation in the Drosophila foraging gene, which encodes a cGMP-dependent protein kinase, alters feeding, metabolism and memory. While in graduate school, Karla developed a love for science outreach aimed at bringing discovery based science to underserved communities through Let's Talk Science. After graduating with her PhD in 2007, Karla moved to San Francisco to conduct her postdoctoral studies with Dr. Ulrike Heberlein at the University of California San Francisco. At UCSF Karla developed ways to test the rewarding nature of alcohol using Drosophila, and mapped circuits and genes important for alcohol reward and memory. In 2011, The Heberlein Lab moved to Janelia Research Campus, and Karla became involved a world-wide collaboration focussed on understanding the role of mushroom body circuitry in behavior. 

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In 2013, Karla started as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University. She became the Robert and Nancy Carney Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in 2015, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020. At Brown, she leads a lab that conducts research diving into the neural and molecular mechanisms of reward, memory and addiction using Drosophila. Her lab uses a genes to brain to behavior approach to understand how psychostimulants alter reward memory circuitry to result in long-lasting sensory memories that can induce cravings. Karla attributes the rigorous, innovative work from her lab to the creativity and dedication to her mentees. She strives to be a supportive, accessible, encouraging and respectful mentor and has incorporated the celebration of diversity and inclusivity in the lab to create a fun and welcome environment. 

 

Karla is an advocate for innovative teaching methods to decolonize STEM and was the 2023 recipient of the National Association of Biology Teacher’s Genetics Education Award. At Brown she teaches Introduction to Neurogenetics and Behavioral Neurogenetics Laboratory in addition to teaching mechanisms of learning and memory in the Neuroscience Graduate Program.

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Karla believes in creating a productive and inclusive greater scientific community. She has actively promoted Behavioral Neurogenetics research as critical for understanding the foundational mechanisms underlying mental health disorders through her role as a member of the program committees for the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Annual Meeting, International Behavioral and Neural Genetics (IBANGS) Annual Meeting, Research Society for Alcoholism Annual Meeting, as a Chair for symposia in several meetings in the field, as co-organizer for the Drosophila Neurobiology summer course at CSHL, and via local public science outreach endeavors. She serves on the University Conflict of Interest Review Board, Departmental Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, Departmental Committee for Annual Reviews and Promotions, Carney Institute for Brain Science Center for the Neurobiology of Cells and Circuits Steering Committee, and in 2023-23 was a Fellow in the inaugural Brown University Faculty Leadership Program. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Neurobiology section of the Genetics Society of America (GSA) flagship journal Genetics and was the 2023-24 President of IBANGS.