Neuroscience phd

Matthew s. creamer

Interests

I am a neuroscientist focused on how neural circuits in the brain give rise to behavior. I am currently a CV Starr Fellow at Princeton University working with Andrew Leifer and Jonathan Pillow. My work leverages whole-brain calcium imaging in C. elegans to predict future behavior and calcium transients. For my PhD, I worked with Damon Clark at Yale University, characterizing how animals use visual information to regulate their walking speed.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

C. V. Starr Fellow – Princeton University

Princeton, NJ, beginning August 2019
Advisor: Andrew M. Leifer and Jonathan W. Pillow

PhD – Yale University

New Haven, CT, 2012-2018
Advisor: Damon A. Clark

• My PhD focused on algorithms for biological visual motion detection

• Discovered, characterized, and modeled a new motion detection circuit in Drosophila [4]

• Measured fast timescale responses in direction selective neurons in the fly brain [9]

• Engineered a virtual reality fly-on-a-ball behavior rig to measure Drosophila walking and turning speeds while presenting visual stimuli [3]

• Programmed visual stimulus presentation system and suite of data analysis software for fly behavior (60k lines in Matlab)

Research Assistant – Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research

Melbourne, Australia, 2011-2012
Advisor: Antony W. Burgess

• Built mass action kinetics model of a cancer signalling pathway which allowed researchers to predict protein concentration and modification over time (Matlab)

• Parameterized the model by measuring protein concentration in tissue culture

Helios Scholar Internship – Translational Genomics Research Institute

Phoenix, Arizona, June-August 2011
Advisor: Richard G. Posner and Edward C. Stites

• Finalized work from undergraduate (see below) [9, 10]

Undergraduate Researcher – Northern Arizona University

Flagstaff, Arizona, 2008-2011
Advisor: Richard G. Posner

• Built mass action kinetic model of large cell signalling pathway to demonstrate that it is possible to create models with arbitrarily large numbers of complexes [10]

PUBLICATIONS - featured

[4] Creamer, M.S., Mano, O., and Clark, D.A. (2018). Visual Control of Walking Speed in Drosophila. Neuron 100: 1460–1473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.10.028.
Video abstract: https://youtu.be/LdJRfc6PCi4

[8] Salazar-Gatzimas, E.*, Chen, J.*, Creamer, M.S.*, Mano, O., Mandel, H.B., Matulis, C.A., Pottackal, J., and Clark, D.A. (2016). Direct Measurement of Correlation Responses in Drosophila Elementary Motion Detectors Reveals Fast Timescale Tuning. Neuron 92: 227–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.09.017
(* Co-first authors)

Publications - full (Google scholar link)

[1] Mano, O., Creamer, M.S., Matulis, C.A., Salazar-Gatzimas, E., Chen, J., Zavatone-Veth, J.A., and Clark, D.A. (2019). Using slow frame rate imaging to extract fast receptive fields. Nature communications 10 (1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12974-0

[2] Badwan, B.A., Creamer, M.S., Zavatone-Veth J.A., and Clark, D.A. (2019). Dynamic nonlinearities enable direction-opponency in Drosophila elementary motion detectors. Nature Neuroscience 22: 1318–1326. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0443-y

[3] Creamer, M.S., Mano, O., Tanaka, R., and Clark, D.A. (2019). A flexible geometry for panoramic visual and optogenetic stimulation during behaviour and physiology. J. Neurosci. Methods 323: 48-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2019.05.005

[4] Creamer, M.S., Mano, O., and Clark, D.A. (2018). Visual Control of Walking Speed in Drosophila. Neuron 100: 1460–1473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.10.028.
Video abstract: https://youtu.be/LdJRfc6PCi4

[5] Astigarraga, S., Douthit, J., Tarnogorska, D., Creamer, M.S., Mano, O., Clark, D.A., Meinertzhagen, I.A., and Treisman, J.E. (2018). Drosophila Sidekick is required in developing photoreceptors to enable visual motion detection. Development 145: dev.158246. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.158246

[6] Collins, K.M., Bode, A., Fernandez, R.W., Tanis, J.E., Brewer, J.C., Creamer, M.S., and Koelle, M.R. (2016). Activity of the C. elegans egg-laying behavior circuit is controlled by competing activation and feedback inhibition. Elife 5: 21126. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21126

[7] Buck, K.B., Schaefer, A.W., Schoonderwoert, V.T., Creamer, M.S., Dufresne, E.R., and Forscher, P. (2016). Local Arp2/3-dependent actin assembly modulates applied traction force during apCAM adhesion site maturation. Mol. Biol. Cell 28: 98–110. https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.e16-04-0228

[8] Salazar-Gatzimas, E.*, Chen, J.*, Creamer, M.S.*, Mano, O., Mandel, H.B., Matulis, C.A., Pottackal, J., and Clark, D.A. (2016). Direct Measurement of Correlation Responses in Drosophila Elementary Motion Detectors Reveals Fast Timescale Tuning. Neuron 92: 227–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.09.017
(* Co-first authors)

[9] Stites, E.C., Aziz, M., Creamer, M.S., Von Hoff, D.D., Posner, R.G., and Hlavacek, W.S. (2015). Use of mechanistic models to integrate and analyze multiple proteomic datasets. Biophys. J. 108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2015.02.030

[10] Creamer, M.S., Stites, E.C., Aziz, M., Cahill, J.A., Tan, C., Berens, M.E., Han, H., Bussey, K.J., Von Hoff, D.D., Hlavacek, W.S., et al. (2012). Specification, annotation, visualization and simulation of a large rule-based model for ERBB receptor signaling. BMC Syst. Biol. 6: 107. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-0509-6-107