UC-HSI SOMA – UCLA Brain Research Institute (BRI)

PROGRAM NEWS:

The 2025 BRI Summer Undergraduate Research Poster Fair was held on August 08, 2025.

Student Presenter	Faculty Mentor	Project Title
Jessica Garcia	Arpana Church	The Gut-Brain Axis, Stress Reactivity, and Vagal Nerve Stimulation
Stephanie Gomez	Lara Ray	Greater Pain Catastrophizing and Blunted Insula Reactivity to Acute Stress in Adults with Alcohol Use Disorder Compared to Controls
Nicholas Hoa	Ketema Paul	The Effect of Mbnl2 Knockout on Sleep Architecture
Christina Nguyen	Nicolas Massaly	Assessing the Role of the Claustrum to Anterior Cingulate Projection in Pain-Induced Behavioral Disturbances

SOMA Trainee Stephanie Gomez Named the 2025 Department of Psychology Honorary Summer Fellow

Thanks to a generous contribution from the UCLA Department of Psychology (DoP), we are proud to announce Stephanie Gomez as the 2025 DoP Honorary Summer Fellow! Stephanie spent 8 weeks in the laboratory of Dr. Lara Ray investigating blunted insula reactivity to acute stress within adults experiencing alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Stephanie is a current Master’s student at CSU San Bernardino in Psychological Sciences. With a concentration in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, she made an excellent addition to the lab, melding well into the environment and persevering through the inevitable — but exciting! — obstacles that rigorous scientific research poses. We can’t wait to see where you go from here, Stephanie!

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

The Superior Opportunities for Maximizing Access (SOMA) to Neuroscience Program is named after the cell bodies of neurons housing the genetic programs for critical cellular functions. The SOMA program is open to all undergraduate and Master’s students, supporting participation in neuroscience and, ultimately, the pursuit of a neuroscience doctoral degree. Each year, we welcome a group of interested students from Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) — e.g. CSU Long Beach, CSU Los Angeles, CSU Dominguez Hills, and CSU San Bernardino, etc. — for an 8-week, immersive, in-person experience at UCLA conducting research in a host laboratory.

We aim to incentivize the relationship between UCLA and its partner HSI institutions on three fronts:

SOMA Fellow & UCLA Faculty: We provide UCLA mentors with summer research funds to purchase supplies supporting their research, provided that the research objectives include the SOMA trainee.
HSI Partner Faculty Mentors: We also provide HSI mentors with funding to prepare SOMA fellows for participation in summer research (through a joint journal club and lab meeting). This can be used flexibly for travel, the cost of research, and/or instruction.
SOMA Alumni: To incentivize the choice of a UCLA Ph.D., the Brain Research Institute has committed to providing full stipend support for 1 SOMA alumnus admitted to and entering the Neuroscience IDP each year of the grant.

As such, we place a heavy emphasis on collecting trainee outcome data and disseminating our findings in poster form at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) annual meeting.

SOMA1 — Stephanie Gomez (CSU San Bernardino) presenting her research from the lab of Dr. Lara Ray.

ALL8 — 2025 UC-HSI SOMA students enjoying an afternoon lunch at Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles.

SOMA2 — 2025 UC-HSI SOMA students enjoying a field trip to historic California landmark Olvera Street.

We will host a comprehensive research environment for the 2026 Program by taking advantage of on-campus tools, engineering a robust and rewarding experience. Activities include, but are not limited to, (1) analysis of data from ongoing experiments, (2) modeling of biological or behavioral systems, (3) computerized coding, and a variety of other analysis tools/methods. During the Program, host labs will train SOMA fellows to conduct a rigorous research project, culminating in a poster competition. Apart from conducting experiments, students will be involved in activities that enrich their summer experience, including (1) writing a research paper, (2) exploring the Ph.D. career path, (3) learning about applying to programs and funding opportunities, (4) participating in research journal clubs, seminars, and career panels, (5) preparing abstracts and posters, and (6) visiting cultural centers in Los Angeles (e.g. California Museums, the California Science Center, the Hammer Museum, the Getty Center). The program is under the administration of the UCLA Summer Programs in Undergraduate Research (SPUR) umbrella.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

Completion of online UCLA SPUR application form
A major in one of the natural sciences, including Psychology
A minimum GPA of 3.0
Academic transcript
Curriculum Vitae
Two letters of recommendation from science faculty*
Summary of prior research, if any (limit: 500 words)
Summary of interest in neuroscience (limit: 1000 words)
In a separate file, rank your top three research training areas:
- Neuroendocrinology, Sex Differences, and Reproduction
- Neural Repair
- Neural Microcircuits
- Neurobehavioral Genetics
- Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology
- Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology

This is an 8-week experience run in conjunction with the BRI-SURE and UC-HBCU Neuroscience Pathways programs from June 15 to August 07, 2026.

Student Applications are due by January 21, 2026, at 11:59 PM PST. Please send all supplementary application materials to Dr. Alicia Izquierdo (profizquierdobns@gmail.com) and Ethan Snook (esnook@mednet.ucla.edu).
- Use “UC-HSI SOMA Application Materials – First_Name Last_Name” in the subject line for tracking purposes.
*Faculty recommendation letters are due by February 11, 2026, at 11:59 PST, also to profizquierdobns@gmail.com and esnook@mednet.ucla.edu.

For additional information about the UC-HSI SOMA Program, please contact Program Director Dr. Alicia Izquierdo or Program Coordinator Ethan Snook. For more details about SPUR, click here.

ALL11 — 2025 UC-HSI SOMA students learning about the earliest plaza in California. They are passing the Ávila Adobe, the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles.

APPLY NOW

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

The main research interests of the Izquierdo lab center on understanding the brain mechanisms of flexible reinforcement learning and value-based decisions. Specifically, this involves exploring how the brain evaluates the impact of costs and determines the relative value of options. Dr. Izquierdo’s lab studies these questions using a combination of behavioral, molecular, pharmacological, computational, and in vivo imaging methods. More recently the lab has investigated the neurobiological basis for the role of uncertainty, risk, and reinforcement history on learning and choice. A better understanding of the basic neural mechanisms in reinforcement learning and choice behavior contributes to our knowledge of behavioral and substance addictions, in particular.

Dr. Alicia Izquierdo received a B.S. in Biology and Psychology from Emory University, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience through the Graduate Partnership Program between the National Institutes of Health and The George Washington University. After completing her doctoral work at the National Institute of Mental Health, she spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dr. Izquierdo is active in a number of national and international organizations and initiatives that support inclusion and quality mentorship in STEM. She is currently the Director of the SOMA program at the Brain Research Institute (BRI) and a Vice Chair of the Department of Psychology at UCLA.

Dr. Alicia Izquierdo
Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience
Vice Chair for Academic Affairs
UCLA Department of Psychology
Director, UC-HSI SOMA Program
profizquierdobns@gmail.com
(310) 825-3459