Outreach

  • 2024 Course instructor for Brain and Spine Scholars program for 8th-9th grade students, NYU [Thank you note] [Program website with speakers featured][Photo 1] [Photo 2]
  • 2023 Judge for Neuroscience discipline, 2023 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), Phoenix, AZ [2023 Certificate]
  • 2022 Judge for Developmental Biology and Genetics discipline, 2022 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), Anaheim, CA [2022 Certificate]
  • 2022/2023/2024 Course instructor for 10th-12th grade students, College & Career Lab, Neuroscience Outreach Group at NYU [Twitter]
  • 2022-Present Project SHORT (Students for Higher-Ed Opportunities and Representation in Training) pre-grad mentor [Link]
  • 2021 Judge for Developmental Biology and Genetics discipline, 2021 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), Virtual Conference [Certificate]
  • 2018 International Graduate Student Poster Fair, UCR
  • 2018 Judge, Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair, Riverside, CA
  • 2016 Entomology Outreach, 2nd Annual Riverside Insect Fair, Riverside Metropolitan Museum
  • 2015/2018/2019 Neuroscience Outreach, Brain Awareness Day, Booth Demonstration, UCR

Teaching

Mentoring 

New York University

  • 2023 – 2024, Angelina Fordjour
    • NYU Mitra Fellow [Link]  
    • NSF BIO REU Travel Fellowship for 2024 TAGC Attendance
    • Awarded ABRCMS Student Full Travel Award (Fall 2023)
  • 2023 – 2023, Daniel Park
  • 2023 – 2024, Elizabeth Abraham
    • Valedictorian of Class 2024, College of Arts and Science, NYU
    • Awarded NSF Rising Scientist Award for 2024 TAGC Attendance (Spring 2024, $1950)
    • Awarded ABRCMS the Best Poster Presentation in Developmental Biology and Genetics Section at ABRCMS (2023) [Award Ceremony Video; pdf]
    • Awarded NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Conference Grant (Fall 2023)
    • Awarded NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Grant (Fall 2023)
  • 2023 – 2024, Gustave Li (NYU Shanghai student) [News highlight]
    • Next position: Doctoral student at Caltech
    • NYU Shanghai Excellence Award {Latin honors (Summa cum laude)}
    • Awarded NYU Shanghai Capstone Program Fund (Fall 2023, $6216.3 CNY)
    • Awarded ABRCMS the Best Poster Presentation in Developmental Biology and Genetics Section at ABRCMS (2023) [Award Ceremony Video; pdf]
    • Awarded NYU Shanghai Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund (Spring 2023)
  • 2022 – 2024, April Li
    • Next position: Doctoral student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
    • Awarded GSA Undergraduate Travel Award to The Allied Genetics Conference 2024 ($300, Link 1, Link 2, pdf 1, pdf 2)
    • Awarded NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Conference Grant (Fall 2023)
    • Awarded NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund X2 (Spring 2023, Fall 2023)
  • 2022 Summer, NYU SURP program, Chelsea Griffin
    • Awarded ABRCMS Student Full Travel Award (Fall 2022)
  • 2021 – 2024, Maisha Jacy
    • Awarded NSF Rising Scientist Award for 2024 TAGC Attendance (Spring 2024, $1950)
    • Awarded NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Conference Grant X2 (Spring 2022, Fall 2023)
    • Awarded NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund X2 (Fall 2022, Fall 2023)
  • 2021 – 2023, Nathalie Shoji
    • Awarded 2023 NYU Albert Borgman Thesis Prize for the best honors thesis in Science [News featured on NYU Biology webpage] 
    • Awarded NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund X2 (Fall 2021, Fall 2022)  
    • Awarded NYU Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Conference Grant (Spring 2022)
    • Poster award for 45th West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA, April 9, 2022 [pdf]

UC Riverside

  • 2016 – 2019, Sameera Ahmad, studying at UC Berkeley School of Optometry after leaving UCR
  • 2016 – 2019, Kush Amin, in his gap year for applying medical school after leaving UCR
  • 2014 – 2016, Erika Varady, pursuing her graduate degree at the University of California Irvine after leaving UCR

Mentee’s publication

Ahmad, S., Amin, K., Chen, Y. D, & Dahanukar, A. (2018). A Subset of Brain Neurons Controls a Sexually Dimorphic Proboscis Holding Behavior in Adult Drosophila Melanogaster. UC Riverside Undergraduate Research Journal, 12(1).[pdf]

Perspective from my former trainees on their experience working with David in the lab

Gustave Li (Next step after leaving the lab: PhD student at Caltech)

“My name is Hongzhou Gustave Li, and I majored in neuroscience at NYU Shanghai. I joined the Desplan lab as an undergraduate research volunteer during my junior study-away year and have been directly mentored by David since then. In the lab, I worked on developing a genetic crossing scheme to generate cell-type-specific tools targeting individual Drosophila neuronal cell types, including the optic lobe neurons and doublesex+ neurons.

It was an incredible experience working at David’s group. His guidance and support were invaluable to me. First, David is passionate about his research and very accessible to his lab members. Anytime I had problems with the project design or the detailed experimental procedures, David responded promptly, and he is very good at explaining challenging ideas to his mentees. Secondly, David trusts his lab members and assigns different mini-projects to each of us. In this way, I got the opportunity to think critically and work independently to contribute meaningfully to the project. Under his guidance, I built a solid foundation in fly genetics and neurobiology.

In addition to research, David cares a lot about my personal growth as a scientist. He has been instrumental in helping me develop my academic skill sets, including reading scientific papers, oral presentations, and academic writing skills. David held weekly journal club sessions on fly genetics. This opportunity not only deepened my understanding of the research topic but also honed my academic reading skills. Furthermore, David invested his time in teaching me the principles of scholarly presentation and academic writing during our one-on-one meetings, and provided constructive feedback on all my writing works. With his dedication and patience, I have published our work on STAR Protocols as a co-first author and presented our research at multiple conferences, winning the Best Poster Presentation in the Developmental Biology and Genetics Section at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS). 

Finally, David builds a supportive and positive lab environment for his lab members. He never pushed me on experiments or let me work late at the lab, ensuring I maintained a healthy work-life balance. Additionally, he encourages senior lab members to help newcomers, a tradition from which I greatly benefited and proudly passed down to mentor students who joined the lab after me. 

Looking back, David is a wonderful mentor who deeply cares about his students. I am immensely grateful for David’s guidance and support during my time in his group, which is pivotal in my success in being admitted into my dream PhD program in neurobiology at Caltech. I highly recommend David’s lab to people seeking a supportive and enriching research experience. I am confident that anyone who has the privilege of working with him will benefit greatly from his guidance and mentorship, just as I had.”

April Li (Next step after leaving the lab: PhD student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)

“My name is April Li, and I graduated from NYU College of Arts and Sciences in Spring 2024 with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. I will be a first-year PhD student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the Fall of 2024. I started working in the Desplan lab in the Summer of 2022, with David as my direct mentor. I feel very fortunate to have joined David’s team and appreciate all the guidance and support I have received from him.

David is a wonderful mentor and an outstanding teacher. David used to work as our Molecular Cell Biology recitation instructor, and he was very approachable and explained things very well. After I joined his team, I benefited greatly from his excellent teaching skills. He explained difficult concepts clearly, which has been tremendously helpful throughout my research experience in the Desplan Lab. With his guidance, I was able to work independently on my project and started to think critically shortly after I joined the lab. Collaborating with another undergraduate student on our team, I worked on designing crossing schemes to develop a protocol for generating cost-effective genetic tools for Drosophila. With David’s support, we were able to write and publish our first scientific paper in Star Protocols in December 2023.

David cares deeply about his mentees’ individual growth. During my junior year, I felt very lost about my plans after college and hoped to discuss them with David. He was willing to sit down with me for hours and provide constructive advice, which helped me a lot. I was able to think about my career options more thoroughly and started to connect with people in the field early on. He also cares about his mentees’ goals and supports us in achieving them. For his mentees who were working on honor thesis, he held weekly meetings to discuss our progress and provide feedback on our projects and writing. During the summer, he organized weekly journal clubs to teach us how to read and understand papers related to our projects. Additionally, he always kept an eye out for potential resources that his mentees might benefit from. With his encouragement and help, I was able to present my work at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS), Developmental Biology New York (DBNY), and NYU undergraduate research conferences. This greatly improved my presentation and communication skills. During my graduate school application period, he sent me useful information to help me better prepare for writing statements and interviews.

I am extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to work with David, who deeply values mentorship and dedicates his time to creating a supportive and positive environment for everyone in the lab. His commitment to fostering a collaborative and nurturing atmosphere has been instrumental in my academic and personal growth. David’s guidance extends beyond just the technical aspects of research; he also encourages us to develop critical thinking skills, resilience, and confidence in our abilities. I would highly recommend David’s lab to anyone looking for a supportive environment to explore science and grow to their full potential. David’s dedication to his mentees’ success is unparalleled, and his lab will provide an enriching experience for all who join.”

Renee Liang (Next step after leaving the lab: gap year in preparing for medical school application)

“David is an amazing mentor. As a young undergraduate, navigating both the science and the lab environment in such a large biology lab was intimidating. David eased my anxiety by providing invaluable guidance and creating a safe and fostering learning environment through building a supportive undergraduate student group. He encouraged us to work collaboratively and learn from each other, which are skills essential for our future careers. Furthermore, David’s goal-oriented nature taught us how to execute an experimental plan and obtain results efficiently. 

I really appreciate David’s openness and honesty in sharing his scientific journey; his presence is essential in guiding my journey in science and he equipped us with all the necessary knowledge and tools required for success.His mentorship extended beyond science, teaching us valuable life lessons. David, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us!”