Conducting transformative research

Fake right, break left! 

The Cognition, Regulation and Affective Biopsychology Lab is dedicated to the study of cognitive and emotional processes.  

With his peers, experimental psychology student Sebastian Tanguay ’26 is researching attentional control—the manner in which people’s attention is directed—and how the brain works through conflict.  

The work gives you the sense that you’re doing something important for the world.

Sebastian Tanguay ’26

Tanguay is utilizing the basketball concept of head faking, a deceptive move 
in which a player pretends to shoot or pass the ball when, in reality, they are sending it in another direction. A player uses their head and eyes, ideally tricking the opposing player into reacting in the wrong direction.  

Tanguay is studying how fast participants in the study can react to a visual representation of a head fake and determine the correct way the ball is going—all to better understand human attentional control.

Social amoebas 

Michelle Snyder, Ph.D., is supporting student research of bacterial resistance to the immune system.  

Through close mentorship, students are studying strains of uropathogenic E. coli—bacteria that can cause urinary tract infections. A protein made by these bacteria essentially turns down the immune system, rendering a patient susceptible to infection or autoimmune issues.  

In August, Snyder earned an R-16 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Over the course of the next four years, the grant will enable Snyder to expand the labs she runs on bacterial resistance.  

Through close mentorship, students are studying strains of uropathogenic E. coli... A protein made by these bacteria essentially turns down the immune system, rendering a patient susceptible to infection or autoimmune issues.  

Seed funding Snyder received through the Office of Sponsored Research, the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Provost Research Fellows Program at TU provided her with the funds to write for the grant.  

Snyder’s implementation of the grant is also supporting a pipeline of doctoral candidates through the Bridges Program. Soon, a post-doc fellow will join the lab to help train the next cohort of lab members. 

Systems to combat suicidality 

Rae W. Hartman Haight ’28  joined TU’s Autism Studies Doctoral Program to research and elevate necessary changes in crisis support for autistic people.

While working in a group home for adults with developmental disabilities and in peer-support groups for autistic adults, Hartman Haight learned about the challenges autistic people have experienced when seeking support while in crisis.

Hartman Haight hopes to continue this research and develop funding to create Autistic Lifeline, a unique, peer-led crisis support for autistic adults. 

After scouring the internet, he did not find any crisis support that existed specifically for autistic people but found a great deal of research indicating that it should. So he set out on a path to learn more and has since worked with faculty at TU and beyond to conduct a secondary analysis on interview data with autistic people in decision-making roles.

Hartman Haight hopes to continue this research and develop funding to create Autistic Lifeline, a unique, peer-led crisis support for autistic adults.