About Yeka Aponte

Little is known about the childhood and family of Dr. Aponte. Her relationship and family status are unknown at this time. However, we do know that she was born in Venezuela. Additionally, there is no record of her education until she received her PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Freiburg, Germany. Throughout her doctorate program, she studied the function of dendritic calcium channels in fast-spiking hippocampal interneurons and voltage-gated cation channels (NIDA IRP - Yeka Aponte, ph.D.. 2023). After her PhD, she went and attended a post-doctoral education program from the Janelia Farm Research Campus of Howard Hughes Medical Institution of Ashburn, VA where her focus was on neuronal circuits and how they control feeding behavior using optogenetics and electrophysiology techniques (NIDA IRP - Yeka Aponte, ph.D.. 2023). Today, Dr. Yeka Aponte serves as the Associate Director for Diversity and Inclusion at John Hopkins University of Neuroscience (NIDA IRP - Yeka Aponte, ph.D.. 2023). She also works at the National Institute for Drug Abuse as an Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator (NIDA IRP - Yeka Aponte, ph.D.. 2023).  Aside from her lab work, Aponte serves as the associate professor at John Hopkins University as well as the Chief of the Neuronal Circuits and Behavior section of the university (NIDA IRP - Yeka Aponte, ph.D.. 2023).. 

Image Citation 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2023, January 24). NIDA IRP - Yeka Aponte, ph.D.. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://irp.nida.nih.gov/staff-members/yeka-aponte/