September 15th, 2026
Jim accepting his endowed chair plaque, a well-deserved milestone recognizing his contributions to research and mentorship throughout the department.
Congratulations, Jim!
January 27th, 2026
Taking a break from presentations and networking to hit the slopes at the Winter Conference on Brain Research!
Pictured here are Ian, Rachel, Logan, Jim, Jackie and Mike.
October 24th, 2025
Members of the Otis Lab take on the final year of Boone Hall Fright Nights.
(And yes, they did, in fact, survive to tell the tale!)
June 26th, 2025
The Otis Lab together for Beth, Jade, and Bogdan’s going away celebration. A huge loss for the lab and a great gain for the Neuroscience community as they each make great moves in their careers!
June 10th, 2025
The Otis Lab (and pups!) cheer on the Riverdogs baseball team after work.
January 25th, 2025
Lab members, family and friends gather for dinner to celebrate successful poster and panel presentations at the Winter Conference on Brain Research, 2025.
Great job, everyone!
September 20th, 2024
Celebrating Ian’s successful thesis defense and new position. Congratulations, Ian. We couldn’t be more proud and excited to see what all you’re going to accomplish. You will be greatly missed!
January 23rd, 2023
Enjoying some downhill skiing/snowboarding in Utah during the Winter Conference on Brain Research. Pictured here are Rachel, Jackie, Ian, Jim, and Beth (left to right).
July 16th, 2021
Celebrating Liza’s 22nd birthday a day late! Happy birthday Liza, you rock!!
June 25th, 2021
Celebrating some hard-earned victories this month.
1) Dr. Beth Doncheck received an F32 NRSA!
2) Roger Ian Grant received a departmental NIDA T32 award (program run by Dr. Jakie McGinty).
3) The first Otis Lab paper, with Roger Ian Grant as first author, was accepted for publication in eLife! CLICK HERE
4) Jim was nominated (thanks to the hard work of Drs. Beth Doncheck and Chris Cowan) and subsequently received an MUSC Developing Scholar’s award.
May 28th, 2021: Back in action!
Due to COVID-19, this is our first night out in > 1 year, 5 months. We made it through the pandemic together! We had a fully vaccinated, masks-off BBQ at Jim’s house to celebrate some hard-earned wins from the past year plus.
1) Preston Siegler was recruited to PhD programs around the country, and left the following day to begin her graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
2) Kelsey Vollmer received an F31 NRSA, aimed to study thalamic mechanisms of opioid addiction.
3) Dr. Beth Doncheck received a SCORE grant, aimed to study sex differences in opioid addiction.
4) The Otis Lab received its first R01, from NIDA. Title: “The influence of noradrenergic circuitry on prefrontal neuronal ensemble dynamics and cue-induced heroin seeking”.
5) The Otis Lab received a pilot award from the MUSC Cocaine and Opioid Center on Addiction (COCA; program led by Dr. Peter Kalivas, core run by Dr. Jakie McGinty).
6) The Otis Lab received a pilot award from the MUSC Alcohol Research Center (ARC; program led by Dr. Howard Becker).
7) The Otis Lab received the College of Medicine Enhancement of Team Science (COMETS) award, in collaboration with Dr. Michael Scofield’s Laboratory.
July 15th, 2019
Celebrating Liza’s 20th birthday - stellar undergraduate who performs lens surgeries for in vivo 2-photon microscopy and optogenetics! Happy birthday Liza!!!
June 27th, 2019
Celebrating grants and new arrivals! Couldn’t ask for a better group of people.
February 2nd, 2019
Jim was at the Winter Conference on Brain Research in Aspen, Colorado. He gave two presentations, one on prefrontal cortical regulation of memory, and the other on thalamic regulation of cue-reward processing.
December 13th, 2018
Jim was at #ACNP2018 in Hollywood, Florida. He presented his work from Dr. Garret Stuber’s lab on a panel with Drs. Rita Fuchs, Jakie McGinty, and Fabricio Do-Monte.
November 8th, 2018
The Otis lab will be at the 2018 Research Match Making Session on Thursday, November 15 at 4:00 pm. Are you interested in joining as an undergraduate student? Are you interested in learning about the research? Come say hello.
October 31st, 2018
This year’s solo costume winner at the MUSC Department of Neuroscience Annual Halloween Party was non-other than Ms. Frizzle (aka Maribel from the Otis Lab).
September 29th, 2018
The Otis Lab is looking for students and postdocs! If you are interested send us an email.
E-mail: otis@musc.edu
September 17th, 2018
We’ve arrived! The Otis Lab is officially up and running in the Department of Neuroscience at MUSC.
April 15th, 2018
Jim is moving to Charleston in the Fall of 2018 to set up the lab!