Graduate Student
Email: jshatfi@clemson.edu
Spencer Hatfield
I graduated as an Honors Carolina Laureate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2019 with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. As an undergraduate, my research focused on microbial genomics and analytical chemistry. I also worked for the U.S. CPSC on consumer chemical exposure and 3D-printer emissions in collaboration with NIST. In the fall of 2019, I started as a graduate student at Clemson University’s Center for Human Genetics under Dr. Trudy Mackay and Dr. Robert Anholt. Apart from research, I enjoy hiking any trail that I can find and trying to convince my Clemson colleagues of the superiority of UNC sports to no avail.
Research
My research focuses on using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism to study cocaine abuse disorder. This includes investigating the effects of cocaine on both the transcriptome and fly behavior following knockdown of significant neurons in the Drosophila brain. I am also collaborating with others at the Center for Human Genetics to perform a large-scale cocaine consumption behavior screen of the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP).