Our purpose, inside and outside of the lab

This is a living document that we will adapt as our team, field, and social environment changes.
Here is some insight into our current mission and our core values.

Our Mission 

Our primary mission is to further our understanding of human brain diversity while maintaining an inclusive and empowering work environment. Through the use of our village culture strategy, we aim to uncover the genetic and molecular factors underlying neural phenotypic variation across a wide range of ancestral backgrounds, identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention of neurodevelopmental disorders, and develop high-throughput investigative tools that will help propel our field forward. To this end, we strive to cultivate a laboratory setting that values scientific rigor, rewards effective communication, fosters creativity, and builds independence for all team members, regardless of ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientiation, or physical traits. We will pursue excellence not just in our scientific endeavors, but also in the ways in which we communicate with each other, collaborate with other labs, and disseminate information to the general public.

Our Values

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)
 
Diversity sits at the core our research, team, and mission.
 
We are led by a Salvadoran-American principal investigator who was the first in his family to graduate from college.
 
We use cell lines from human donors of disparate ancestral backgrounds to ensure that our biological results are widely applicable to many populations.
 
We actively recruit scientists from underrepresented groups, and pride ourselves on our DEI efforts outside the laboratory including SACNAS, BRAINS, Intersections, and the UCLA Human Genetics JEDI committee.
 
We stand with the Universities of California in wholly rejecting intolerance and discrimination. 
 
Black Lives Matter. Stop Asian Hate.
Collaboration & Mentorship

Our ambitious goals are only achievable if we work and learn together.

We have adopted a people-first approach to all collaborations inside and outside of the lab. This manifests as lab policies that protect work-life balance, whole-group activities that improve the ways we communicate with each other, and guidelines that help establish clear timelines and expectations for projects.

We emphasize the importance of mentorship and seek team mates who are generous with their time and knowledge. 

All members of the Wells lab craft mentor-mentee agreements that are reviewed and renewed each year. This document ensures that every person in the lab is being properly trained and is making progress towards their scientific and professional goals.
Science Advocacy & Outreach 

Science is for everyone, and all should have the opportunity to be a part of this community.

 

We share our expertise with the world in an empathy- and narrative-based manner that removes conceptual barriers. Our accessible communication style helps build support for our scientific mission, while also combating mis-information.

 

We frequently engage with lawmakers at the federal level to advocate for increases to the NIH and NSF budget, and are active participants in the SfN Early Career Policy Ambassador program

 

We host lab tours for musicians and celebrities in the Los Angeles area to expand the reach of our communication efforts. We will continue work in this space, and will pursue innovative ways to interface with our communities.