Heather Snell, Ph.D., is associate researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Kamran Khodakhah, Dominic P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. 

Dr. Heather Snell completed her undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and English literature at Louisiana State University. Afterwards, she went back home to Fort Worth Texas to complete her Ph.D. at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in the laboratory of Dr. Eric B Gonzales. Her work combined cellular biology with pharmacology, receptor modeling, and whole cell electrophysiology to investigate the interactions of the GABAA ρ1 receptor with a class of drugs called guainidine compounds which block acid sensing ion channels (ASICS). Her current work, first as a Postdoctoral Fellow and now as an Associate Researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Kamran Khodakhah, focuses on understanding the receptors and channels underlying the intrinsic activity of the GABAergic cerebellar Purkinje cells in health, but also in cerebellar disorders, such as the most common form of Episodic Ataxia, Episodic Ataxia Type 2 (EA2).