Highlights

  • Shivani Kharod, Castillo/Singer labs, successfully defended her dissertation “Role of Fragile X Ribonucleoprotein and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Local Translation Regulation and Plasticity in the Mature Mammalian Presynaptic Terminal.”
  • Congratulations to Ernesto Griego from the Castillo lab for being awarded a 2024 Leon Levy Scholarship in Neuroscience!
  • Claire Ward, Kaoutsar Nasrallah, Duy Tran, Ehsan Sabi, Arenski Vazquez, Luke Sjulson, Pablo Castillo and Renata-Batista-Brito published “Developmental disruption of Mef2C in medial ganglionic eminence-derived cortical inhibitory interneurons impairs cellular and circuit function”
  • Congratulations to Scott Emmons on being elected to the National Academy of Sciences!
  • Stefano Lutzu and Stephanie Rudolph, working on a project spearheaded by the Bendesky lab at Columbia, published “Evolution of a novel adrenal cell type that promotes parental care” in Nature.
  • Andrea Bae, Roland Ferger, and Jose Luis Pena published “Auditory competition and coding of relative stimulus strength across midbrain space maps of barn owls” in the Journal of Neuroscience.
  • Vladimir Jovasevic, Elizabeth Wood, Ana Cicvaric, Hui Zhang, Zorica Petrovic, Anna Carboncino, Kendra Parker, Thomas Bassett, Jelena Radulovic and colleagues published “Formation of memory assemblies through the DNA-sensing TLR9 pathway” in Nature.
  • Congratulations to Luke Sjulson on his R21 award “Validating a novel chemogenetic strategy for opioid use disorder.”
  • Congratulations to Elliot Kim, Kohn Lab, on receiving an F30 award, entitled “Effects of locomotion on visual inter-areal processing.”
  • Marcos Profes, Araven Tiroumalechetty, Peri Kurshan and colleagues have published a paper in PLOS Biology entitled “Characterization of the intracellular neurexin interactome by in vivo proximity ligation suggests its involvement in presynaptic actin assembly.”
  • Chang Hoon Cho, Ilana Vasilisa Deyneko, and Bryen Jordan recently published an article “ANKS1B encoded AIDA-1 regulates social behaviors by controlling oligodentrocyte function” in Nature Communications.
  • Congratulations to Peri Kurshan on her McKnight Scholar award “Unraveling The Mechanisms of Synapse Development, From Molecules to Behavior.”
  • Congratulations to Luke Sjulson on his Keck Foundation grant for “Hyperspectral FRET unmixing for massively multiplexed fluorescence microscopy of biological samples.”
  • Ilaria Carta, Autry Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Hypothalamic Circuit, Cellular, and Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Adaptable Caregiving Behavior.”
  • Congratulations to Saleem Nicola on the renewal of his R01 award “Nucleus accumbens processing of reward-predictive cues.”
  • Congratulations to Luke Sjulson on his R01 award “Hippocampal interactions with striatal subnetworks for reward prediction and evaluation.”
  • Congratulations to David Spray on his R01 award “Role of neuron-satellite glia cell signaling in pelvic pain and visceral cross sensitization.”
  • Congratulations to Renata Batista-Brito on her R01 award “Role of spontaneous activity towards the assembly and function of neocortical circuits.”
  • Congratulations to Renata Batista-Brito on her R01 award “Long-range inhibitory neuron circuit organization and cortical function.”
  • Congratulations to Jose Pena on his R01 award “Integrative Analysis of Adaptive Information Processing and Learning-Dependent Circuit Reorganization in the Auditory System.”
  • Congratulations to Jose Pena on his R01 award “To Elucidate Fundamental Mechanisms of Transformed Saliency Maps.”
  • Keanu Shadron, Pena Lab, successfully defended his dissertation “Evolutionary adaptations to stimulus statistics in the barn owl's midbrain.”
  • Congratulations to Stephanie Rudolph on her Whitehall Foundation award “A Cerebellum-to-Brain Stem Circuit that Controls Arousal.”
  • Kelsey McDermott, Goncalves Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Aging and Neuroimmune Mechanisms in Hippocampal Representations of Space.”
  • Maria Augustina Frechou, Goncalves Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Role of Adult-Born Neurons in Hippocampal Neural Representations of Space.”
  • Congratulations to Jada Summerville, Kurshan Lab, on receiving an F31 award, entitled “Non-Canonical Roles for Cell-Adhesion Molecules in Presynaptic Assembly.”
  • Congratulations to Frank Soldner on his R56 award “Dysregulation of Histone Acetylation in Parkinson's Disease.”
  • Congratulations to Geoffrey Teral, Batista-Brito Lab, for being named a Leon Levy Scholar in Neuroscience by the New York Academy of Sciences.
  • Brenda Abdelmesih, Autry Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Perifornical Urocortin-3 neurons in regulating female parenting behaviors under stress.”
  • Congratulations to Bryen Jordan on a new Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative grant, “Oligodendrocyte dysfunction in Autism Spectrum Disorders.”
  • Seydanur Reisli, Molholm Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Predictive processing in autism: examining prediction certainty using electroencephalography (EEG).”
  • Michelle Gulfo, Castillo Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Cellular mechanisms of neuromodulation in the dentate gyrus.”
  • Rayna Birnbaum, Sharp Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Investigating the regulation mechanisms of the microtubule severing enzyme, Fidgetin-Like 2.”
  • Renata Batista-Brito and colleagues recently published an article “Developmental loss of ErbB4 in PV interneurons disrupts state-dependent cortical circuit dynamics” in Molecular Psychiatry.
  • Congratulations to Renata Batista-Brito on being awarded an R21 for “Investigating abnormalities in top-down cortical processing and behavior in a model of the 22q11.2 deletion.”
  • Congratulations to Peri Kurshan and Heather Snell for being awarded a new R21, “Assessing synaptic and intrinsic effects of patient-derived ID-associated CACNA1A mutations using multiple models”.
  • Congratulations to Renata Batista-Brito on her new R01, “Long-range inhibitory neuron circuit organization and cortical function.”
  • Congratulations to Alberto Pereda on the successful renewal of his R01, “Plasticity of auditory electrical synapses.”
  • Congratulations to Kostantin Dobrenis on being awarded a Shared Instrument Grant for a lightsheet microscope.
  • David Hall recently renewed his R01 “Center for C. elegans Anatomy”, now in its 27th year.
  • Alexandra Quezada, Hebert Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “An in vivo platform for rebuilding functional neocortical tissue.”
  • Brenda Abdelmesih, Autry Lab, and colleagues recently published an article “Urocortin-3 neurons in the perifornical area are critical mediators of chronic stress on female infant-directed behavior” in Molecular Psychiatry.
  • Peter Kaskan recently published an article “Attention to stimuli of learned versus innate biological value relies on separate neural systems” in the Journal of Neuroscience.
  • Congratulations to Heather Snell on being selected for the Allen Institute Next Generation Leaders Council.
  • Congratulations to Rachel Ross on receiving a 2-year Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award.
  • Hui Yang, Singer Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Bridging molecular and systems neuroscience to understand hypothalamic representation of ingestive behaviors.”
  • Meera Trivedi, Buelow Lab, successfully defended her dissertation “Intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms regulating dendrite morphogenesis and heterotypic tiling.”
  • Garrett Lee, Buelow Lab, successfully defended his dissertation “Understanding the development, plasticity and functional of synaptic asymmetry.”
  • Kaoutsar Nasrallah, Castillo Lab, and colleagues recently published an article “Seizure-induced strengthening of a recurrent excitatory circuit in the dentate gyrus is proconvulsant” in PNAS.
  • Czarina Ramos, Castillo Lab, and colleagues recently published an article “Activation of extrasynaptic kainate receptors drives hila mossy cell activity” in the Journal of Neuroscience.

  • Sarah Goebel, Francesconi and Verselis labs, successfully defended her dissertation "Ly6H Mislocalization and Cholinergic Dysfunction in the Fmr1 KO Mouse: Therapeutic Implications for Fragile X Syndrome."

  • Rachel Ross was featured in a ScienceNews article about anorexia research. (Article link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/hunger-anorexia-treatment-disorder-mice)

  • Congratulations to Anita Autry for receiving the 2024 "Elsevier Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Scholar Award."

  • Andrea Bae, Pena lab, successfully defended her dissertation "Auditory competition and neural coding of stimulus selection across midbrain and forebrain of barn owls."

  • Congratulations to Anita Autry on her R01 award "Circuit, cellular, and molecular plasticity in hypothalamic microcircuits underlying flexible infant-directed behavior."

  • Victoria Sedwick, Autry lab, successfully defended her dissertation "Exploring the role of the posterior amygdala in the regulation of caregiving."

  • Aida Davila, Kohn lab, successfully defended her dissertation "Adaptation and salience to naturalistic textures in macaque V1 and V2."

  • Congratulations to Frank Soldner on his new R01 entitled "The Role of GPNMB in Parkinson's Disease."

  • Congratulations to Frank Soldner on his new R01 entitled "The Role of Aberrant Histone Acetylation in the Pathogenesis of Parkinson’s Disease and Related Synucleinopathies."