ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in N315 Auditorium at Alkek

Speaker Bio: Dr. Nicole Rust is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the Visual Memory Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Rust’s research is focused on determining the neural correlates of visual memory in the context of well-defined tasks that have parallels in humans and animals.

Seminar Title: From Subjective Feelings to Brain Mechanisms: Advancing the Science of Mood

Faculty Host: Sarah Heilbronner, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø.   

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in N315 Auditorium at Alkek

Speaker Bio: Dr. Fabricio Do Monte is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. Dr. Do Monte’s research focuses on understanding the neural circuits and mechanisms underlying emotional memories.

Seminar Title: Neural Circuit Mechanisms Underlying Reward-approach and Threat-avoidance Responses

Faculty Host: Fabrizio Gabbiani, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in 301A at Cullen

Speaker Bio: Dr. Jan Willem de Gee is an Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam. Dr. de Gee’s research focuses on exploring the (shared) principles of perception and decision-making in humans and mice.

Seminar Title: Cross-species Perspectives on Arousal, Decision-making, and Belief Updating

Faculty Host: Matthew McGinley, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Pavan Bhargava is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Bhargava’s research focuses on understanding the pathophysiology of Multiple Sclerosis to identify new treatment strategies. 

Seminar Title: Unraveling Metabolic Dysfunction Driving Disease in CNS Demyelination

Faculty Host: Thomas Lloyd, M.D., Ph.D., Chair in the Department of Neurology at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Kae-Jiun Chang is an Assistant Professor of Translational Neuroscience at UTMB. His lab strives to understand the fundamental mechanisms of myelination, the comprehension of which will be crucial for promoting nervous system repair and restoring neurological functions in patients. Dr. Chang completed his Ph.D. training in Dr. Matthew Rasband’s lab at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø.

Seminar Title: Glial TDP-43 Controls the Molecular Programs of Myelination: The Same Splicing Factor in Different Flavors

Faculty Host: Matthew Rasband, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Chand Chandrasekaran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University. Dr. Chandrasekaran’s lab conducts research to better understand how the brain processes complex uni- and multisensory input and generates the appropriate action at the right time. 

Seminar Title: Multi-area Neural Circuit Dynamics Underlying Flexible Perceptual Decisions

Faculty Host: Jeffrey Yau, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Robbe Goris is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.  Dr. Goris and his lab are interested in the function of the primate visual system. The purpose of his research is to understand the computations performed by single neurons and populations of neurons in the visual and association areas of the cerebral cortex, and to express that understanding in mathematical models.

Seminar Title: Inference and Introspection in the Primate Visual System

Faculty Host: David Lipshutz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Marissa Scavuzzo is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Glial Sciences and the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.  Dr. Scavuzzo’s lab is captivated by the mechanisms that regulate cell fates and states – not just how a cell acquires their identity, but how they maintain it against all odds when challenged.

Seminar Title: Understanding Glia in the Brain Inside Your Gut

Host: Dr. Scavuzzo’s seminar is hosted by postdoc Xiaoyun Ding, who trains in Dr. Matthew Rasband’s lab at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Juliane Gust is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at Seattle Children’s Hospital.  Dr. Gust’s lab studies how cancer treatment and inflammation affect the developing brain to develop methods of immunotherapy as safely as possible.  

Seminar Title: CAR T Cells and the Brain – An Intricate Dance

Faculty Host: Hsiao-Tuan Chao, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics - Neurology at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Steven DeVries is a Professor in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. DeVries’ research focuses on signal processing in the mammalian retina with an emphasis on the structural modifications that enable synapses to perform computations with analog signals.

Seminar Title: 3D MINFLUX Reveals the Molecular Architecture of Photoreceptor Synapses

Faculty Host: Theodore Wensel, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Nelleke Van Wouwe is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.  Dr. Van Wouwe works on research to understand the function of the basal ganglia in patients with Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Tourette syndrome, and other conditions.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Host: Kelly Bijanki, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Vivek Kumar is a Research Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine - The Jackson Laboratory. Dr. Kumar’s lab studies neural circuits in the brain whose misregulation leads to behavioral abnormalities including addiction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and depression. Using mouse molecular genetics as a foundation, and a combination of computational, biochemistry, physiology, and imaging techniques, they dissect these complex conditions in mammals.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Host: Vaishnav Krishnan, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Keith Hengen is an Associate Professor of Biology at Washington University of St. Louis. Dr. Hengen is interested in understanding how computation emerges from biological systems. His laboratory uses a combination of cutting-edge systems neuroscience tools, theory, and molecular manipulations to shed light on why we sleep, how our brains support rich and diverse functions, and how disease impacts information moving through networks of neurons.  

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Host: Mingshan Xue, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø 

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in N315 Auditorium at Alkek

Speaker Bio: Dr. Gord Fishell is a Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fishell’s lab investigates how inhibitory interneurons, the brain’s primary gating system of information flow, are generated and integrated into circuits during development.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Host: Barna Dudok, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Timothy Buschman is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University. Dr. Buschman’s research aims to understand the neural mechanisms of complex cognition. His lab uses a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches to understand how cognition arises from the brain.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Hosts: Jay Hennig, Ph.D., and David Lipshutz, Ph.D., Assistant Professors in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Kang Shen is a Professor in the Departments of Biology and Pathology at Stanford University. Dr. Shen investigates the cellular mechanisms that govern the development and maintenance of the nervous system. His lab’s focus in developmental neurobiology uses the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Hosts: Assistant Professor Yudong Gao, Ph.D., and Professor Matthew Rasband, Ph.D., of the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Kelly Monk is a Senior Scientist and Co-Director of the Vollum Institute at Oregon Health & Science University.  Her lab’s long-term research goal is to understand genetic, cellular, and molecular mechanisms that govern glial cell biology and to dissect how neuron-glial and glial-glial interactions contribute to nervous system development and function.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Host: Dr. Monk’s seminar is hosted by postdoc Xiaoyun Ding, who trains in Dr. Matthew Rasband’s lab at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Theanne Griffith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology at UC Davis Health and an award-winning children’s book author. Using a combination of mouse genetics, electrophysiology, behavior, molecular profiling, and imaging, Dr. Griffith’s lab aims to uncover cellular and circuit mechanisms that govern proprioceptive signaling, as well as investigate the long-range effects of sensory proprioceptive signaling on motor networks across the body.  

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Host: Kara Marshall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Ann Hermundstad is a Group Leader and Head of Theory at the Janelia Research Campus at HHM. Dr. Hermundstad is interested in understanding how the brain creates and uses adaptive sensorimotor representations to generate flexible behavior in the face of uncertainty and environmental change. Her lab uses a combination of theory, modeling, and data analysis to explore how neural circuits can do this efficiently and flexibly, and works in close collaboration with experimentalists to test these ideas in behaving animals.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Hosts: David Lipshutz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Benjamin Hayden, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Jeanne Paz is a Senior Investigator at Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and Professor of Neurology at UC San Francisco. Her lab focuses on studying how neural synchronization and plasticity relate to adaptive and maladaptive behavior. Their interests span many levels of analysis, from the cell to the circuit to animal behavior.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Host: Xiaolong Jiang, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in M112 at DeBakey

Speaker Bio: Dr. Amy Lee is a Professor and Chair of the Neuroscience Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on ion channels and how they shape our ability to interact with the world. Her lab studies the structure/function relationships and modulation of ion channels to understand how their dysregulation leads to disorders of the nervous system.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Hosts: Assistant Professor Elizabeth Zuniga-Sanchez, Ph.D., and Professor Samuel Wu, Ph.D., of the Department of Ophthalmology at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

Time/Place: 11 a.m. in N315 Auditorium at Alkek

Speaker Bio: Dr. John Spudich is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. Dr. Spudich’s research focuses on microbial sensory rhodopsins: their molecular mechanisms and applications as molecular tools for research and gene therapy.

Seminar Title: To Be Announced

Faculty Hosts: Francois St-Pierre, Ph.D., and Mingshan Xue, Ph.D., Associate Professors in the Department of Neuroscience at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø