Brain

32nd Annual SoCal Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference
2021-09-10 08:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Join Alzheimer’s Orange County and UCI MIND for the 32nd Annual Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference. This free, half-day, virtual conference will cover a wide range of topics concerning Alzheimer’s disease, from updates on research, to treatments, diagnostics, risk factors, and genetic resilience. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on brain health will also be discussed.

Half-day educational conference free and open to the public
Event will be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube
Sponsorship opportunities are available

To register, please visit: https://conference.mind.uci.edu/register/

Conte Center Seminar Series with Alicia K. Smith, PhD
2021-09-14 13:00 - 14:30 UTC | Virtual Event
Epigenetic Consequences of Trauma Exposure Across the Lifespan
Join the Conte Center @ UCI in a virtual seminar featuring Alicia K. Smith, PhD. Dr. Smith is an Associate Professor from Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
Zoom Link: https://ucihealth.zoom.us/j/91917001244?pwd=[REDACTED]

CNCM Seminar: Hong Wei Dong, PhD
2021-09-21 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Join the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping in a seminar featuring Dr. Hong Wei Dong of UCLA.

LAMP Seminar - Dr. Andy Shih
2021-09-23 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Optical Dissection of Brain Capillary Function
Join the UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic for a virtual seminar featuring Dr. Andy Shih, Assistant Professor at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute & University of Washington.
Abstract
My laboratory uses in vivo multiphoton imaging and rodent models to shed light (quite literally) on regulation of cerebral blood flow. In particular, we have focused recent attention on the vast capillary networks that distribute blood throughout the brain. We use light to both visualize capillary structure and flow, as well as noninvasively manipulate neurovascular cells that control capillary flow. We specialize in the application and development of in vivo multi-photon imaging approaches to study brain microvascular structure and function in rodents. Our recent findings include the construction of capillary networks during early postnatal development, regulation of blood flow in adulthood by capillary pericytes, and capillary changes in gray and white matter that may contribute to metabolic insufficiencies during aging and dementia. I firmly believe that our efforts will provide a unique and physiologically relevant view of microvascular function, dysfunction, and repair, and will yield strategies for protecting vascular function in diseases that degrade the brain’s microvasculature.

CNLM Colloquium with Nii Addy, Ph.D
2021-09-28 11:00 - 12:00 UTC | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
The CNLM will be hosting Dr. Nii Addy,Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, in a colloquium where he will present his latest research.
This year, the series will be held in a virtual format with some speakers presenting in-person as well. We will keep registered participants updated on the possibility of an in-person event as the situation with COVID-19 evolves.

Dr. Eid Lien -Neurobiology and Behavior Seminar
2021-10-05 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Join the UCI Department of Neurobiology and Behavior for a virtual seminar featuring Dr. Eid Lien.

Insights into Hippocampal Function from Studies of Area CA2, Guest Speaker: Serena M. Dudek, Ph.D.
2021-10-07 10:00 - 23:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event

UCI MIND Seminar Series: Jessica Rexach, MD, PhD
2021-10-07 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Functional Genomics Approach to Neuronal-Glial Mechanisms in Neurodegenerative Dementias
Join UCI MIND for an in-person seminar featuring Jessica Rexach, M.D., Ph.D.
Jessica Rexach, MD, PhD
Dr. Rexach is an Assistant Professor and board certified neurologist at University of California Los Angeles. She currently holds the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation Endowed chair. Dr. Rexach studies how molecules of the immune system contribute to neurodegenerative disease. Different neurodegenerative dementias have different causal genes, suggesting they result from distinct causal mechanisms. This includes glial and immune genes, whose roles in the CNS are unclear. In this talk, Dr. Rexach will highlight her recent ongoing works with the tools of functional genomics and how her lab leverages dementia genetics and genome-wide molecular disease phenotypes to generate unbiased, data-driven models of neural-glial mechanisms of disease. Dr. Rexach and her team use experimental systems, including iPSC-derived spheroids and glia, to test data-driven hypotheses in order to advance disease mechanisms and identify candidate drug targets.
For questions, contact vswarup@uci.edu and bmander@hs.uci.edu

5th Annual John A. Kusske Lecture Series (Virtual)
2021-10-08 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Please join us at the 5th Annual John A. Kusske Lecture Series in honor of Dr. Kusske’s legacy.
The John A. Kusske Lecture was established in 2017 to honor Dr. John Kusske, one of the former chairs of UCI School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery. Kusske’s dedication and valuable contributions have been instrumental in transforming the Department of Neurological Surgery into a well-established program of major national and international recognition.

Keynote Speaker:
William T. Couldwell, MD, PhD, FACS,
Professor and Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
Adjunct Professor of surgery University of Utah
Past President, American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS)
and American Academy of Neurological Surgery (AAcNS)
Lecture Title: Evolution of Skull Based Surgery

Free to attend but registration required, to learn more about this event, please visit: http://www.neurosurgery.uci.edu/kusske-lecture-series/index.asp

NextGen Epilepsy Seminar: Michelle Kloc, PhD and Megh Marathe, PhD
2021-10-12 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Join the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology in their NextGen Epilepsy Seminar featuring postdocs, Michelle Kloc, PhD, of the University of Vermont, and Megh Marathe, PhD, of UC Irvine, who will present their latest research.
For more information and to RSVP please visit: https://uci.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0pdu6vqDoqEtR–n9oUh-DdLM9E0TpXX_0

NBB Graduate Student Wellness first meeting
2021-10-21 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CNLM Courtyard, 320 Qureshey Research Lab Irvine, CA 92697-3800, Irvine, 92697-3800, United States
First meeting for NBB Graduate Student Wellness. All NBB graduate students are welcome. This is an informal meeting as the committee wants to consolidate ideas on the topics and workshops to be discussed from the NBB graduate student community. Feel free to bring your lunch and coffee/tea/water/juice!

CNCM Seminar: Dr. Cris Niell
2021-10-26 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Neural circuits for natural vision
Please join the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping in a seminar featuring Dr. Cris Niell, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology of the University of Oregon.

Eve Marder, Ph.D.
2021-11-02 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Perturbations Reveal that Degenerate Circuits Hide Cryptic Individual Variability
The Department of Neurobiology and Behavior will be hosting Eve Marder, professor of biology at Brandeis University, for a James L. McGaugh Distinguished Lecture.
Abstract:
More than 40 years of work on the crustacean stomatogastric nervous system on the cardiac sac, gastric mill, and pyloric rhythms have described numerous instances of circuit reconfiguration by neuromodulation and sensory inputs. These reconfigurations can involve alterations in the frequency and phases relationships of rhythms, and switching of neurons from participating in one circuit to another. Computational works shows clearly that there are multiple, degenerate sets of parameters that can result in similar output patterns. Motivated by this, we have studied the effects of several different perturbations on STG networks, revealing animal-to animal differences in their responses that are not evident without extreme perturbation

Anatomy & Neurobiology Seminar Series with Nicholas DiPatrizio, Ph.D.
2021-11-04 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Pretty Gutsy: Endocannabinoids in the Periphery Tell Us to Eat
Hosted by Daniele Piomelli, PhD
Thursday, November 4, 2021
10 AM PT
Telecast via Zoom
Free to attend. Registration required.

UCI MIND Seminar Series: Elizabeth Mormino, Ph.D.
2021-11-04 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Natural Sciences I, 1114 Natural Sciences, Irvine, CA, 92647, United States
Subtyping Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease: Typical, Atypical, and Resilient
Dr. Mormino is an assistant professor of Neurology at Stanford University, and is currently serving on the Imaging Core Steering committee for the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Dr. William Jagust, where she performed some of the initial studies applying Amyloid PET with the tracer PIB to clinically normal older individuals. During her postdoctoral fellowship with Drs. Reisa Sperling and Keith Johnson at Massachusetts General Hospital she used multimodal imaging techniques to understand longitudinal cognitive changes among individuals classified as preclinical AD. Although amyloid abnormalities are common among clinically normal older adults, and associated with elevated risk of future progression to clinical impairment, we remain unable to predict future risk at the individual participant level. Although group level effects related to amyloid status are present, trajectories of cognitive decline vary across individuals. In this talk, Dr. Mormino will highlight her tau PET work, which has emphasized more heterogeneity in the spatial patterns of tau PET uptake than expected. This pattern suggests that multiple subtypes exist within preclinical AD, and that these subtypes are likely associated with distinct risk profiles (typical, atypical, and resilient). Subtyping preclinical AD is critical for the design of prevention trials, as well as to establish a more complete understanding of mechanisms related to early AD processes.
For questions, contact vswarup@uci.edu and bmander@hs.uci.edu

UCI MSTP Distinguished Lecture Series Talk, Speaker: Jack Clifford, M.D.
2021-11-15 03:30 - 16:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
The Medical Scientist Training Program will be hosting an exciting talk with an accomplished clinician-scientist, Dr. Jack Clifford on Monday, November 15th, 2021. Event details are below:

Clifford R. Jack, Jr., MD
Professor of Radiology
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science
A Biological Definition of Alzheimer’s Disease: NIA-AA Research Framework Present and Future

Monday, November 15, 2021
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. PT
Telecast via Zoom

Organized by: MSTP students Dhruba Banerjee, Jacob Deyell, Gianna Fote, John Hong, Heechul Jun, Cassandra Kooiker and Yueqi Ren
Event Contacts: Yueqi Ren | yueqir@uci.edu
Heechul Jun | heechulj@hs.uci.edu
mstp.uci.edu

Conte Center Seminar: Greg Duncan, PhD and Sonya Troller-Renfree, PhD
2021-11-19 16:10 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
The Conte Center@UCI will be hosting, Dr. Duncan, Distinguished Professor of Education at UCI, and Dr. Troller-Renfree, Postdoctoral Research Associate at Columbia University, where they will be presenting their latest research on the impact of a poverty reduction intervention on infant brain activity. The series will be held in a virtual format. Zoom Link: https://ucihealth.zoom.us/j/91917001244?pwd=[REDACTED]

Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain, Guest Speaker: Susan Tapert
2021-11-23 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Seminar Topic: “Alcohol & the Adolescent Brain” Host: Victoria Risbrough Tuesday, November 23, 2021 1:00 – 2:15PM (PDT)

Susan Tapert, Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Chair of Academic Affairs Department of Psychiatry UC San Diego

View the flyer below for event details.
Tapert-Flyer_Final

UCI MIND Seminar Series: Omonigho M. Bubu, PhD
2021-12-02 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Amyloid and Tau Burden, and Alzheimer’s Disease Time-Dependent Progression
Guest Speaker: Omonigho M. Bubu, PhD

Dr. Bubu is an Assistant Professor and physician scientist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in the Departments of Psychiatry and Population Health, with a highly impactful programmatic research focus on sleep, aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in blacks. He did his Ph.D. from University of South Florida and a postdoctoral fellow at NYU. Dr. Bubu was awarded an NIA funded Columbia Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Alzheimer’s disease Disparities Pilot grant to conduct original research on the interaction of obstructive sleep apnea and race on plasma tau, and neurofilament light protein. Dr. Bubu’s research focuses on examining how micro-and-macro architectural sleep changes, and vascular risk, impact AD risk in blacks. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease with multifactorial risk factors. Recent evidence implicates disturbed sleep as an important risk factor. This presentation will include evidence implicating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as a risk factor for AD, as a physiologic marker associated with AD pathology/biomarkers (i.e. amyloid and tau), and as a modifier of AD risk. Results from our recent study examining whether OSA has a direct neurotoxic effect that is independent of amyloid or tau, sufficient to induce a prospective clinical diagnosis of cognitive decline, and whether OSA’s indirect effect that promotes amyloid or tau accumulation, combine with OSA to act synergistically to significantly increase AD progression risk will be presented. OSA’s association with novel plasma AD biomarkers, race and sex specific mechanisms underlying OSA-AD risk as well as future research directions will also be discussed.

For questions, contact vswarup@uci.edu and bmander@hs.uci.edu

UCI MINDcast | What is Parkinson's Disease?
2021-12-02 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Join Claire Henchcliffe, MD, DPhil, Stanley van den Noort Professor and Chair of Neurology, UCI School of Medicine on Thursday, December 2 @ 12 PM PT for a live discussion and Q&A. Bring your questions! See you this Thursday on Facebook & YouTube LIVE.

Embodiology®: From Ancestral Movement-Music Practices to Phenomenal Being
2021-12-02 13:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Embodiology®: From Ancestral Movement-Music Practices to Phenomenal Being
A Neuro-Arts Symposium Led by Professor S. Ama Wray and Professor Michael Yassa
When: Dec. 2, 1-2:15 pm and 7-8:30 pm PDT
Where: The Herklotz Conference Center

James L. McGaugh Distinguished Lecture: "A Motor Theory of Sleep Control", Guest Speaker: Yang Dan Ph.D.
2021-12-07 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Join us Tuesday, December 7th, 2021 for a James L. McGaugh Distinguished Lecture: “A Motor Theory of Sleep Control”, Guest Speaker: Yang Dan Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology at University of California Berkeley.
Hybrid Event
Note: this event will be held virtually via Zoom and In-Person in the Herkltoz Conference Room

Abstract
To identify neurons involved in sleep generation, we have performed whole-brain screening for sleep active and sleep promoting neurons. Sleep is controlled by a highly distributed network spanning the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain, and most sleep neurons are part of the central somatic and autonomic motor circuits. The intimate association between the sleep and the two motor control networks suggests that a primary function of sleep is to promote biological processes incompatible with movement.

CNCM Seminar: Dr. Guang Yang
2021-12-07 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
In vivo studies of pain-related changes of neuronal activity in the peripheral and central nervous system
Please join the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping in a virtual seminar featuring, Dr. Guang Yang of Columbia University.

Conte Center Seminar Series - Thomas Kash PhD
2022-01-11 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Join us Tuesday, January 11th, 2022 for a Conte Center@UCI Seminar: “Probing the Role of Serotonin in Alcohol Use Disorders”, Guest Speaker: Thomas L. Kash PhD from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Pascal Kaeser, MD
2022-01-13 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Mechanisms for Fast Dopamine Signaling
Please join the UCI School of Medicine Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology for a virtual seminar featuring, Pascal Kaeser, MD, Associate Professor of Neurobiology of Harvard Medical School.

CNLM Colloquium with Melissa Sharpe, Ph.D.
2022-01-25 11:00 - 12:00 UTC | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
The CNLM will be hosting, Dr. Melissa Sharpe, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles in a colloquium where she will be presenting her latest research.
This year, the series will be held in a virtual format with some speakers presenting in-person as well. We will keep registered participants updated on the possibility of an in-person event as the situation with COVID-19 evolves.

The finding that dopamine neurons support intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) has been taken to suggest that phasic firing of dopamine neurons is reinforcing. This is one of the last findings preventing a move away from the value hypothesis of dopamine. Yet there are almost no studies investigating the cognitive basis of ICSS. We tested how dopamine stimulation is represented in the brain during ICSS. We found that physiological frequencies did not support robust ICSS or promote behavior that would indicate the stimulation was represented as a meaningful reward in a specific or general sense. However, supraphysiological frequencies supported robust ICSS and this was associated with a representation of the stimulation as a specific sensory event that was capable of acting as a goal to motivate behavior. This demonstrates that dopamine neurons only support ICSS at supraphysiological frequencies, and in a manner that does not reflect our subjective experience with endogenous firing of dopamine neurons during learning. These data provide important considerations for the interpretation of ICSS when used to interrogate the physiological function of dopamine and other neuronal populations.

CNCM Seminar: Dr. Joshua Trachtenberg
2022-01-25 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Please join the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping in a seminar featuring Dr. Joshua Trachtenberg of UCLA.
For more information, please visit: https://cncm.som.uci.edu/seminars/

What Matters to Me & Why: Leslie M. Thompson, PhD
2022-01-25 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
2021-22 UCI Health Series
Leslie M. Thompson, PhD, is a Donald Bren and Chancellor’s Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine.
For more information on Dr. Thompson and the What Matters to Me & Why program, please visit:
https://chancellor.uci.edu/campus-climate/wmmw/index.php

CNLM Colloquium with Barry Setlow, Ph.D.
2022-02-01 11:00 - 12:00 UTC | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Sex, drugs, and getting old; influences on decision making and executive functions
The CNLM will host Dr. Barry Setlow, professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida College of Medicine, in a colloquium where he will present his latest research.

19th Annual EpiCenter Symposium
2022-02-08 09:00 - 12:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
19th Annual EpiCenter Symposium Brain Development & Epilepsy
The 19th Annual EpCenter Symposium includes keynote speaker Bina Santoro, PhD, assistant research scientist at the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University.
