Brain

Patrick J. Lao, PhD
2022-10-28 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual Event
Please join the UCI Center for Aging Research in Down Syndrome (CFAR-DS) Oct. 28 at 11 am PT for their Seminar Series presentationtitled Alzheimer’s disease and vascular neuroimaging in adults with Down syndrome, presented by Patrick J. Lao, PhD.
Patrick J. Lao, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Neurology Sciences at the Taub Institute, Sergeivsky Center, and Department of Neurology at Columbia University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Medical Physics and completed his postdoctoral training at Columbia University in vascular MRI and applied cross-cultural neuropsychology. His research uses multimodal neuroimaging and plasma-based biomarkers to study Alzheimer’s disease. Areas of interest include applying these methods to adults with Down syndrome and in community-based settings.
This event will take place via Zoom:

https://ucihealth.zoom.us/j/92151970794?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 921 5197 0794
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Takaki Komiyama, PhD
2022-11-04 14:00 - 15:00 | Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB) and Virtually Via Zoom, 419 Physical Sciences Quad, Irvine, 92697, United States
Motor cortex circuits for learned movements
Join the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping in a hybrid seminar featuring Dr. Takaki Komiyama, Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Neurobiology at UC San Diego.
This hybrid seminar will be taking place in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB)2020 & Telecast via Zoom.

Abstract:
Motor cortex circuits are highly plastic, enabling adaptive control and learning of body movements. I will discuss two projects. In the first project, we studied the spatial and functional specificity of synaptogenesis that occurs during motor learning. This was done by longitudinal functional imaging of dendritic spines followed by correlated electron microscopy. In the second project, we are investigating the roles of motor cortex ensemble activity in the control of learned movements. This is done by population calcium imaging combined with holographic two-photon optogenetic stimulation of neural ensembles.

Trygve Bakken, Ph.D.
2022-11-08 10:00 - 11:00 | Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB) and Virtually Via Zoom, 419 Physical Sciences Quad, Irvine, 92697, United States
Cellular diversity and evolutionary specializations in human neocortex
Join the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping in a hybrid seminar featuring Dr. Trygve Bakken, Assistant Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in a hybrid seminar.

Alyson Zalta, Ph.D
2022-11-08 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
Exploring morning light therapy as a novel treatment for traumatic stress
CNLM Colloquium UCI Spotlight Series
Join the CNLM in a hybrid colloquium featuring Dr. Alyson Zalta, Associate Professor of Psychological Science at UC Irvine.
Description:
Trauma contributes to a wide variety of mental health problems including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, substance use, and suicidality. Although front-line psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies exist for traumatic stress, evidence suggests that many individuals fail to receive treatment, remain symptomatic despite treatment, or drop out of treatment before its conclusion. Uptake of these treatments is poor for several reasons including stigma, avoidance, unpleasant side effects, and poor accessibility. New treatments are needed for traumatic stress that can overcome these critical barriers to care while targeting the underlying biological mechanisms of the pathology. Morning light treatment has good potential as a novel non-invasive, low risk, scalable treatment for traumatic stress. Evidence suggests that morning light may improve traumatic stress by reducing reactivity in the amygdala, a brain region implicated in the pathophysiology of PTSD and anatomically linked to circadian photoreceptors in the eye. This seminar will describe the results of a randomized pilot trial that provides initial proof-of-concept that light treatment can improve traumatic stress and preliminary results from an ongoing randomized clinical trial aimed at evaluating the brain mechanisms underlying morning light therapy for traumatic stress.

This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Elizabeth Chrastil, PhD
2022-11-08 15:00 - 16:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
NBB Tenure Seminar
Join the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior in a hybrid seminar featuring Dr. Elizabeth Chrastil.
Abstract:
Navigation is a central part of daily life. For some, getting around is easy, while others struggle. Some clinical populations, such as those with Alzheimer’s Disease, display wandering behaviors and extensive disorientation. Working at the interface between immersive virtual reality and neuroimaging techniques, my research uses these complementary approaches to inform questions about how we acquire and use spatial knowledge. In this talk, I will discuss both some of my recent work and current experiments that center on three main themes: 1) how we learn new environments, 2) how the brain tracks spatial information, and 3) how individuals differ in their spatial abilities. More broadly, I will discuss how navigation lends insight into processes of human learning and memory. The behavioral and neuroimaging studies presented in this talk inform new frameworks for understanding spatial knowledge, leading to novel approaches to answering the next major questions in navigation, learning, and memory.

Jennifer Gelinas, MD, PhD
2022-11-09 16:00 - 17:00 | CA
EpiCenter Seminar Series
Join the UCI Epilepsy Research Center for a hybrid seminar featuring Dr. Jennifer Gelinas, Assistant Professor of Neurology from Columbia University.

Psychedelics and Neuroplasticity
2022-11-10 09:30 - 14:30 | Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB) 1200, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Join the UCI Center for the Neural Circuit Mapping in a mini symposium, Psychedelics and Neuroplasticity .

Yongsoo Kim, PhD
2022-11-17 10:00 - 11:00 | Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB) and Virtually Via Zoom, 419 Physical Sciences Quad, Irvine, 92697, United States
Neuronal and non-neuronal cell type mapping in the mouse brain
Join the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping in a hybrid seminar featuring Dr. Yongsoo Kim, Associate Professor from the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, College of Medicine from Penn State.

Daniel Vogt, PhD
2022-11-17 16:00 - 17:00 | CA
Join the UCI Epilepsy Research Center in a hybrid seminar featuring Dr. Daniel Vogt, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University.

Julio Licinio, MD, PhD, MBA, MS
2022-11-18 10:00 - 11:00 | Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB) and Virtually Via Zoom, 419 Physical Sciences Quad, Irvine, 92697, United States
Please join the Central for Neural Circuit Mapping at UCI’s Special Seminar Friday, November 18, at 9:00 AM PT with a presentation by Dr. Julio Licinio titled “The epigenetic reader Plant Homeodomain Finger Protein 21B (PHF21B) regulates social memory, associated behaviors, glutamatergic neurotransmission, and synaptic plasticity–related genes in the hippocampus”

This event will be held in-person in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB) 1310 and virtually via Zoom.

Dominik R. Bach, MD, PhD
2022-11-29 09:00 - 10:00 | CA
Please join the Conte Center at UCI’s Seminar Series Tuesday, November 29, at 9:00 AM PT with a presentation by Dominik R. Bach, MD, PhD titled Human Action Selection Under Threat: Computing Adaptive Behaviour.

Jonathan Santoro, M.D.
2022-12-02 11:00 - 12:00 | Plumwood House, 1003 Health Sciences Rd, Irvine, CA 92617, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Neuroinflammation and Immunotherapy Responsiveness in Down Syndrome Regression Disorder
Join the UCI Center for Aging Research in Down Syndrome (CFAR-DS) for their seminar series featuring a presentation by Jonathan Santoro, MD.
Dr. Santoro serves as the Director of Neuroimmunology and Demyelinating Disorders Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He is also an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Dr. Santoro is a passionate clinician-scientist who has published over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He is one of only a handful of national clinician-scientists who treat neurologic disorders associated with Down syndrome. His research expertise in inflammation is related to cerebrovascular disease and neurocognitive disorders such as Down syndrome regression syndrome. Dr. Santoro is a long-standing advocate for persons with disabilities and has lobbied locally in California and on Capitol Hill.
This event will be hybrid with an in-person option at UC Irvine in the Plumwood House Showa Denko Conference Room located at 1003 Health Sciences Rd, Irvine, CA 92617. If you’d like to join in person or via Zoom, please email cghazal@hs.uci.edu.

Georg F. Striedter, Ph.D.
2022-12-05 10:00 - 11:00 | Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB), 4020 (Telecast via Zoom), 419 Physical Sciences Quad, Irvine, 92697, United States
Evolutionary Conservation versus Change in Brains and Other Biological Systems

Comparative neuroanatomists in recent years have made great progress in delineating the conserved “Bauplan” of vertebrate brains. However, brains also evolved some major “new” brain regions that do not fit neatly into the conserved Bauplan view. In particular, it appears that ray-finned fishes and amniotes have independently evolved a dorsal pallium, which comprises the neocortex in mammals. Even for homologous brain areas, changes in connectivity have been common – and often convergent between distantly related species, such as primates and birds. To expand our understanding of brain evolution, consider an analogy to evolving molecular systems. In this analogy, highly conserved genes (including “human disease genes”) correspond to conserved brain regions, whereas genetic losses and gains correspond to the loss and gain of major brain regions. Moreover, molecular pathways and interactomes are analogous to neuroanatomical circuits; they, too, exhibit significant variation, nicely captured by the phrase “genetic rewiring.” Because of this molecular variation, the systems-level function(s) of individual genes and proteins can vary significantly over evolutionary time. This “causal drift” makes it difficult to extrapolate from “simple systems” to more complex networks, and from model species to humans. Analogs of causal drift in molecular networks have been suggested also for neuronal networks (e.g. neocorticalization), but they have not been studied thoroughly. Filling that knowledge gap would be worthwhile.

The Cardiac Interatrial Septum & Stroke Risk Symposium
2022-12-07 15:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Please join the UCI School of Medicine on December 7, 2022 3:30 – 7:30 p.m. for the Cardiac Interatrial Septum & Stroke Risk Symposium
This event will be held via zoom

C. Dirk Keene, M.D., Ph.D.
2023-01-05 11:00 - 12:00 | Natural Sciences 1114, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Co-sponsored by UCI MIND and UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping.
Dr. Keene is the Nancy and Buster Alvord Endowed Chair in Neuropathology, Professor of Pathology, Adjunct Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Neurological Surgery, Director of the Neuropathology Division, and Leader of the Neuropathology and Targeted Molecular Testing Core at the University of Washington. Dr. Keene is Board Certified in Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology and regularly attends on each of the clinical neuropathology subspecialties (neurosurgical, neuromuscular, ophthalmic, and autopsy) for UW Medicine.

Elizabeth Head, Ph.D.
2023-01-17 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
CNLM Colloquium UCI Spotlight Series
What we can learn about Alzheimer disease from people with Down syndrome
Join the CNLM in a hybrid colloquium featuring Dr. Elizabeth Head, professor of pathology at UC Irvine.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Description: Virtually all people with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer disease neuropathology by the time they are 40 years of age. Interestingly, the first signs of cognitive decline may not occur until after 50 years of age, and some people reach their 60’s without clinical decline. By examining the brains of people with Down syndrome across the lifespan we can understand the order of events in the development of Alzheimer disease, including when and where cerebrovascular changes and neuroinflammation occur. Learning about the sequence of events of Alzheimer disease pathogenesis in Down syndrome will allow us to design prevention and treatment interventions. Information learned from people with Down syndrome may in turn, help us promote successful aging in this vulnerable group and may be translated to all people at risk of Alzheimer disease.

Anastasios Tzingounis, Ph.D.
2023-01-17 16:00 - 17:00 | SSIHI Palmer Family Research and Conference Room, Rm 2608, 856 Health Sciences Rd. Rm 2608, Irvine, CA, 92617, United States
Join the UCI Epilepsy Research Center in a hybrid seminar featuring Professor Anastasios Tzingounis from the Department of Physiology & Neurobiology at the University of Connecticut.
Of Mice and KCNQ Channels: Lessons Learned from Animal Models

Laura DeNardo, Ph.D.
2023-01-19 10:30 - 11:30 | Plumwood/Showa Denko Lecture Hall
Join the UCI Anatomy & Neurobiology Department in a seminar featuring Dr. Laura DeNardo, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Development and Function of mPFC Threat Avoidance Circuits.

Liberals, Conservatives, and the Political Brain: fMRI Studies of Political Ideology
2023-01-20 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Please join the UCI Center for Neuropolitics Friday, January 20, 2023 from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. for their lecture series, Liberals, Conservatives, and the Political Brain: fMRI Studies of Political Ideology

Lisa Flanagan, Ph.D.
2023-01-24 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
CNLM Colloquium UCI Spotlight Series
Regulation of early neural development by glycosylation
Join the CNLM in a hybrid colloquium featuring Dr. Lisa Flanagan, Associate Professor of Neurology at UC Irvine.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Description:
Deciphering how neural stem cells function in early development to generate the cerebral cortex will help us better understand normal and disrupted brain formation and organization. We used neural stem cells, genetic mouse models, and innovative engineering approaches to uncover a novel role for glycosylation in directing early neural development. N-linked glycosylation of the neural stem cell plasma membrane controls neuronal and astrocytic differentiation, likely through regulation of cell surface protein binding to extracellular ligands. Increased formation of cell surface highly-branched N-glycans promotes astrocyte generation whereas loss of these glycans disrupts neuron differentiation in vitro and in vivo. Glycosylation plays a critical and previously unrecognized role in cell differentiation and early brain development and may help to explain cellular responses to extracellular cues.

Conor Liston, Ph.D., M.D.
2023-01-25 15:00 - 16:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
Conor Liston, Ph.D., M.D.
Associate Professor
Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute/Psychiatry, Weill
Cornell Medicine
Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023
3:00 – 4:00 pm PST
Herklotz Conference Center*
Probing and rescuing dysfunctional brain circuits in depression

POSTPONED: Vivianne L. Tawfik, MD., Ph.D.
2023-01-27 16:00 - 17:00 | Irvine Hall, Bldg. 835, Nelson Auditorium (G2), 252 Health Sciences Rd, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
POSTPONED – Stay tuned for new date.

The MSTP Distinguished Lecture Series is proud to announce our next speaker, Dr. Vivianne L. Tawfik, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, who is presenting Neuroimmune Interactions In Chronic Pain: From Clinical to Clinically-Informed Basic Science. Dr. Tawfik’s work has been pivotal towards understanding the contribution of peripheral immune cells and spinal cord glial towards chronic pain conditions. In particular, her research has identified immune system differences between male and female mice that contribute towards divergent recovery between sexes after injury. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Tawfik also leads an outpatient practice that treats chronic pain patients after limb injury or with chronic postsurgical pain. In addition to her role as an Associate Professor, Dr. Tawfik also serves as the Director of the Fellowship in Anesthesia Research & Medicine (FARM) program.

Attendees (virtual and in-person) must register.

Irvine Brain Bee
2023-01-28 | CA
Please join us at the CNLM for the annual Brain Bee competition.
The program is directed by Manuella Oliveira Yassa and organized by a committee led by neuroscience PhD students and CNLM Ambassadors Rachael Hokenson and Winny Ning. The goal of the Irvine Brain Bee is to inspire high school students in Orange County to learn about the brain and provide opportunities for engagement with university students and professors.
The 2023 Irvine Brain Bee Competition will take place on January 28, 2023 on the UC Irvine campus. In addition to the competition itself, the day will include neuroscience demonstrations and hands-on activities as well as panel discussions and a keynote lecture. The competition is 100% free for students.
Program participants will be required to be fully vaccinated or have an approved exception prior to the program. Those with an approved exception will be required to provide proof of a negative test taken within 72 hours of the program.

CANCELLED - Ozgun Gokce, PhD
2023-01-30 10:30 - 11:30 | 1st floor Conference Room, Gillespie Neuroscience research facility, 837 Health Sciences Rd, Irvine, United States
Join the UCI Anatomy & Neurobiology Department in a seminar featuring Dr. Ozgun Gokce, Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD) at Ludwig Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU). Single-Cell and Spatial Transcriptomics Analyses Reveal CD8 T Cells as the Driver of Brain Aging.
EVENT CANCELLED

Javier Diaz Alonso, Ph.D.
2023-01-31 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
CNLM Colloquium UCI Spotlight Series
Chasing the AMPAR slot(s). Multiple mechanisms modulate synaptic strength.
Join the CNLM in a hybrid colloquium featuring Dr. Javier Diaz Alonso, Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at UC Irvine.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Description:
Long-term potentiation (LTP) of excitatory synapses is essential for multiple forms of learning and memory formation. Pioneering work from CNLM members and others led to a model for NMDAR-dependent LTP where synaptic strengthening depends on the recruitment of AMPA receptors to the postsynapse. Despite decades of research, the molecular mechanisms underlying the activity-dependent insertion of AMPA receptors at synapses, and specifically which regions in the receptor complex are required for trafficking and docking, are not fully understood. In the past few years, we have assessed the role played by different protein domains of the AMPAR complex in these processes, focusing on: i) the sequence diverse intracellular AMPAR C-tails, ii) the extracellular ATDs, which protrude into the synaptic cleft and iii) the AMPAR auxiliary proteins TARPs, which interact with synaptic scaffolds. Our recent and ongoing work is revealing an important role for all of these 3 elements, yet our data suggests that they play different roles in different synapses and control different AMPAR-dependent processes. I will discuss our unpublished work, in collaboration with other CNLM labs, dissecting novel molecular mechanisms modulating the activity-dependent synaptic accumulation and subsynaptic positioning of AMPARs to support novelty processing, learning and memory formation.

Aaron Bornstein, Ph.D.
2023-02-07 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
CNLM Colloquium UCI Spotlight Series
Join the CNLM in a hybrid colloquium featuring Dr. Aaron Bornstein, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine. This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom. Description: Reconciling adaptive and maladaptive responses to uncertainty: Data and theory.

Kei Igarashi, Ph.D.
2023-02-14 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
Circuit mechanisms of associative memory in health and Alzheimer’s disease
CNLM Colloquium UCI Spotlight Series
Join the CNLM in a hybrid colloquium featuring Dr. Kei Igarashi, Associate Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at UC Irvine.
Description:

Mounting evidence shows that dopamine in the striatum is critically involved in reward-based reinforcement learning. However, it remains unclear how dopamine reward signals influence the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit, another brain network critical for learning and memory. Using in vivo optogenetic and electrophysiological approaches, we recently found that dopamine signals from the ventral tegmental area control encoding of cue-reward association rules in the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) (Lee et al., Nature, 2021). Our results suggest that LEC represent a cognitive map of abstract task rules, and LEC dopamine facilitates the incorporation of new memories into this map. I would like to discuss how we can unify the roles of two central, but previously independent, players in learning – dopamine and the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit – in future studies. In the second part of the talk, I will share our results on how neuronal activities in the entorhinal-hippocampal memory circuit are lost in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (Jun et al., Neuron, 2020), and discuss how the systems neuroscience approach can contribute to the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Conte Center Seminar Series with Dylan G. Gee, PhD
2023-02-21 16:00 - 17:00 | Gross Hall, 4th Floor in room #4001, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Please join The Conte Center at UCI for a seminar from Dylan G. Gee, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Yale University, on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 from 4-5pm. In-Person Location: Gross Hall 4th Floor, Zoom Link can be found on the seminar section on the website linked below.

Examining Mothers' Reflections on the Birth and Diagnosis of their Child with Down Syndrome: A Mixed Methods Approach
2023-02-24 11:00 - 12:00 | CA
Please join the UCI Center for Aging Research in Down Syndrome (CFAR-DS) Seminar Series Friday, February 24 at 11:00 AM PT with a presentation by Angela Lukowski, Ph.D. titled Examining Mothers’ Reflections on the Birth and Diagnosis of their Child with Down Syndrome: A Mixed Methods Approach.

Angela Lukowski, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine. Her work focuses on children with developmental disabilities that co-occur with structural damage to regions of the brain implicated in higher-level cognitive processes. Most recently, she and her colleagues have been studying whether mothers of children with Down syndrome (DS) differentially process and reflect on the diagnosis and birth of their child based on the timing of their child’s DS diagnosis (during gestation or after birth). Dr. Lukowski will present quantitative data from mothers’ narratives of these events (e.g., use of cognition and emotion terms, event ratings) along with qualitative data focusing on mothers’ uncertainty management and resilience. Implications and future directions will be discussed.

This event will be hosted via Zoom. If you’d like to attend, please Register Here and a Zoom link will be emailed to you.

20th Annual EpiCenter Symposium
2023-02-28 09:00 - 15:00 | Gross Hall, 4th Floor in room #4001, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Please join the UCI Epilepsy Research Center on Feb 28th for the 20th Annual EpiCenter Symposium. Keynote: Ivan Soltesz, PhD; James R Doty Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurosciences, Stanford University Featured faculty talks: Christine Gall, PhD; Os Steward, PhD; Katie Thompson-Peer, PhD; and Beth Lopour, PhD Featured trainee talks: Brittney Boublil, PhD; Deepak Subramanian, PhD; Jasmine Chavez, Conor Dorian
