Brain

POSTPONED: Vivianne L. Tawfik, MD., Ph.D.
2023-01-27 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 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

Georg Striedter, Ph.D.
2023-02-28 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
CNLM Colloquium UCI Spotlight Series
Which model system is “best”? An argument from toxicology.
Join the CNLM in a hybrid colloquium featuring Dr. Georg Striedter, Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at UC Irvine.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Description:
As researchers seek to find treatments for various disorders, they tend to use diverse model systems, but which models are “best” for a given aim? Dr. Striedter has recently published a book on this topic and, in this talk, will discuss the challenges of model system selection from a perspective rarely mentioned at the CNLM, namely that of toxicology. As toxicologists examine whether a particular compound is toxic to humans, should they study cultured cells, mice, guinea pigs, monkeys, or (of course) multiple models? As the number of studied models goes up, what happens to the risk of obtaining false positives? Which research strategy is most cost effective? These questions have clear analogs when it comes to selecting models for research on human diseases, neurological or otherwise. Dr. Striedter will discuss these analogies briefly, using Alzheimer’s disease as a CNLM-relevant example. He intends to leave plenty of room for discussion.

UCI Conte Center 10th Annual Symposium
2023-03-14 09:00 - 15:00 | CA
The Dynamic Brain in Health and Disease
Join the UCI Conte Center for their 10th Annual Symposium featuring:

Dani Bassett, Ph.D.
J.Peter Skirkanich Professor of Bioengineering & Electrical & Systems Engineering
University of Pennsylvania
Jill Becker, Ph.D.
Patricia Y. Gurin Collegiate
Professor of Psychology
Research Professor, Michigan Neuroscience Institute
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Emily Jacobs, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Psychological & Brain Sciences UCSB
Norbert Fortin, PhD
Associate Professor
Neurobioloy & Behavior,
UCI

New Frontiers in Depression Research & Treatments by Dr. Diego Pizzagalli - March 20 @ 4 PM
2023-03-20 08:00 - 17:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
JOINT SEMINAR

Diego Pizzagalli, PhD
Director, McLean Imaging Center
Director, Center for Depression, Anxiety & Stress Research
Director, Laboratory for Translational & Affective Neuroscience
Director of Research, Division of Depression & Anxiety Disorders
Professor of Psychiatry
McLean Hospital / Harvard Medical School

New Frontiers in Depression Research and Treatments
Host: Tallie Z. Baram
Monday, March 20, 2023
4 – 5 pm PT
In-Person: Herklotz Conference Room

But also Telecast via Zoom
ID: 919 1700 1244, Password: [REDACTED]

VIEW ZOOM

Event Contact: James Weinstock | jweinsto@hs.uci.edu

contecenter.uci.edu & cnlm.uci.edu

Pierre Baldi, Ph.D. - NEW DATE
2023-03-21 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. Pierre Baldi, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Director of the Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics at UC Irvine.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

The quest for how the brain learns

We will first showcase two cutting-edge applications of modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) in biomedical imaging and in reasoning. These applications, as well as most modern AI applications (e.g., ChatGPT, AlphaFold, AlphaGO, Google Translate, Self-Driving Cars) are based on deep learning, a modern rebranding of neural networks, or connectionist methods, dating back to the 1980s, or even the 1950s. We will then briefly review the neuroscience-inspired, tortuous, historical path that has led to deep learning, and the key discoveries made along the way, highlighting the synergies and discrepancies between neuroscience and deep learning. One key conclusion is that approximate gradient descent is essential for learning. However, the standard gradient descent algorithm of deep learning called backpropagation is not biologically-plausible for multiple reasons. We will examine these reasons one-by-one and identify biologically-plausible solutions for each one of them. In particular, we will introduce and demonstrate a general class of neural architectures and learning algorithms capable of learning from data in a largely unsupervised and asynchronous manner, without the need for symmetric connectivity.

Kevin T. Beier, Ph.D.
2023-03-28 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. Kevin T. Beier, Assistant Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at UC Irvine.
Molecular mechanisms of memory stability and the molecular and circuit determinants of cocaine addiction

Description:
I will speak on two separate projects in our lab. First, we have uncovered the molecular mechanism by which administration of the Zeta Inhibitory Peptide (ZIP) causes memory loss. While it was previously believed that ZIP administration perturbs memory stability through disruption of constitutive kinase activity, recent studies have cast doubt on this hypothesis. However, ZIP’s effects on memory stability are robust, raising the question of what the actual mechanism is by which ZIP exerts its function. We have identified the basic molecular and pathways engaged by ZIP, and use this information to identify an inhibitor that, together with ZIP, enables bidirectional modulation of synaptic plasticity. Second, we are exploring the biological factors that influence the behavioral response to the administration of drugs of abuse. Some individuals that take drugs of abuse are susceptible to developing dependence, while others are resilient. The fundamental source of this variation is not understood. We will discuss our work implicating circuit- and molecular-level changes in the globus pallidus that facilitate individual differences in response to cocaine administration, and share the identification of a novel small molecule compound, isolated from rosemary, that blunts drug reward and volitional intake.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Megan Peters, Ph.D.
2023-04-04 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. Megan Peters, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at UC Irvine.
Neurocomputational approaches to the study of perceptual awareness
Description: When our brains process sensory information, they transform it into a coherent, conscious experience that we use to drive adaptive decisions and learning. In this talk I will describe several ongoing lines of research in my group that focus on understanding the neural and computational substrates of our subjective sense of the world around us. Specifically, separating the study of phenomenology from the study of signal processing capacity is challenging, so our group has been focusing on how the study of metacognitive evaluation (confidence judgements in our perceptual decisions) may shine light on these processes. Using a combination of behavior/psychophysics, computational modeling, noninvasive neuroimaging, and machine learning in humans, we seek to understand how the brain is capable of efficiently using sensory information and how this ability relates to our qualitative, phenomenal experiences.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Stefan Pinter, PhD.
2023-04-07 11:00 - 12:00 | Zoom, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Please join the UCI Center for Aging Research in Down Syndrome for their seminar series featuring Stefan Pinter, PhD. Friday, April 7th virtually on zoom.

The Havana Syndrome: A Disorder of Neuropolitics?
2023-04-19 17:00 | Virtual Event
In one of the most extraordinary cases in the history of science, the mating calls of insects were mistaken for a “sonic weapon” that led to a major diplomatic row. The lecture will trace the origins of the syndrome, the response of the U.S. government, the results of scientific investigations and opinions, the evolution of the syndrome over time and similar phenomena that have occurred in the past.
Robert W. Baloh, MD is Professor of Neurology and Head and Neck Surgery (Emeritus) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Author of 14 books and more than 350 articles in peer-reviewed journals, he is a pioneer in the study of the vestibular system and clinical neurotology. He has a recent book on Havana Syndrome co-authored with Robert Bartholomew, a sociologist from New Zealand. Two other recent books are: “Medically Unexplained Symptoms” and “Exercise and the Brain”.

James L. McGaugh Distinguished Seminar Series with Dr. Elizabeth Gould
2023-04-25 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Sex differences in early life adversity effects on hippocampal plasticity

Dr. Elizabeth Gould
Department of Psychology
Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Hybrid Event
This seminar will be live-streamed via Zoom and In-Person.
In-Person:
Herklotz Conference Room
Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
300 Qureshey Research Lab
RSVP for Zoom Link
Abstract:
Early life adversity (ELA) increases the likelihood of neuropsychiatric disease, including anxiety and mood disorders. Sex differences exist in the incidence of these conditions, and types of ELA are known to produce differential vulnerabilities. My talk will focus on our efforts to use two different mouse models of ELA to explore plasticity mechanisms underlying sex differences in behavioral outcomes. We found that an ELA model of neglect, but not one of abuse, increases ventral hippocampal-dependent avoidance behavior in both males and females. Overall, females exhibit greater avoidance than males, with further increases observed after ELA only during the diestrus phase of the estrous cycle. Increases in avoidance in ELA females during diestrus are likely related to diminished conversion of progesterone to the neurosteroid allopregnanolone in the ventral hippocampus. These changes are coincident with increased power of theta oscillations and altered composition of perineuronal nets, extracellular matrix structures known to limit plasticity, around parvalbumin-positive inhibitory interneurons. Sex differences are also observed in response to two types of ELA on social recognition, another function that involves the hippocampus. Males, but not females, show deficits in social memory after exposure to ELA models of neglect or abuse. Despite these similarities within males, underlying mechanisms differ depending on the type of ELA experienced. ELA-neglect reduced the number of stem cells and adult-born neurons in the hippocampus. This effect seems causally linked to social recognition deficits because chemogenetic stimulation of adult-born neurons in ELA-neglect mice restores this function. By contrast, ELA-abuse does not affect the number of adult-born neurons but increases perineuronal nets in the CA2 region. Collectively, these findings highlight how sex and ELA type are important determinants of hippocampal plasticity and behavioral outcomes.
For more information please check out: https://gouldlab.princeton.edu/

LEARNMEM2023
2023-04-26 08:00 - 2023-04-30 17:00 | Waterfront Beach Resort, 21100 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, CA, 92648, United States
Join the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory for the 2023 International Conference on Learning and Memory (LEARNMEM™2023) on April 26-30, 2023 in Huntington Beach, CA. The Conference will be held in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM).
LEARNMEM™2023 will feature keynote talks by distinguished speakers, scientific symposia, lightning talks, open papers, poster sessions as well as professional development and networking opportunities.
The conference will have a substantial impact on the field by accelerating the pace of team science and providing a unique networking opportunity for the next generation of leaders in neuroscience.

BME Distinguished Speaker Series, 12pm-1pm on May 5, 2023: "Real-Time, Phase-Dependent Reactivation of Memories in the Mammalian Brain"
2023-05-05 12:00 - 13:00 | McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium, 314 Los Trancos Drive, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Join us May 5th, 2023 – BME Distinguished Speaker Seminar
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Location: McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium
– Distinguished Speaker Reception –
Baja Fresh, beer, wine and soda
Time: 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Location: Natural Sciences II, 3rd floor lobby

Laura Ewell, Ph.D.
2023-05-09 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. Laura Ewell, Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at UC Irvine.
Sparse to dense networks: pattern separation and completion in health and epilepsy.
Description: The attractor theory of memory posits that CA3, the recurrent network at the core of the hippocampus, is capable of learning, storing, and recalling ensembles of neurons that represent experience. In healthy conditions there are constraints on the CA3 network that ensure that individual neural patterns comprise a small group of neurons that do not overlap with other patterns. One critical constraint called pattern separation works at the network level – and is thought to be performed by the dentate gyrus. In this talk, I will be examining the network processes of pattern separation and pattern completion through the lens of temporal lobe epilepsy – a disease in which network codes shift from sparse to dense schemes. We will discuss single unit data from freely moving rodents (epilepsy models and healthy animals) and new tasks being developed by my laboratory to study these critical memory processes.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

Frank M. Longo, M.D., PhD.
2023-05-10 16:00 - 17:00 | Tamkin Hall, Room F110, 831 Health Sciences Rd, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
The MSTP Distinguished Lecture Series is excited to announce our next speaker, Dr. Frank Longo, on Wednesday, May 10th, 2023 from 4-5 PM PT. Dr. Longo is Chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Longo’s research focuses on neurodegenerative disease, with an emphasis on translation and the development of novel therapeutics. Please see the details and registration link for this hybrid lecture below.

Talk Title: From Lab to Clinic to Lab and Creating Novel Small Molecule Approaches for Alzheimer’s and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases

When: Wednesday, May 10th, 2023, 4-5pm

Where: Tamkin Hall, Room F110, with reception to follow
Please note the new location in Tamkin Hall, Room F110.

MSTP Distinguished Lecture Series - Dr. Vivianne Tawfik (05/19/23 @ 4PM in Tamkin F110)
2023-05-19 16:00 - 17:00 | Tamkin Hall, Room F110, 831 Health Sciences Rd, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Vivianne L. Tawfik, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Director of the Fellowship in Anesthesia Research and Medicine (FARM) program
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine

Neuroimmune Interactions In Chronic Pain:
From Clinical to Clinically-Informed Basic Science
Friday, May 19, 2023
4:00 – 5:00 p.m. PT
Hybrid
In-person: Tamkin 110
& Telecast: Via Zoom

REGISTER

Organized by: MSTP students, Jacob Deyell, John Hong, May Hui, Cassie Kooiker, Sarah O’Dell, Yueqi Ren, Eli Soyfer, Laura Williamson and Celina Yang
Co-Sponsored by: UCI Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care
Event Contact: May Hui | mayh1@uci.edu

Health and Wellbeing Day 2023
2023-05-20 11:00 - 14:00 | CA
You’re invited to Health & Wellbeing Day!
Come listen to panelists share their expertise in how to prioritize your health & mental wellbeing through biology.

May 20, 2023
Talks: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Luncheon Mixer: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Register

Agenda
The Mind-Body Connection in the Neuroscience of Wellbeing (John Guzowski, PhD, Neurobiology & Behavior, BioSci)
Exercise (Jim Hicks, PhD, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, BioSci)
Sleep (Bryce Mander, PhD, Psychiatry & Human Behavior; UCI SOM)
Diet-Gut-Microbiome (Katrine Whiteson, PhD, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, BioSci)
Psychological Pillars of Wellbeing (Joel Milam, PhD, Epidemiology & Biostatistics; Public Health)
A Neuroscience Framework for Psychological Wellbeing (Golnaz Tabibnia, PhD; Psychology; Social Ecology)
Open Panel Discussion / Student Q & A (all speakers, Beth England-Mackie, and Meladee Garst, PhD)

Panelists

John Guzowski, PhD
Neurobiology & Behavior
BioSci

Jim Hicks, PhD
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
BioSci

Bryce Mander, PhD
Psychiatry & Human Behavior;
School of Medicine

Katrine Whiteson, PhD
Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, BioSci

Joel Milam, PhD
Epidemiology & Biostatistics;
Public Health

Golnaz Tabibnia, PhD
Psychology;
Social Ecology

Beth England-Mackie
Assistant Director
Student Wellness &
Health Promotion

Meladee Garst, PhD
Assistant Director/Director
Director of Student Educational
Program & Outreach

Register

If you have any questions,
please contact Lauren Morales at
biosci-events@uci.edu.

Leslie Thompson, Ph.D.
2023-05-23 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. Leslie Thompson, Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at UC Irvine.
Huntington’s disease research and therapeutics; the long winding road
Huntington’s disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that typically strikes in the prime of life with no disease modifying treatment. It is caused by a repeat expansion within the coding region of the protein Huntingtin which is expressed throughout the body and is required for a vast array of cellular processes. The disease mutation causes both a gain of function and loss of normal function which adds significant complexity to understanding disease mechanisms and advancing therapeutics. In this talk I will describe three vignettes relating to disease mechanisms and therapeutic approaches undertaken in the laboratory.
This event will be held in-person in the Herklotz Conference Center and virtually via Zoom.

2023 CNLM Award Ceremony
2023-05-25 15:00 - 17:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Join the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM) for the 2023 CNLM Awards Ceremony.
The CNLM offers awards to exceptional postdoctoral researchers, graduate trainees, undergraduates students, and faculty. Awardees will be presented with a plaque and $1,000 stipend and will be invited to present their work in brief Elevator Pitch format to the UCI academic community and the public at our annual CNLM Awards Ceremony.
Applications for the 2023 CNLM Awards are due May 3rd.

For more information, please visit: https://cnlm.uci.edu/awards/

UCI CFAR-DS Seminar Series - Dr. Beau Ances
2023-05-26 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Please join us for the UCI Center for Aging Research in Down Syndrome (CFAR-DS) Seminar Series on May 26 at 11 am PT. We are thankful to have Dr. Beau Ances from Washington University in St. Louis visiting the University of California, Irvine for this seminar. Over the past 15 years, the Ances Bioimaging Laboratory (ABL) has focused on developing novel biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases including HIV associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), autoimmune encephalitis, and Down syndrome. Dr. Ances will give a talk titled “Alzheimer Disease in Down Syndrome: One extra chromosome, two extra hugs.” The presentation will be held in the Herklotz Conference Room but if you are not able to make it to the UCI campus, you can attend through Zoom.

Natalie E. Zlebnik – ICAN Seminar Series
2023-06-01 11:00 - 12:00 | CNLM Herklotz Conference Center and Virtually via Zoom
ICAN Seminar Series
Thursday, June 1, 2023 at 11:00am
The seminar will be live streamed via Zoom and In-Person.
ZOOM LINK HERE

Natalie E. Zlebnik, PhD
Division of Biomedical Sciences, University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
“Adolescent cannabinoid exposure: effects on dopamine system development and cocaine-motivated behavior”
Abstract: Cannabis is the most commonly abused illicit drug among adolescents, and excessive use in this population is associated with the development of psychiatric conditions, including drug addiction. Adolescence is a critical period for the refinement and organization of neuronal connectivity, especially within the mesocorticolimbic dopamine circuity. In particular, dysregulation of the guidance cue receptor, Dcc, in ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons disrupts spatiotemporal targeting of dopamine axons to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). We have previously demonstrated that exposure to amphetamine in early adolescence disrupts the development of dopamine circuitry development, leading to alterations in cognitive processing and drug seeking in adulthood. Here, we examine whether exposure to the synthetic cannabinoid 1 receptor (CB1R) agonist WIN-55,212-2 (WIN) in early adolescence regulates Dcc mRNA expression in the VTA and induces alterations in drug-motivated behaviors and in dopamine function in adulthood. Preliminary findings demonstrate that adolescent exposure to WIN downregulates the Dcc receptor in the VTA and disrupts organization of mesocorticolimbic dopamine circuitry. Additionally, WIN-treated mice display aberrant self-administration of cocaine in the absence of other behavioral impairments. Ongoing experiments will elucidate functional changes in cocaine-evoked phasic dopamine release in the NAc and mPFC. Overall, these findings support that repeated exposure to a CB1R agonist in adolescence impacts mesocorticolimbic dopamine system maturation and may have important implications for dopamine-mediated learning and psychostimulant-motivated behavior later in life.
Bio: Natalie Zlebnik, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biomedical Sciences in the School of Medicine. She earned her doctorate in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota, and her postdoctoral fellowship was completed at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where her investigations focused on the role of the endocannabinoid system in normal reward-motivated behaviors and its therapeutic role in disorders of reward seeking. Her independent research program examines how drugs of abuse exploit neural mechanisms of motivated behavior to promote relapse and facilitate the transition to drug addiction. The goal is to identify molecular and circuit-level targets for the development of novel therapeutics to reduce drug craving and minimize the propensity to relapse.

Hiruy Meharena, PhD. - UCI Center for Aging Research in Down Syndrome (CFAR-DS) Seminar Series
2023-06-30 11:00 - 12:00 | Zoom, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Please join us for the UCI Center for Aging Research in Down Syndrome (CFAR-DS) Seminar Series on Friday, June 30 at 11 am Pacific Time
Hiruy Meharena, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Neurobiology and Molecular Biology in the School of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego. Hiruy’s group focuses on understanding how the brain develops at the molecular and cellular level to accomplish cognitive tasks. The overarching goal is to establish a comprehensive molecular map of the developing human brain in order to identify the cell-type specific gene-networks driving neurodevelopmental disorders associated with intellectual disability, including Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down syndrome. Mouse models and human derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are utilized to decode the genomic and molecular signatures of intellectual disability during neurodevelopment and cognitive processing.
Please register here and you will be emailed the event details.

Read Montague, Ph.D.
2023-07-11 16:00 - 17:00 | Plumwood House, 1003 Health Sciences Rd, Irvine, CA 92617, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Reinforcement Learning, Monoamines and the effort to connect neurochemical dynamics to Human Perception

Join the Conte Center @ UCI for their seminar series featuring Dr. Read Montague, Virginia Tech Carilion Vernon Mountcastle Research Professor and director of the Center for Human Neuroscience Research at the Franlin Biomedical Research Institute.
