[September – October 2023]
We are pleased that A&N will be welcoming 6 new graduate students to our department this year. Four are 2nd year students, with one being a MSTP student, and two are first year students. In addition, Dr. Laura Ewell is taking over the role of Associate Director of the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program.
Congratulations to Dr. Kei Igarashi, who received the distinction of Chancellor’s Fellow (2023-26) for his extraordinary achievements in scholarship and work on the circuit mechanism of memory and Alzheimer’s disease. This honor also comes with an award of $25K per year in research support. In addition, Dr. Igarashi was featured in an August 9th article in the Orange Coast Magazine as a “person of interest” for his work on Alzhemier’s disease and being recently awarded the Japan Academy Medal in February.
The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, headed by Dr. Xiangmin Xu, held their annual conference on August 21st -23rd at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences & Engineering. This year’s meeting on Structure, Function and Development of Neural Circuits featured 31 speakers, two workshops, and two bootcamps.
Dr. Munjal Acharya, and colleague Dr. Alexandre Chan (School of Pharmacy and Pharm Sci), have been awarded an $2.4 million NIH grant from the National Cancer Institute to work on neurotrophic strategies to mitigate chemotherapy-related brain injury.
Dr. Andre Obenaus and colleagues, Dr. Vivek Swarup (UCI, Biological Sciences) and Dr. Denes Agoston (Uniformed Services Univ.) have been awarded a 5-year grant from NIH to work on the blood borne protein biomarkers of cerebrovascular pathologies in Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.
Dr. Magdalene Seiler’s work on human stem cells as a treatment for retinal degeneration was featured in Drug Discovery News. Their work showed that transplantation of retinal organoids into the back of eyes integrated into the host and markedly improved vision in a rat model of retinal degeneration.
Dr. Jamie Wikenheiser and colleagues were awarded the satiric 2023 IG Nobel Prize in Medicine for their unique work on “Measurement and quantification of cadaveric nasal hairs” published International Journal of Dermatology. The aim of the award is to “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”.
Postdoctoral researcher Yannick Fotio, PhD (Piomelli Lab) has received an NIH K-99 award under the NIH HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) Initiative con-supported by NCCIH and NINDS. This award will support Yannick’s work on the role for peripheral NAAA-regulated lipid signaling in the control of hyperalgesic priming.
Heechul Jun, MSTP (PhD 2022, Igarashi Lab), has been awarded the 2023 Krieg Cortical Kudos Scholar award. This award, given by the Cajal Club to a recent PhD graduate, is for Heechul’s outstanding contribution to understanding the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit, and exploring the brain regions critical for learning and memory at both basic levels and in the disease state.
Nora Jade Nabi (Steward Lab) received the Rose Hills Foundation Fellowship for 2023-24. This fellowship is awarded to meritorious underrepresented graduate students in STEM programs and to develop and support future leaders.
Cassandra Kookier, MSTP (Baram Lab) received the UCI MD-PhD Outstanding Service Award.
Jazmine Moore (and Tzu Chia (nini) Liu (both Flannagan Lab) have been awarded pre-doctoral fellowship slots on a NIH-NINDS funded T32 for Stem Cell Translational Medicine for Neurological Disorders.
Daisy Gallardo (Steward lab) and Jasmine Chavez (Lynch and Gall labs) are each recipients of the Society for Neuroscience 2023 Trainee Professional Development Award. This award recognizes trainees who demonstrate scientific merit and excellence in research, and comes with a travel stipend for this year’s meeting in Washington D.C.
[July – August 2023]
Amalia Floriou-Servou, a postdoctoral researcher in the Baram Lab, received a “Postdoc.Mobility” grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. This award ($150,000) will support Amalia’s work for 2 years.
Dr. Kei Igarashi received the 2023 Silver Beaker Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Basic Science Faculty Member (voted on by the MS1 and MS2 classes). He was also one of three basic science faculty members to receive a certificate for Medical Education Excellence in Teaching.
The Human Neuroscience course received the 2023 AMSG Excellence in Teaching – First Year Course award. Congratulations to course director Dr. David Lyon and all of the faculty who teach in this course.
Dr. Yama Akabari was awarded a 2023 ICTS Pilot Studies award on “Brain-heart connections during cardiac arrest for early-stage prognosis and treatments to improve outcomes”.
Dr. Oswald Stewart was awarded a 2023 ICTS Pilot Studies award for “Quantitative assessment of arm movement function for nerve repair prognosis”.
Dr. Laura Ewell has received a 5-year RO1 award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The work under this grant is focused on determining the shared neuronal network mechanism of focal epileptic discharges and impaired memory processing in temporal lobe epilepsy.
Dr. Xiangmin Xu and Gordon Fishell (Harvard University), are co-principal investigators on a $3.8 million BRAIN Initiative grant from NIH to enhance the production and distribution of cell-type-specific viral targeting reagents. These are emerging as critical tools in neuroscience research, and this award will help the campus become a national center for such resources. Partners in this effort also include other UCI faculty including A&N faculty member Dr. Autumn Ivy.
[June 2023]
Mulatwau Haile, graduate student researcher (Chen Lab), received Honorable Mention for the Dr. Lorna Carlin Excellence in Research Award.
Matthew Sandoval, a current lab assistant (Diaz-Alonso Lab) and incoming A&N PhD student, received the Eugene Cota-Robles fellowship. This is the most prestigious diversity fellowship at UC Irvine. It provides a stipend and tuition for the 1st and 4th years of graduate school.
Gerado Sandoval, graduate student researcher (Diaz-Alonso Lab), presented a poster and a talk at the LEARNMEM2023 conference held in Huntington Beach.
Cassie Kooiker, graduate student researcher (Baram Lab), received Honorable Mention for the Dr. Lorna Carlin Excellence in Research Award.
Lara Taniguchi (Baram Lab) was chosen as the 2022-23 Best A&N Progress in Neuroscience (PiN) Speaker amoung pre-doc trainees. Lara also received the 2023 John Haycock Graduate Student Travel Award from the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.
Yannick Fotio (Piomelli Lab) was chosen as the 2022-23 A&N Best Progress in Neuroscience Speaker among post-doc trainees.
Rachael Hokenson (Baram Lab) received the Renée Harwick Advanced Graduate Student Award from the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.
Javier Diaz-Alonso’ undergraduate researcher Carmen Ramirez Alonso received the Robert Ernst prize from the School of Biological Science’s Excellence in Research Program.
Daniele Piomelli’s recent paper “Frequent Low-Dose Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in Adolescence Disrupts Microglia Homeostasis and Disables Responses to Microbial Infection and Social Stress in Young Adulthood” published in Biological Psychiatry (Lin et at., Dec 2022) was featured in a Psychology Today article by Dr. Timmen Cermak.
Xiangmin Xu has received an NIH grant ($10 million) for a multi-institutional team led by UCI. It will focus on single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic analysis of brain cell vulnerabilities to tauopathies in early AD impacted brain regions
[April-May 2023]
Jennifer Yonan (Steward lab) has been awarded a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. In a highly competitive process, only individuals identified as alternatives amongst the top-ranked UC President’s Postdoc program are eligible for consideration of Chancellor’s appointments. This fellowship will fund Dr. Yonan for two years as she works on PTEN deletion and epilepsy.
Max Garduño (Xu Lab) has been awarded a prestigious Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. This award will support Max for 3 years of graduate work, and he is invited to attend the Conference of Ford Fellows.
Tuan-Chen Tsai (Watanabe lab) has received a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the FRAXA Foundation. The $100,000 award will support Dr. Tsai’s work on “Modeling Fragile X Syndrome using multi-regions human organoids” for two years.
Jason Lee (Igarashi Lab) received ’Honorable Mention’ for this year’s SOM Basic Science Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award.
Mulatwau Haile (Chen Lab) received the President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship from UCI’s Graduate Division. This is a one of UCI’s most prestigious Diversity Fellowships, and will support Mulatawa in her final graduate year, 2023-24.
Gregory de Carvalho (Chen Lab) has received a Faculty Mentor Program Fellowship from UCI Graduate Division. This fellowship is designed to increase the number of students completing their PhD degree and successfully attaining a faculty position. It will support Greg’s graduate work for one year.
Alex Mabou-Tagne (Piomelli Lab) won First Place Award and a monetary prize for his oral presentation at the 7th Annual UCI Postdoctoral Research Symposium. Dr. Mabou-Tagne works on effects of cannabinoids and fatty acid ethanolamides in pain models.
Danielle Piomelli has been awarded $2 million from the Department of Cannabis Control for a translational study on the short- and long-term effects of high-dose THC. Dr. Piomelli also was awarded a Proof of Product grant for the study of a medical food that prevents the emergence of chronic pain after surgery. He was also recently interviewed by USA Today, and met with a Korean delegation regarding developing CBD medications as part of UCI’s Office of Global Engagement.
Bobby Hunt’s recent paper “Brain-wide reconstruction of inhibitory circuits after traumatic brain injury” published in Nature Communications (2022) was selected for the 2023 STAT Madness competition to find the best innovation in science and medicine. Bobby’s report made it to the 3rd round of 16 finalists.
Autumn Ivy, Joint appointee in Anatomy & Neurobiology, was awarded a CHOC Chief Scientific Officer grant in collaboration with colleagues at CHOC and Xiangmin Xu (Anatomy & Neurobiology). In addition, Dr. Ivy gave a platform talk for “Current Protocols: Molecular Neuroscience”; her work was one of the highlighted protocols published in 2022. Dr. Ivy also gave a UCI Health “What Matters to me and Why” presentation last month.
Munjal Acharya has been selected as the winner of the 2023 School of Medicine Equity and Diversity in Mentoring Award. Dr. Acharya will be presented this award, that also includes a monetary prize, at a ceremony in June.
Xiangmin Xu has been selected as the winner of the 2023 School of Medicine Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Research Award. Dr. Xu’s work focuses on brain circuit organization and function. He will receive this award and a monetary prize this June.
Mark Fisher, Joint appointee in Anatomy & Neurobiology, received the 2023 UCI School of Medicine “Innovation in Mentoring Award. In addition, Dr. Fisher and Dr. Xiangmin Xu (A&N Dept), with colleagues in Medicine, are PIs on an internal $150,000 grant for the “Investing to develop Center-Scale Multidisciplinary Convergence Research Programs” sponsored by UCI Office of Research. They will be studying erythrocyte-dependent mechanisms of cerebral microvascular disease.
[March 2023]
Gregory DeCarvalho (Chen Lab) had a first-author paper, entitled “Early life adversity impaired dorsal striatal synaptic transmission and behavioral adaptability to appropriate action selection in a sex-dependent manner”, recently accepted to Frontiers in Molecular Science.
Alexa Tierno and recently graduated Jan Frankowski (both Hunt lab) are co-first authors on the Nature Communications (2022) paper “Brain-wide reconstruction of inhibitory circuits after traumatic brain injury” that has been selected for the 2023 STAT Madness competition.
Cassie Kookier (Baram Lab) had a recent paper in Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science (2023) featured in the Research Highlight section of Science. Their study used genetic tagging to show selective activation of the thalamic paraventricular nucleus by adverse experiences early in life.
Fan-Gang Zeng, a Joint appointee in Anatomy & Neurobiology, was recently elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He was recognized for his work on engineering better treatments for hearing loss and tinnitus, and for fostering inclusiveness in the field of engineering.
The 20th Annual Epicenter Symposium, Cellular and Circuit Mechanisms of Epilepsy was held on Feb 28th, 2023. This symposium, associated with the Epicenter T32 award, was co-organized by A&N faculty Bobby Hunt and Laura Ewell and invited speakers included two departmental trainees, Jasmine Chavez (graduate student, Gall Lab) and Brittney Boublil (postdoctoral researcher, Ewell lab).
[February 2023]
Yannick Fotio, PharmD PhD, a postdoctoral researcher (Piomelli Lab), was featured in UCI School of Medicine’s “Celebrating Black History Month”. Dr. Fotio received a presidential fellowship to attend college in his native country of Cameroon, and pursued graduate studies in Italy. Recently, he was recognized by the director of NIH for his work at UCI on mechanisms controlling the transition of acute to chronic pain.
Max Garduño (graduate student- Xu Lab) received the Miguel Velez Scholarship for Spring 2022-23. This scholarship ($8,000 stipend and fees) provides financial support to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding past academic achievement as well as future promise, have financial need, and are citizens of a Latin American country.
Cassie Kooiker (MD/PhD student-Baram Lab) had a first-author paper, entitled “Genetic tagging uncovers a robust, selective activation of the thalamic paraventricular nucleus by adverse experiences early in life”, recently accepted to Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science.
Kei Igarashi, PhD is a recipient of the 19th Japan Academy Medal, the highest honor of The Japan Academy that annually gives formal recognition to outstanding young researchers under the age of 45.
Lulu Chen, PhD was nominated for the 2022 UCI Emerging Innovation/Early Career Innovator of the Year Award from UCI Beall Appplied Innovation. This award recognizes individuals who display excellence in the early stages of their career or in the very beginning stages of a breakthrough that is viewed as a novel approach in its field.
David Reinkensmeyer, PhD is lead editor of the book Neurorehabilitation Technology, 3rd edition, which was published recently by Springer. Amazon Link.
Momoko Watanabe, PhD has a paper entitled “TGFβ superfamily signaling regulates the state of human stem cell pluripotency and capacity to create well-structured telencephalic organoids” that ranked No. 8 among the most downloaded papers in Stem Cell Reports. Dr. Watanabe also was the focus of an online article from the UCI Samueli School of Engineering as part of a “New Faculty Cohort Uses Stem Cells in Tissue Engineering to Advance Regenerative Medicine”. This cohort also includes three Engineering faculty who were hired as part of UCI’s Faculty Hiring for Leveraged Research Excellence (FHLRE) program.
[January 2023]
Julian Quintanilla’s (graduate student – Lynch Lab) submission was selected as Cover Art for the 2022 CNLM Annual report. The artwork depicts the desk of the father of modern neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Having seen the disorderly state of many scientists’ desks, this art tries to capture the similar elegant chaos that may have plagued Ramón y Cajal as he created the beautiful artwork that led to much of our current understanding of the brain.
Alexa Tierno (Hunt Lab) gave a talk for the Investigators Workshop on Advanced Gene and Cell Based Therapies to Target General Mechanisms of Epilepsy at the American Epilepsy Society meeting in December.
Munjal Acharya, PhD was invited to give a talk on “Neuroprotective strategies to prevent radiotherapy-induced cognitive decline” as part of the Visiting Professor Series at the Brain Tumor Center within the Siteman Cancer Center at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in April 2023.
Lulu Chen, PhD and co-investigator Masashi Kitazawa, PhD (UCI Public Health) were awarded a five-year, multi-center grant to treat common early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. News Release.
Robert Hunt, PhD gave a talk for the Investigators Workshop on Diverse Roles of Interneuron Subtypes in Acquired Epilepsies at the American Epilepsy Society meeting in December.
Kei Igarashi, PhD received the JSPS Prize from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This is a mid-career prize awarded to 25 researchers each year in Japan.
David Reinkensmeyer, PhD was keynote speaker on “Robots and Sensors for Neurologic Rehabilitation: What Have We Learned and What Comes Next?” at the 37th Congress of the French Society for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation on December 1 in Rennes, France, attended by about 1,500 people.
Xiangmin Xu, PhD, director of the Center for Neural Circuit Mapping (CNCM), has announced that the 2023 Neural Circuit Conference will be held in the summer from August 21-23, 2023, co-sponsored by the Cajal Club, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and UCI CNCM.
CNCM and Xu Lab led a study showing that cognitively impaired degus are a natural animal model well suited for Alzheimer’s research. The study shows degus exhibit neuropathological features that resemble human Alzheimer’s Disease. SOM News Release. This was also featured in Fortune magazine article “The next breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research could come from old and ‘cognitively impaired’ Chilean rats”, as well as Futurity and News-Medical.Net.
Additionally, CNCM members were recognized in Irvine Standard’s “10 leaders at the center of Irvine’s health care.”
[December 2022]
Alexa Tierno (graduate student – Hunt Lab) will receive an F31 Fellowship; she scored a 25 / 12% on her F31 NRSA.
Lulu Chen, PhD is a co-investigator on a U01 grant entitled “Novel Reengineered Microbiome-based Biologic Therapy to Treat Cognitive and Behavioral Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias.”
Laura Ewell, PhD, in collaboration with post-doc Amir Tal from Columbia University, won a sub-award through Fund Consciousness for “Behavioral effects and neural mechanisms of unconscious cued reactivation: a cross-species study.”
Christine Gall, PhD is one of five UCI faculty members to make Research.com’s list of the world’s top 1000 female scientists. News Release.
Autumn Ivy, PhD and her lab have a paper recently accepted for publication in the journal Communications Biology entitled “Early life exercise primes the neural epigenome to facilitate gene expression and hippocampal memory consolidation.”
Oswald Steward, PhD will serve as president of the Society for Neuroscience, beginning at the close of the recent annual meeting November 12-16, 2022 in San Diego. News Release.
[November 2022]
The Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology had 20 posters at Neuroscience 2022 this year from our graduate students.
Justin Yi (graduate student – Akbari Lab) attended the International Conference on Spreading Depolarizations (iCSD) at the University of Utah, and was awarded the Young Investigator’s Award for his oral presentation entitled “Cardiac arrhythmias coincide with anoxic spreading depolarization and predict altered cerebral perfusion and worse cardiac arrest outcomes in a rodent model.”
Tallie Z. Baram, MD, PhD, along with Shlomo Shinnar and Carl Stafstrom, have published, as editors, the second edition of their book on “Febrile Seizures: New Concepts and Consequences“. Academic press.
Lulu Chen, PhD was selected as a Molecular Basis of Cognition fellow and received travel support to attend the MBC conference (2022 Scialog: Molecular Basis of Cognition meeting, Oct 13-17) to compete for a grant award.
Autumn Ivy, MD, PhD gave a national talk at the ResearchED conference in Frederick, MD for educators with the theme of cognitive sciences and optimizing the learning environment in the classroom
Jamie Wikenheiser, PhD has a textbook, Clinical Anatomy, Histology, Embryology, and Neuroanatomy: An Integrated Textbook, just released on October 31, 2022 on Amazon through Thieme Medical Publishers.
[Sept/Oct 2022]
Jason Lee (graduate student – Igarashi Lab) received an NIH F31 (National Research Service Award, $85k) Fellowship for studying circuit mechanisms of Alzheimer’s.
Rachael Hokenson (graduate student – Baram Lab) has a paper accepted into Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience entitled “Sex-dependent effects of multiple acute concurrent stresses on memory: a role for hippocampal estrogens.”
Brenda Gutierrez (graduate student – Flanagan Lab) received the MD/PhD Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Award from UCI School of Medicine.
Gerardo Sandoval (graduate student-Diaz Alonso Lab) and advisor Javier Diaz Alonso had manuscript accepted for publication in Cell Reports, “Long-term potentiation reconstituted with an artificial TARP/PSD-95 complex.” Gerardo also just presented his work at the Bordeaux Neurocampus international conference. Molecular, Cellular and Network Mechanisms of Synaptic Plasticity. Bordeaux (France). September 27-30, 2022.
Aliza Le (graduate student – Lynch Lab) received the 2022 Rose Hills Foundation Science & Engineering Fellowship. This fellowship is intended to recognize and reward our most meritorious graduate student who are pursuing a Ph.D. or Master’s degree in the life or natural sciences, or engineering.
Alex Mabou-Tagne (postdoc-Piomelli Lab) was a recipient of the Inaugural Rosalind Franklin Society Award in Science.
Gross Anatomy, taught by Jamie Wikenheiser, received the 2022 SOM Achievement Award for AMSG Excellence in Teaching – First Year Course. This award is presented to a course for excellence in teaching, as voted by the student body
Munjal Acharya, PhD and Xiangmin Xu, PhD, along with UCI collaborators Alexandre Chan, PharmD, MPH and Weian Zhao, PhD were recipients of an ICTS Planning Grant Award in Translational Science, for interdisciplinary and translational research in cancer-related cognitive impairment.
Lulu Chen, PhD is a recipient of the inaugural CNLM High Risk, High Reward Pilot Award ($25k) for project entitled “Mechanisms of cortical hyperexcitability underlying neural synchronization, sleep regulation, and behavioral flexibility” which aims to uncover links between gene mutations associated with autism spectrum disorders and epilepsy, and abnormalities in brain oscillations including sleep dysregulation, as well as inflexibility of behavior.
Mark Fisher, PhD received an NIH R21 award (total $235,500) for project entitled “Mechanisms of Brain Hemorrhage in Chronic Kidney Disease.”
Daniele Piomelli, PhD, in collaboration with Kalpna Gupta, PhD, was granted a 2-year, $400k grant from the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research to study the effect of THC in a mouse model of sickle cell pain.
Jamie Wikenheiser, PhD won the UCI SOM 2022 Silver Beaker Award for Excellence in Teaching (highest basic sciences teaching award for academic year 2021-2022).
Kei Igarashi received a UCI SOM 2022 Achievement Award for Medical Education Excellence in Teaching as a Basic Science Lecturer. This certificate is given to faculty who are recognized for outstanding student evaluations and contributions to a course/clerkship.
Autumn Ivy received a UCI SOM 2022 Achievement Award for Medical Education Excellence in Teaching as a Basic Science Lecturer. This certificate is given to faculty who are recognized for outstanding student evaluations and contributions to a course/clerkship.
Xiangmin Xu, PhD, and collaborators from Salk Institute, UCSD, UC Irvine, and Washington Univ, received an NIH UM1 award ($126 million overall) for their project “Center for Multiomic Human Brain Cell Atlas” This UM1 proposal builds on their earlier successes in mouse brain mapping to produce detailed single-cell multiomic and spatial cell maps at the single-cell level across 100 anatomically defined regions in the human brain.
[July/August 2022]
Mulatwa Haile (graduate student – Chen Lab) won the best poster presentation at the July 2022 Gordon Research Conference on Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology.
Rachael Hokenson (graduate student – Baram Lab) received the 2022 Gazzaniga Family Medical Research Award ($10k). Rachael also received a pre-doctoral position on the NIDA T32 ICAN Training Program in Substance Use and Use Disorders.
Jason Lee (graduate student – Igarashi Lab) received the 2022 Gazzaniga Family Medical Research Award ($10k).
Alexa Tierno (graduate student – Hunt Lab) and Dr. Robert Hunt also appeared on a podcast from Quantum Photonics on July 14 to talk about “Brain-wide reconstruction after traumatic brain injury.”
Tallie Z Baram, MD, PhD was featured on NPR podcast “The Academic Minute” on July 28, 2022, to discuss how early life adversities can have a lifelong impact. Dr. Baram, along with Steve Mahler, Christie Fowler, and Vivek Swarup were funded, via a U01 mechanism, $3.5 million for bold addiction research. UCI issued a Press Release for the School of Biological Sciences, School of Medicine, and Irvine Center for Addiction Neuroscience collaboration on July 18.
Kei Igarashi, PhD received a supplement (totaling $300 k) from the NIH’s Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (ADRD) administrative supplement.
David Reinkensmeyer, PhD gave a Keynote address on “Robots and Sensors for Stroke Rehabilitation: What Have We Learned and What Comes Next?” at RehabWeek. This is a major meeting that combines six conferences in the field of rehabilitation technology.
Momoko Watanabe, PhD received a major grant (totaling $1.5 mil) from NSF’s program Reproducible Cells and Organoids via Directed- Differentiation Encoding (RECODE). Dr. Watanabe is the leading PI, working with two co-PIs Herdeline Ardoña, PhD (UCI) and Michael Gandal, MD, PhD (UCLA).
[June 2022]
Mulatwa Haile (graduate student – Chen Lab) was awarded a Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority (CSURM) Fellowship to attend and speak at the 2022 GRC on Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology in Ventura this summer.
Sangwoo Han (graduate student – Akbari Lab) is lead author of a new paper “Cortical anoxic spreading depolarization during cardiac arrest is associated with remote effects on peripheral blood pressure and post-resuscitation neurological outcome.” This manuscript was accepted for publication and received an editorial/commentary in the journal Neurocritical Care. Sangwoo is also the recipient of the 2022 Stanley Behrens Fellows in Medicine Award.
Jason Lee (graduate student – Igarashi Lab) received the CNLM 2022 Renee Harwick Award.
Gerardo Sandoval (graduate student – Diaz Alonso Lab) received the CNLM 2022 John W. Haycock Memorial Graduate Student Travel Award.
Gergely Tarcsay (graduate student – Ewell Lab) received a SOM Graduate Studies PhD Student Travel Award to attend the 2022 FENS Société des Neurosciences and the Forum in Paris, France.
Steven Grieco, PhD (postdoc – Xu Lab) along with Briac Halbout, PhD received the first 2022-2023 Conte Center Seed Grant of $30k for their project entitled “The Impact of Early Life Adversity on Behaviors Guided by Reward-Paired Cue and their Underlying Circuitry.”
Acharya lab member Robert Krattli Jr. won the “Best Poster Presentation Award” at the Queer, Trans, and Allies in the Biological Sciences’ (QTABS) 1st Annual Community Symposium hosted by UCI Bio Sci on June 2, 2022.
Tallie Z. Baram, MD, PhD received the CNLM 2022 Public Impact Award.
Christine Gall, PhD received the CNLM 2022 Distinguished Scholar Award.
Dr. Tallie Z. Baram and postdoc Dr. Matthew Birnie have a new perspective piece published in Science Magazine entitled “Principles of emotional brain circuit maturation.” UCI issued a press release on June 2nd: UCI Press Release.
Xiangmin Xu, PhD and colleagues (contact PI: Xiangmin; mPIs: Kim Green, Eran Mukamel, Wei Xu) received a large U01 grant entitled “Cell-type-specific neural circuit connectomes in the mouse models of aging and Alzheimer’s disease.” Congratulations, Xiangmin!
Yama Akbari, MD, PhD is Co-PI for a Seed grant award from the Center for Neurophotonics. The project has 20 Co-I’s across UCI Schools of Engineering and Medicine, including A&N’s Dr. Munjal Acharya and Dr. Robert Hunt. The groups will study electromagnetic radiation and ultrasonic energy effects on brain, including Havana Syndrome and other effects of microwaves as well as ultrasonic energy. Dr. Akbari was also appointed Co-Chair for the Neurocritical Care Society’s Science Committee – in charge of organizing >400 abstracts for the Annual Neurocritical Care Society meeting
The labs of Drs. Yama Akbari and David Reinkensmeyer (A&N) were selected by the UCI Vice-Provost of Teaching & Learning as 2 of 4 labs across the UC Irvine campus to take part in UCI’s 2022 accelerated high school summer program (BEAM) for gifted and talented students.
Dr. Oswald Steward received a new award of $250K from the National Institute of Aging’s “Alzheimer’s-focused administrative supplements for NIH grants that are not focused on Alzheimer’s disease” (NOT-AG-21-08).
Munjal Acharya, PhD has a new article published in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences entitled “Impact of IL-21-associated peripheral and brain crosstalk on the Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology.”
John Weiss, MD, PhD has a new article accepted in the Journal of Neuroscience entitled “Blocking mitochondrial Zn2+ accumulation after ischemia reduces mitochondrial dysfunction and neuronal injury.”
Lulu Chen, PhD is an invited speaker at the 2022 GRC on Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology Conference in Ventura this summer.
David Lyon, PhD, in collaboration with Kris Palczewski, PhD has a new paper accepted to eNeuro entitled “Visual system hyperexcitability and compromised V1 receptive field properties in early-stage Retinitis Pigmentosa in mice.”
Robert Hunt, PhD has a new paper accepted to Nature Communications entitled “Brain wide reconstruction of inhibitory circuits after traumatic brain injury.” Graduate students Alexa Tierno and Jan Frankowski are co-first authors, and David Lyon, PhD was a collaborator.
Dr. Chen’s undergraduate trainee Cristabel Portillo was accepted to the 2022 Dynamic Experiences in Neuroscience to Diversify Research Internship Training Exposures for Students (DENDRITES) Program at the University of Chicago. This award includes travel, stipend, and housing for the 10-week summer program.
Dr. Diaz-Alonso’s undergraduate trainee Kayla V. Solorio received the CNLM 2022 Carol and James McGaugh Award.
Dr. Diaz-Alonso’s undergraduate trainee Ananth V. Kolli was chosen as a 2021-2022 Excellence in Research Finalist in this year’s Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Dr. Gall’s undergraduate trainee Elaine Tran won the Robert Ernst Prize in Biological Science for her presentation at the Undergraduate Research Symposium entitled, “Developing a behavioral paradigm to assess ‘where’ memory and test if increasing endocannabinoid levels rescues this function in Fragile X Model Mice.”
[May 2022]
Xiangmin Xu, PhD and colleagues (contact PI: Xiangmin Xu, mPIs: Kim Green, Eran Mukamel, Wie Xu) received a large U01 grant entitled “Cell-type-specific neural circuit connectomes in the mouse models of aging and Alzheimer’s disease”.
Kei Igarashi, PhD received the 2022 Robert & Sylvia Mapel Research Innovation Award ($40k).
Laura Ewell, PhD, Javier Diaz Alonso, PhD (along with Kevin Beier PhD), and Momoko Watanabe, PhD each received the SOM New Investigator Faculty Research Grants ($30k).
Alexa Tierno (Graduate Student – Hunt Lab) was awarded a Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority (CSURM) Fellowship to attend the 2022 GRC on Mechanisms of Epilepsy and Neuronal Synchronization in Spain.
Jennifer Yonan (Graduate Student – Steward Lab) received the Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship Award for Summer 2022 in recognition of outstanding academic achievement.
Rachael Hokenson (graduate student – Baram Lab) received a travel grant to attend the 2022 Stress Neurobiology Workshop in Columbia, SC.
Francesca Palese (postdoc – Piomelli Lab) won the prize for oral presentation at the 6th Annual UCI Postdoctoral Scholar Research Symposium – Research transforming the world: from bench to broader impacts. She spoke on “Targeting NAAA counters dopamine neuron loss and symptom progression in mouse models of Parkinson’s disease.”
Tatsuki Nakagawa (postdoc – Igarashi Lab) received a BrightFocus Foundation fellowship ($200k for 2 years).
[Xu Lab – April 2022]
Steven Grieco (postdoc – Xu Lab) received the Knights Templar Eye Foundation award ($70k) for his Career Development.
[Igarashi Lab – April 2022]
Kei Igarashi, PhD was selected as the winner of the 2022 SOM Outstanding Early-Career Faculty Research Award. Jason Lee (Graduate Student, Igarashi Lab) was one of two who received an Honorable Mention in the category of 2022 SOM Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award.
[Steward Lab – March 2022]
Jennifer Yonan (Graduate Student, Steward Lab) received the UCI Excellence in Research and Health for the Latino Community Award for excellence in research and leadership, which also recognizes her mentorship of undergraduate students in research. She received this award at the Latino Excellence and Achievement Dinner (LEAD) Gala, on March 31, 2022.
[Feb 2022]
Daniele Piomelli, Ph.D. will receive the 2022 Pioneer in Medicinal Cannabis Research Award from the UCSD Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research.
This award honors leaders in cannabis and cannabinoid research conducting basic and translational research of cannabinoids, other constituents of cannabis, and the endocannabinoid system. The recipient’s work has led to significant advancements in our understanding of the mechanism and physiological effects of cannabinoids and related compounds.
Tatsuki Nakagawa, PhD (postdoctoral researcher – Igarashi lab) received the Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship award ($175k for 3 years).
[Jan 2022]
[Akbari Lab – Dec 2021]
Congratulations to Dr. Yama Akbari, a 2021 recipient of the prestigious Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award!
This unique award honors educators who have inspired their former students to make a significant difference in the community.
[Lynch Lab – Nov 2021]
Aliza Le (Graduate Student, Lynch Lab) was awarded a Chancellor’s Club Fund for Excellence Fellowship which contributes to her support during the last year of her graduate work.
[Baram Lab – Nov 2021]
Rachael Hokenson (Graduate Student, Baram Lab) was the recipient of an ARCS Scholar Award from ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation, Inc.
[SOM Outstanding Awards – Nov 2021]
Aliza Le (Graduate Student, Lynch Lab) won the SOM Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award. Aliza is conducting research on mechanisms of synaptic plasticity underlying learning with publications (10 and counting) demonstrating effects of endocannabinoids, aging, and sex differences.
Researcher Dr. Julie Lauterborn was selected for the SOM Outstanding Career Scientist Research Award. Dr. Lauterborn’s research has focused on disturbances in synaptic mechanisms of plasticity underlying cognitive dysfunction and, recently, on changes in synaptic number and function with human Alzheimer’s Disease.
[Lynch Lab – Oct 2021]
Aliza Le (Graduate Student, Lynch Lab) was selected to receive a Rose Hills Foundation Science & Engineering Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to underrepresented students in STEM with demonstrated academic excellence and accomplishments, and leadership qualities consistent with the mission of the Rose Hills Foundation, which is to represent, develop, and support our future leaders.
[Piomelli Lab – Oct 2021]
[Ivy Lab – Sep 2021]
[Congratulations to A&N Graduate Students! – Sep 2021]
Jan Frankowski – Hunt Lab
National Neurotrauma Symposium Trainee & Diversity Award
Selected for the poster competition and won Alan Faden Award
Sangwoo Han – Akbari Lab
Distinguished Poster at Neurocritical Care Society Conference
Heechul Jun – Igarashi Lab
Professor Tong H. Joh Research Innovator Award from American Korean Neuroscientist’s Association
Cassie Kooiker – Baram Lab
Awarded a F30 NRSA
Sophie Levis – Baram Lab
Travel award to attend ACNP (only 5 were awarded to MD/PhD students)
Alexa Tierno – Hunt Lab
National Neurotrauma Symposium Trainee & Diversity Award
[Acharya Lab – Sep 2021]
[Acharya Lab – Sep 2021]
Dr. Munjal Acharya received a $2.1M R01 grant from National Cancer Institute on “Glial immune signaling mechanism of radiation-induced brain injury”
[Alonso Lab – Sep 2021]
Dr. Javier Diaz Alonso received a NARSAD grant on his project “Exploring the role of the GluA1 cytoplasmic carboxy-terminal tail in schizophrenia” from Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
[Ivy Lab – July 2021]
[Ewell Lab – July 2021]
Dr. Laura Ewell received a Junior Investigator Award from the American Epilepsy Society.
[Chen Lab – Feb 2021]
Dr. Lulu Chen received a Research Education Component Scholar award from UCI Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
[Chen Lab – Feb 2021]
Dr. Lulu Chen received UCI Conte Center Innovation Research Award ($30K)
[Chen Lab – Oct 2020]
Graduate student Mulatwa Halie received a one-year T32 training grant award from EpiCenter (NS-45540).
[Igarashi Lab]
Graduate student Heechul Jun received a three-year F31 training grant award from NIA (AG069500).
[Xu lab]
Professor Xiangmin Xu has been awarded $3.8 million by the National Institute on Aging to conduct an epigenomic analysis of neural circuits in the brain.
By revealing molecular changes that occur during the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the team hopes to identify new therapeutic targets and molecular biomarkers for early detection and better treatment.
The interdisciplinary research team is led by multiple principal investigators, including Xiangmin Xu, PhD, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology and director of the Center for Neural Circuit Mapping at the UCI School of Medicine, and Carl Cotman, PhD, a professor of neurology and founding director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the UCI School of Medicine, and Bing Ren, PhD, a professor of cellular and molecular medicine and director of the Center for Epigenomics at the UCSD School of Medicine. The team will study how the epigenome of key cell types in neural circuits shapes hippocampal circuit activity and behaviors during AD progression. The proposed research will involve the use of single cell genomic technologies coupled with functional circuit mapping and behavioral analysis. The study will be conducted using mouse models that mimic the neurodegenerative disease.
“Our goal is to reveal the molecular changes that occur during the course of the disease, that impact learning and memory, and identify a path toward early detection and new drug therapies for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Xu.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of progressive dementia (memory and cognitive loss) in older adults and a growing major health concern in the U.S. Currently, more than 5.5 million Americans may have dementia caused by AD.
“Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Xu. “And, as millions of people are affected by this debilitating condition, it is increasingly critical that we develop better early diagnostic tools and new treatment strategies to care for them.”
[Xu lab/Lynch lab]
Anatomy and Neurobiology Investigators receive Pilot Grant Awards in the inaugural round of funding from the UCI Brain Initiative.
Two projects were funded. A&N Professor Xiangmin Xu, in collaboration with Professor Shaista Malik (Associate Vice Chancellor, College of Health Sciences; Executive Director, Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute) and Dr. Zhi-Ling Guo (Project Scientist, Department of Medicine and Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute), received support for their project titled “Using new viral and genetic approaches to study neural mechanisms of acupuncture modulation of cardiovascular function”. The team will use recent viral and genetic techniques developed in the Xu laboratory to examine the neural circuit basis of acupuncture modulation in the mouse model. Findings from the proposed research will address important questions in the field of acupuncture research, which cannot be achieved using conventional anatomical and physiological approaches.
A&N Project Scientist Dr. Linda Palmer in the Lynch lab, in collaboration with Professor of Fine Arts Jesse Jackson, was funded for the proposal, Investigating Exploration and the ‘Aha’. This project uses scientific and artistic tools to investigate exploration, testing specific brain networks as potential substrates for a signal of ‘discovery’ in animals and comparing human discovery patterns in engagement with works of art, expressing multi-level themes of open-ended exploration and the organization of perception.
Both projects are designed to bring together investigators with different expertise to explore novel questions in brain science. Congratulations to both teams!
[New Appointment]
We are happy to announce that Laura Ewell, PhD will be joining our Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology in May 2021 as a newly hired assistant professor!
Dr. Ewell’s lab will study in vivo and in vitro circuit mechanisms of memory and epilepsy
[New Appointment]
We are happy to announce that Javier Diaz-Alonso, PhD will be joining our Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology as a newly hired assistant professor!
Dr. Diaz is currently a postdoc at UCSF and will study the molecular organization of the synapse using electrophysiology, imaging and molecular biology in his new lab.
[New Appointment]
We are happy to announce that Momoko Watanabe, PhD, will be joining our Department , as a new assistant professor jointly appointed with UCI Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center starting Aug 1, 2020!
Dr. Watanabe is currently a postdoc at UCLA and will study neurodevelopment using brain organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells in her new lab.
[Baram lab]
Distinguished Professor Tallie Baram receives $15 million NIH Conte Center grant
[Piomelli lab]
Distinguished Professor Danielle Piomelli receives $9 million NIH P50 grant
[Cummings lab]
Professor Brian Cummings receives $4.8 million CIRM grant
[Xu lab]
Professor Xiangmin Xu receives $4.3 million NIH BRAIN Initiative grant
[Igarashi lab]
Assistant Professor Kei Igarashi receives three NIH R01 grants
[Baram lab]
Postdoc Jessica Bolton receives prestigious NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award
[Igarashi lab]
Assistant Professor Kei Igarashi receives the New Vision Award from Donors Cure Foundation for his Alzheimer’s Disease Research
[Hunt lab]
Postdoc Young Kim uncovers how rare gene mutation affects brain development and memory
(Kim et al., Neuron 100:1180, 2019)
[Piomelli lab]
Professor Danielle Piomelli led a research showing that cells involved in allergies also play a key role in survival
(Misto et al., Cell Metabolism 29:91, 2019)
[Lyon lab]
Postdoc Andrzej Foik uncovers evidence of restored vision in rats following cell transplant
(Folk et al., Journal of Neuroscience 38:10709, 2018)
[Flanagan lab]
Graduate student Andrew Yale identifies properties of stem cells that determine cell fate
(Yale et al., Stem Cell Report 11:859, 2018)
[Igarashi lab]
Postdoc Tom Nakazono found a possible mechanism for cognitive dysfunction in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease
(Nakazono et al., Frontier in Systems Neuroscience, 11:48, 2017)
[Xu lab]
Graduate student Yanjun Sun uncovers new molecular signaling mechanism for correcting childhood visual disorders
(Sun et al., Neuron 92:160, 2016)
Neuroscientists at University of California, Irvine have discovered a molecular signaling mechanism that translates visual impairments into functional changes in brain circuit connections. The discovery may help to develop novel therapeutic drugs to treat the childhood visual disorder amblyopia and other neurodevelopment disorders. Xiangmin Xu, Todd Holmes and Sunil Gandhi conducted the study, which appears online Sept. 15 in Neuron. Amblyopia is the most common cause of permanent visual defects among children and is often a result of improper brain development due to deprivation during the “critical period” of vision development. In a previous study, Xu helped discover that a specific class of inhibitory neurons (parvalbumin-expressing neurons, or PV neurons) control the critical period of vision development. In this study, Xu and colleagues found that neuregulin-1 (NRG1) molecules modulate the activities of these neurons, thus outlining a new path for treatments that can restore normal vision in children who have had early deficits. As neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia appear to result from brain developmental defects during defined postnatal windows, the linkage of NRG1 signaling to critical growth periods provides important new insights. Xu said he hopes that therapeutic interventions targeting NRG1 may be exploited to treat cortical neurodevelopmental disorders. Link to study (subscription needed): http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(16)30526-8.
UC Irvine professor: Cannabis shows promise treating opioid addiction
Dr. Daniele Piomelli − a UC Irvine School of Medicine professor of anatomy and neurobiology − has determined after 25 years of studying the pain-relieving properties of cannabis and its progeny that the substance could be used to treat opioid addiction − which was responsible for the deaths of 19,000 people in 2014 alone.
Metabolism in mind: New insights into the “gut-brain axis” spur commercial efforts to target it
Neuroscientist Daniele Piomelli, who has studied the connection at the University of California, Irvine, [said]: “There’s every reason to be excited, because clearly the gut and brain are two peas in a pod and they really work together,” Piomelli sees potential in learning more about how the gut and brain communicate. “If we are able to find ways to understand that and to leverage that for therapeutic purposes, that will be key,” he says.
Dr. David Reinkensmeyer receives “Distinguished Mid-Career Faculty Award for Research”
Cell-phone distracted parenting can have long-term consequences: Study
Tallie Baram, professor of pediatrics and anatomy-neurobiology at University of California, Irvine, and her colleagues used a rat model to study how good but disrupted attention from mothers can affect their newborns.
Dr. Julie Lauterborn receives NIH R21 grant to study synaptic defects in Down Syndrome (DS)
Associate Researcher Dr. Julie Lauterborn has received an R21 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development to identify disturbances in synaptic proteins in DS. People with DS have mild-to-moderate intellectual disability and are predetermined to develop Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Lauterborn and colleague Dr. Christine Gall will test the hypothesis that in DS there are disturbances in Rho GTPase pathway proteins that are essential for synaptic function and plasticity. These studies will evaluate human postmortem tissue using Fluorescent Deconvolution Tomography, developed by UCI professor Dr. Gary Lynch, to define core synaptic defects associated with DS versus those that rise with aging and Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. Studies will also test how well a commonly used mouse model of DS replicates synaptic defects in the human condition. Findings could benefit efforts to devise treatments to improve cognitive function in DS and other intellectual disability disorders.