NBIO Presents: Martha Bagnall, PhD (Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine)
2025-10-16 09:30 - 10:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Magnuson Health Sciences Center, University of Washington, NE Pacific Street, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
“Sensorimotor circuits in the larval zebrafish”
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

NAPE Center Presents: Jose Moron- Concepcion, PhD (Washington Univ. in St. Louis)
2025-10-17 11:00 - 12:00 | Health Sciences K-069
“The role of sex and ovarian hormones in pain-induced facilitation of opioid intake”
Opioid analgesics can alleviate pain symptoms but also have considerable addiction potential. Endogenous opioids and opioid analgesics alike also modulate reward, stress and negative affect –processes typically dysregulated in drug addiction. Dr. Moron-Concepcion will present findings on how inflammatory pain increases fentanyl self-administration in rodents, with a focus on sex differences and ovarian hormones.
Health Sciences K-069

Neuroscience, AI, and Society: Justin Smith-Ruiu "How to Survive Death: Moral personhood and the limits of the continuity-of-consciousness argument"
2025-10-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Foege Genome Sciences Auditorium S-060, 3720 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
How to Survive Death: Moral personhood and the limits of the continuity-of-consciousness argument
Philosophers habitually speak of consciousness-uploading and self-uploading as if these were the same thing. In so doing they take for granted the correctness of a broadly Lockean account of personal identity, according to which I remain the same person from moment to moment, or perhaps someday from eon to eon, in virtue of the continuity of conscious memory. Woody Allen, too, was following in Locke’s footsteps when he joked: “I do not want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen, I want to live on in my apartment.” But is ongoing temporal duration from a distinct node of subjective experience really the only way to keep on being a person? Cross-cultural considerations show that many human groups make use of extremely low-tech devices for personhood-uploading —effigies, story-boards, tree-trunks—, and they hardly expect these objects, after the transfer of the deceased kin’s identity into them, to pass the Turing test or to display any observable signs of consciousness at all. “Yes, but they’re just imagining things,” you’ll say. Fair enough, but perhaps we are as well. If we are ever going to succeed at exploiting substrate-neutrality to evade or postpone mortality, it will be necessary not only to follow the right roadmap towards whole-brain emulation in effecting a high-fidelity transfer of consciousness from one substrate to another. It will also be necessary to examine our longstanding presumption, these days proliferated almost entirely without argument, that personhood and consciousness are identical. In this talk I will make a first stab at just such an examination, drawing in particular on the work of Bostrom, Chalmers, Parfit, and Charles Taylor, as well as on what I take to be salient examples of radically different conceptions of personhood from the ethnographic and historical record of human representations of reality and of our place in it.

NBIO Presents: Greg Field, PhD (UCLA)
2025-10-23 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
This seminar is co-sponsored by the Vision Training Grant.
“Efficient coding and early visual processing: new insights into signal processing and cell type diversity”
Efficient coding predicts much about early sensory processing, particularly in the visual system. However, the impressive diversity of cell types and visual receptive field properties present in the retina have, thus far, not been predicted or explained by the theory. Perhaps this is one reason many visual neuroscientist continue to think about visual processing more in terms of labeled lines and cell types serving the needs of specific behavioral niches — e.g., ‘looming’ cells for detecting looming predators. I will discuss work from my lab as well as my collaborator, John Pearson, that shows the impressive predictive power of efficient coding theory and paints a possible way forward for understanding the origin and diversity of cell types in the early visual system.
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

NBIO Presents: Ted Erclik, PhD (University of Toronto Mississauga)
2025-10-30 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Seminar information coming soon!
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

Art Neureau
2025-11-03 18:00 - 21:00 | Fremont Abbey Arts Center, 4272 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, 98103, United States
Art Neureau is a neuroscience-themed art show hosted by UW Graduate Program in Neuroscience and the Eberhard Fetz Art Fund.

Breaking Barriers in Science Symposium
2025-11-06 00:00 - 23:59
Please join the Department of Neurology and the Department of Neurobiology & Biophysics for Breaking Barriers in Brain Science: A Neuroscience Symposium for UW Medicine.
We welcome University of Washington researchers from neurology, neurosurgery, neurobiology, bioengineering, rehabilitation, and related fields to attend. This symposium offers a valuable opportunity to share ideas, build new partnerships, and accelerate cross-departmental discovery.

NBIO Presents: Dana Miller, PhD (University of Washington)
2025-11-13 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
“Genetic and epigenetic regulation of H2S homeostasis in C. elegans”
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) was once known primarily as a toxic gas with the smell of rotten eggs. However, H2S also has many roles as a cellular messenger that can promote survival in stressful conditions. Both endogenously produced and exogenously supplied H2S protect against cellular damage and death associated with ischemia/reperfusion injury in mammals. We use C. elegans to explore mechanisms of beneficial and toxic effects of H2S in animals. We have shown that C. elegans grown in 50 ppm H2S are long-lived and resistant to hypoxia-induced disruption of protein homeostasis, and that the early transcriptional response to H2S requires the C. elegans orthologue of the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor, hif-1. HIF-1 promotes survival in H2S, at least in part, by upregulating expression of sqrd-1, which encodes the sulfide-quinone oxidoreductase. SQRD-1 catalyzes the first step in the mitochondrial oxidation of H2S, the only known cellular pathway for H2S catabolism. We have found that exposure to H2S activates an epigenetic response that forms a transcriptional memory that enables the animals to survive subsequent exposure to otherwise lethal H2S. We have also identified a protein, RHY-1, that can promote H2S tolerance even in the absence of the hif-1-mediated transcriptional response or the sqrd-1-mediated H2S oxidation. RHY-1 is an integral- membrane ER protein with predicted acyltransferase (ACYL3) activity. The ACYL3 family is large and conserved across species from bacteria to primates, but the function of these enzymes is largely unstudied. We identified a novel methyltransferase, RIPS-1, that is specifically required for RHY-1 to promote survival in H2S using biotinylation by antibody recognition (BAR). Our preliminary genetic evidence suggests that cholinergic signaling is required for the protective effects of RHY-1 expression in H2S.
In Health Sciences G-328 and on Zoom

NBIO Presents: Amy Arnsten, PhD (Yale University)
2025-11-20 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
“Dynamic Network Connectivity: The unusual molecular regulation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex confers vulnerability to cognitive disorders”
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) subserves high order cognitive functions such as working memory and abstract thought and the top-down control of attention, action and emotion. However, the dlPFC is remarkably fragile, impaired by fatigue, stress, aging and inflammation, and is dysfunctional in most cognitive disorders. Arnsten’s lab has discovered the unusual molecular mechanisms that govern these circuits, which are essential for generating and sustaining representations in working memory and for coordinating cognitive state with arousal state. However, these same mechanisms can lead to atrophy and tau pathology when dysregulated by stress and/or inflammation. Knowledge of these mechanisms has led to treatments for cognitive disorders in patients.
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

NBIO Presents: Arif Hamid, PhD (University of Minnesota Twin Cities)
2025-12-04 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
On the Principles of Dopamine Release in Dorsal Striatum
In this talk, I will present evidence that dopamine (DA) release across the striatum unfolds not as a global broadcast but as structured spatiotemporal waves that tailor reward signals to the computational specialties of distinct frontostriatal circuits. I will argue that these waves resolve a key spatiotemporal credit assignment problem by vector-weighting regional decision signals to facilitate a dynamic reprioritization of policy gating. I will outline our recent analysis of fundamental activational principles, demonstrating that DA fluctuations follow lawful, linear oscillatory dynamics captured by a generalized DA wave equation, and provide empirical evidence for circuit interactions that generate, propagate, and constrain these DA activity primitives. Together, our studies provide an empirically informed revision of an enduring “global broadcast” hypothesis about DA-RPE signals, clarifying the circuit and dynamical mechanisms underlying DA’s role in reinforcement learning.
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

Neuroscience, AI, and Society: Cory Doctorow "The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI"
2025-12-04 19:00 - 20:00 | Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center, 3931 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States
“The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI”
AI can’t do your job, but an AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that fails to do your job. Being a smart AI critic requires that you distinguish between these two cases, because otherwise, you’re just gonna help that fast-talking sales person to put you on the breadline and screw over everyone who relies on your work.
Bio: Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. He is the author of dozens of books, most recently ENSHITTIFICATION: WHY EVERYTHING SUDDENLY GOT WORSE AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT (nonfiction); and the novels PICKS AND SHOVELS and THE BEZZLE (follow-ups to RED TEAM BLUES). Other notable books include the solarpunk novels WALKAWAY and THE LOST CAUSE; the tech policy books THE INTERNET CON and CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM; and the internationally bestselling YA LITTLE BROTHER series; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. He maintains a daily blog at Pluralistic.net. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is an AD White Professor at Cornell University; an MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate; a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University; a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science. He co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. In 2022, he earned the Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Awardee for lifetime achievement. In 2024, the Media Ecology Association awarded him the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. York University (Canada) made him an Honourary Doctor of Laws; and the Open University (UK) made him an Honourary Doctor of Computer Science.
Accessibility questions: Contact: cncadmin@uw.edu

CNC Presents: Simon Sponberg, PhD (Georgia Tech)
2025-12-10 12:30 - 13:30 | South Campus Center 354, 1601 NE Columbia Rd, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
“Task-level representations and control in a nearly complete, spike-resolved motor program for agile flight”
Agile animals must parse complex sensory environments to extract actionable features relevant to behavior. They must also be translated into the animal’s motor program—a set of temporally coordinated spike patterns across multiple muscles that mediate movement. In the hawkmoth Manduca sexta, we can record a nearly complete, spike-resolved motor program, capturing almost every action potential from all muscles that control wing movement. Using this combination of completeness, resolution, and rich behavior, we show that most coordination is achieved with precisely coordinated spike timing patterns that take advantage of specifically tuned sensitivities in muscle physiology and biomechanics. Using deep, but semi-interpretable ML approaches, we can decode both discrete and continuous representations of behavior with nearly perfect accuracy, but only when we utilize spike timing precision down to a millisecond or less. All muscles are involved in every maneuver and spike timing precision in the motor program scales species of moths that use different fundamental wing beat frequencies. We next combine our comprehensive motor program recordings with simultaneous multi-electrode array recordings from the neck connective to ask how spike precision and representations of sensory cures are integrated into motor action. Using information-theoretic analyses of multiunit recordings, we show that spike timing is less precise across all recorded descending and ascending units in the neck connective compared to peripheral motor units. This suggests that motor commands may be mapped through peripheral reafference into a more precise spike timing code. Looking ahead, the broad accessibility of spike-resolved population activity across multiple stages of motor processing is beginning to reveal algorithmic principles of sensorimotor integration in the insect ventral nerve cord.

South Campus Center 354 and on Zoom

NBIO Presents: Xiaoyin Chen, PhD (Allen Institute)
2025-12-11 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Understanding brain variations using scalable barcoded connectomics and spatiomics
Humans and other animals exhibit a wide range of behaviors that are both species-specific and variable within a species. Both types of behavioral variations are enabled by genetic, molecular, and circuit variations in the brain. Mapping and comparing brain-wide variations at cellular resolution across a population, however, remains a tremendous challenge. My lab aims to solve this challenge by developing in situ sequencing and barcoded connectomics tools. These tools are scalable to brain-wide interrogation across populations and sufficiently low-cost to be applied by individual labs, and allow us to understand molecular and circuit variations with unprecedented details. In this talk, I will discuss three related studies in which we use these approaches to reveal how the visual cortex and thalamus develop and adapt from mouse to marmoset and macaque. Finally, I will discuss preliminary data that aim to reveal how individual variations impact brain-wide organization at the molecular level.
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

NBIO Presents: Karen Zito, PhD (University of California Davis)
2026-01-15 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Ion flux-independent NMDAR signaling in bidirectional synaptic plasticity and disease
NMDA receptors play vital roles in a broad array of essential brain functions, from synaptic transmission and plasticity to learning and memory. Historically, the fundamental roles of NMDARs were attributed to their specialized properties of ion flux. More recently, it has become clear that NMDARs can drive synaptic plasticity in an ion flux-independent manner. I will present recent data that elucidates ion flux-independent NMDAR signaling mechanisms in synaptic plasticity and their physiological consequences in health and disease.
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

NBIO Presents: Jhimmy Talbot (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
2026-01-22 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Neural regulation of intestinal immune and absorptive functions
The intestinal mucosa serves both as a conduit for the uptake of food-derived nutrients and microbiome-derived metabolites, and as a barrier that prevents tissue invasion by microorganisms. How the intestine coordinates physiological responses to food consumption to optimize nutrient uptake while maintaining barrier functions remains unclear. My lab’s goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of how the gut balances these competing metabolic and immune needs. Using genetically modified mouse models we have identified neuronal circuits activated by diet and microbes that coordinate intestinal immunity and host nutrition. Our studies may reveal how changes in diet or the microbiota lead to metabolic dysfunctions and provide insights into how pathogens hijack neurons to facilitate infection.
Health Science G 328 and on Zoom

CNC Presents: John Widloski, PhD (Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics)
2026-01-28 12:30 - 13:30 | South Campus Center 354, 1601 NE Columbia Rd, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
“Fluid Memory: Explorations in hippocampal replay”

CNC Presents: Andrea Stocco, PhD (UW Psychology)
2026-02-04 13:30 - 14:30 | Health Sciences K-069
“Computational Phenotyping of Forgetting”
Abstract:
Forgetting is among the most salient aspects of long-term memory, yet it is not directly observable, posing a fundamental challenge for theory. In this talk, I argue that forgetting is best captured as a latent computational process that can be inferred through computational phenotyping—the use of formal models of cognition to estimate theoretically meaningful parameters from behavior. I will present a series of experiments showing that parameters governing forgetting can be reliably identified at the individual level, remain stable across time, and provide diagnostic leverage beyond surface performance measures.
I will then introduce preliminary EEG and fMRI evidence linking these computational phenotypes to neural dynamics, providing converging constraints on the underlying mechanisms. Together, these results inform a long-standing theoretical debate in memory research: whether forgetting reflects the decay of memory representations or a progressive failure of access to otherwise intact representations. More broadly, this work illustrates how computational phenotyping can serve as a bridge between cognitive theory, neural data, and clinical applications, enabling stronger tests of mechanistic accounts of memory.

CNC Presents Future Tense: Ryan Calo, JD (University of Washington School of Law)
2026-02-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Magnuson Health Sciences Center, University of Washington, NE Pacific Street, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Future Tense is a series featuring scientists, thinkers, and writers discussing the intersections of neuroscience, artificial intelligence and society. On February 5, join us for a presentation from UW Law professor Ryan Calo on legal and regulatory approaches to emerging technology.

Law and Technology: A Methodical Approach
Technology exerts a profound influence on contemporary society, shaping not just the tools we use but the environments in which we live. Law, uniquely among social forces, is positioned to guide and constrain the social fact of technology in the service of human flourishing. Yet, technology has proven disorienting to law: it presents itself as inevitable, makes a shell game of human responsibility, and daunts regulation. Drawing lessons from communities that critically assess emerging technologies, this book challenges the reflexive acceptance of innovation and critiques the widespread belief that technology is inevitable or ungovernable. It calls for a methodical, coherent approach to the legal analysis of technology—one capable of resisting technology’s disorienting qualities—thus equipping law to meet the demands of an increasingly technology-mediated world while helping to unify the field of law and technology itself.
Bio
Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger Professor at the University of Washington School of Law. He is a founding co-director (with Batya Friedman and Tadayoshi Kohno) of the interdisciplinary UW Tech Policy Lab and a co-founder (with Chris Coward, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird, and Jevin West) of the UW Center for an Informed Public. Professor Calo holds a joint appointment at the Information School and an adjunct appointment at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.
Professor Calo’s research on law and emerging technology appears in leading law reviews (California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review) and technical publications (MIT Press, Nature, Artificial Intelligence) and is frequently referenced by the national media. His work has been translated into at least four languages. Professor Calo has testified four times before the United States Senate, most recently providing witness testimony on July 11, 2024, before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation at a hearing titled “The Need to Protect Americans’ Privacy and the AI Accelerant.” Professor Calo stressed the importance of a comprehensive federal privacy law that both protects Americans’ personal privacy and sets guidelines for businesses developing and implementing AI technology.

Health Sciences Building K-069

NBIO Presents: Christopher Lapointe, PhD (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center)
2026-02-12 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
“Dynamic branchpoints regulate selection of translation start codons”
To establish the reading frame for protein synthesis, the human translation initiation machinery must recognize the translation start codon (AUG) with single-nucleotide precision. Yet, foundational studies in the 1980’s demonstrated that non-AUG start codons (e.g., CUG) can also drive protein synthesis. More recent studies indicate widespread and regulated use of non-AUG codons, with critical roles in the cell cycle, stress responses, and disease. I will share how we have been applying single-molecule, biochemical, and structural strategies to understand how the initiation machinery balances the need for both precision and flexibility.
Health Sciences G-328 and Zoom.

NBIO Presents: Dorian McGavern, PhD (NINDS)
2026-02-19 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
“Immunological Defense of Dynamic Vascular Barriers in the CNS”
Abstract coming soon.
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

NBIO Presents: Christopher Fortenbach, MD, PhD, (University of Washington, Department of Ophthalmology)
2026-02-26 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Photochemical Vision Restoration in Outer Retinal Degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa are the most common causes of blindness in high-income countries. These forms of outer retinal degeneration result in progressive loss of photoreceptor cells while the inner retina largely remains structurally intact. While current therapies to address this vision loss are limited, a promising strategy involves the intravitreal injection of small molecules known as photoswitches. These photochemical ligands restore light-mediated responses by binding to surviving inner retinal neurons and blocking ion channels in a conformation-dependent manner. Upon absorbing light of a particular wavelength, they undergo a cis-trans isomerization, resulting in a light-dependent electrical response that can be conveyed to downstream neurons. Unlike surgical implants or viral-mediated gene therapies, photoswitches are titratable and upgradable as newer therapies become available. My laboratory develops and studies a novel class of photoswitches designed to target upstream retinal neurons and restore retinal signaling. We investigate the mechanisms by which these ligands act on the retina using a combination of electrophysiological techniques, and we quantify the retina’s encoding capacity in response to visual stimuli. Ultimately, by improving our understanding of how photoswitch structure influences the restoration of retinal signaling, we aim to design better therapies that more closely mimic native visual signaling.

NBIO Presents: Travis Rotterman, PhD (Boston University)
2026-03-05 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Spinal motor circuits reorganization in response to peripheral neuropathy
Peripheral neuropathy encompasses a constellation of injuries and diseases that lead to peripheral axon degeneration, a process commonly referred to as Wallerian degeneration. This pathological axonal loss disrupts sensory-motor integration and gives rise to an array of debilitating symptoms such interjoint discoordination, postural instability, and ataxia. In this talk I will present several ongoing projects investigating how peripheral nerve damage drives reorganization of spinal motor circuits, as well as strategies we are exploring to rescue synaptic connectivity and ultimately improving functional outcomes.
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

NBIO Presents: Rebecca Shansky, PhD (Northeastern University)
2026-03-12 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Prefrontal Circuit Mechanisms Driving Sex Differences in Defensive Responding
My lab works to identify sex differences in brain organization that underlie variation in defensive responding. We find that in Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigms, females are more likely than males to engage active, escape-like conditioned responses (“darting”) that may be linked to pain processing cortical circuitry. Recently, our work has focused on connectivity between the anterior cingulate and infralimbic regions of the prefrontal cortex and longitudinal columns of the periaqueductal gray. We use a combination of tract tracing, immunohistological, chemogenetic, and RNAscope techniques to map gene expression and manipulate activity in these circuits, finding novel sex differences in structure and function as they relate to behavioral outcomes.
Health Sciences G328 and Zoom

NBIO Presents: Jayeeta Basu, PhD (New York University)
2026-03-19 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Cortico-Hippocampal Circuit Interactions in Shaping Learning and Memory Representations
Flexibility and stability of neuronal ensembles are crucial features of brain function. Little is known about how these properties of local circuits are influenced by long-range inputs. We show, in mice, that lateral entorhinal cortex glutamatergic and GABAergic projections to CA3 recruit specific microcircuits that conjunctively provide stability to neuronal ensembles, thereby supporting learning. Furthermore, circuit mapping and manipulations of hippocampal back-projections to entorhinal cortex in mice show anatomically and functionally distinct hippocampal feedback pathways to deep and superficial layers of the medial entorhinal cortex that differentially modulate excitation-inhibition dynamics, plasticity, and novelty driven behavioral output.

Health Sciences G 328 and Zoom

Lamport Lecture: Kathleen Cullen, PhD (Johns Hopkins University)
2026-04-07 16:00 - 17:00 | Foege Genome Sciences Auditorium S-060, 3720 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Predictive Neural Computations for Self-Motion
How does the brain distinguish self-generated motion from motion imposed by the external world? In this talk, I will describe how predictive neural computations shape sensory processing during natural self-motion. Using a combination of systems neurophysiology, computational modeling, and behavior, our work focuses on vestibular, cerebellar, and thalamocortical circuits operating in closed-loop interactions with the environment. I will show how internal predictions dynamically modulate neural responses, suppressing predictable self-generated input while preserving sensitivity to unexpected motion. I will conclude by discussing implications for perception, motor control, and neuroprosthetic design.
Dr. Kathleen Cullen, PhD is a professor of Neuroscience, Otolaryngology, and Biomedical Engineering at John Hopkins University.
https://www.bme.jhu.edu/people/faculty/kathleen-cullen/

NBIO Presents: Asim Iqbal, PhD, (Tibbling Technologies)
2026-04-16 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
NeuroAI for Generalised Neurological Discovery
The mammalian brain exhibits a remarkable ability to generalize to novel tasks, sensory modalities, and environments using limited data and high energy efficiency. In contrast, current AI systems rely on large-scale datasets, operate within fixed input modalities, and fail to build robust cross-domain representations, resulting in poor generalization and performance degradation when adapting to new tasks. In this seminar, I will introduce a NeuroAI architecture grounded in principles of neural computation, designed to identify and embed these mechanisms within multimodal transformer models for neuroscientific applications. This architecture supports few-shot generalization across a range of brain disorders, enabling applications in mechanistic discovery, personalized rehabilitation, and targeted therapeutic strategies

NBIO Presents: Karina Cramer, PhD (UC Irvine)
2026-04-23 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Assembly of Auditory Brainstem Circuitry: The Roles of Microglia
Neural circuits in the auditory brainstem require precise connections with highly specialized functions. How are these pathways assembled during development? We have explored the functions of microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. These cells enter the auditory nuclei early in development and help shape the mature synaptic connections. Removal of microglia results in impaired development and auditory function, but microglial repopulation can restore these processes. We are looking into the mechanisms that microglia use to shape auditory circuitry.

NBIO Presents: Mariko Bennett, MD, PhD (University of Pennsylvania)
2026-04-30 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
Living Drugs: Targeting microglia for neurotherapies
Microglia are the brain’s parenchymal macrophages, operating at the interface of sentinel sensing and effector function. As both sculptors and defenders of neural circuits, they offer an exceptional therapeutic opportunity. This talk will explore microglial form and function, their contributions to rare neurological diseases, and how emerging biology can be leveraged to develop microglia-targeted therapeutic strategies.

NBIO Presents: Jean-Claude Béïque, PhD (University of Ottawa)
2026-05-07 09:30 - 10:30 | Health Sciences G-328
A tale of serotonin’s value: From release dynamics to behavioral regulation
Our lab seeks to gain granular descriptions of synaptic, neuronal and network dynamics in the brain. To this end, we use a combination of in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology, two-photon imaging/uncaging, optogenetics and behavioral approaches, and use computational simulations to coalesce these levels of analysis in tractable interpretations. I will present results from ongoing work aimed at identifying unifying roles for the neuromodulator serotonin. I will show data supporting the idea that serotonin neurons located in the raphe encodes an estimate of cumulative future rewards, a quantity referred to as value in reinforcement learning. We further identified unsuspected network organization and serotonin release dynamics in the raphe that, collectively, impart highly non-linearly processing features of long-range synaptic inputs and behavioral regulation. Collectively, this work is beginning to identify elemental computations that may be involved in animal’s ability to optimally adapt their behavioral policies to changing environmental contexts.

An Evening with Neuroscience
2026-05-08 18:30 - 21:30 | Kane Hall
