MCN Events
Come enjoy an exciting array of talks while learning about the outstanding Neurobiology research being conducted by leading neuroscientists in the MCN Seminar Series.
All seminars are from 4 to 5 p.m. in Singleton Auditorium, 46-3002. A MCN-sponsored reception with food and drinks will follow from 5 to 6 p.m., 3rd floor atrium in Building 46. Please contact Charles Moss for additional information.
2024 Spring Seminars
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Friday, February 09, 2024
Andrew Gordus
Johns Hopkins, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences
“Untangling the web of behaviors used in spider orb-weaving”
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Friday, March 15, 2024
Linda Van Aelst
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
"Shedding Light on Chandelier Cell Connectivity in the Neocortex"
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Friday, April 12, 2024
Olivia Corradin
Whitehead Institute
“Epigenetic variation in opioid use disorder”
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CANCELLED
Friday, May 03, 2024
Florian Engert
Harvard University
“Nature over Nurture: Functional neuronal circuits emerge in the absence of developmental activity”
2023 Spring Seminars
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Friday, February 10
Alberto Cruz-Martin
Boston University
"Neuroimmune Modulation of Prefrontal Cortex Development and Function"
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Friday, March 17
Paola Arlotta
Harvard University
"Understand the Human Brain: from Embryos to Organoids"
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Friday, April 21
Humsa Venkatesh
Harvard Medical School
"Cancer Neuroscience: The Role of the Nervous System in Cancer Growth"
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Friday, May 12
Oliver Hobert
Columbia University
"Male and Female Brains: Lessons from C. Elegans"
2023 Fall Seminars
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Friday, September 22
Sinisa Hrvatin
MIT
"Neurons that Regulate Torpor Control Organ-specific Glucose Metabolism"
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Friday, October 13
Rui Chang
Yale University School of Medicine
"The Coding Logic of Interoception"
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Friday, November 3
Chenghua Gu
Harvard Medical School
"Neuro-Vascular Interactions in the CNS"
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Friday, December 1
Orly Reiner
Weizmann Institute of Science
"MorphoNeuroChip: Unveiling Brain Malformations’ Secrets at the Molecular Level"
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Friday, December 8
Maria Antonietta Tosches
Columbia University
"The Evolution of Cortical Cell Types and Circuits in the Vertebrate Brain"
2022 Seminars
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Friday, February 25 Rescheduled to April 22
Wei-Chung Allen Lee, Boston Children’s Hospital
"Neuronal Circuits Enabling Sensory-guided Action and Behavior"
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Friday, March 18
Dragana Rogulja, Harvard Medical School
"Sleep and Motivation"
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Friday, April 8
Maria Lehtinen, Boston Children’s Hospital
"Illuminating the Choroid Plexus – Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) System"
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Friday, April 22
Wei-Chung Allen Lee, Boston Children’s Hospital
"Neuronal Circuits Enabling Sensory-guided Action and Behavior"
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Friday, May 13
Steven Flavell, MIT BCS and Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
"Neural Circuits that Generate Persistent Behavioral States in C. elegans"
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Friday, September 30
Dorothy (Dori) P. Schafer
Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Institute University of Massachusetts, Chan medical School
"Microglia-astrocyte crosstalk governing immune-mediated synapse remodeling"
Friday, October 14
Meg A Younger
Department of Biology, Boston University
"Non-canonical olfaction in blood-drinking mosquitoes"
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Friday, November 18
Pascal S. Kaeser
Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
"Mechanisms and Roles of Fast Dopamine Signaling"
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Friday December 9
Timothy Mosca
Thomas Jefferson University
"Examining the roles of neurodegeneration risk genes for new mechanisms underlying synaptic development"
Note: these talks were cancelled due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Feb. 7: Joseph Takahashi, UT Southwestern, "Circadian Clock Genes and the Importance of Timing in Aging and Longevity."
Mar. 6: Piali Sengupta, Brandeis University, "Food Mind Control: Regulation of Sensory Behaviors by Bacterial Diet in C. elegans."
Sept. 8: Daniel Johnston, University of Texas
Oct. 9: Melanie Samuel, Baylor College of Medicine
Nov. 6: Sheena Josselyn, University of Toronto, "Neuronal Allocation to an Engram."
Dec. 4: Corey Harwell, Harvard Medical School
Spring
Feb. 8: David Bartel, MIT, Whitehead Institute, and HHMI, "A Network of Noncoding Regulatory RNAs that Act in the Mammalian Brain."
March 15: Oleg Butovsky, Harvard Medical School, "Dual Faces of Dr. Jekyll Microglia: Degenerating Neurons Cannot 'Hyde'"
April 5: Avital Rodal, Brandeis Unversity, "Routing and Remodeling Membranes at the Synapse."
May 10: Susumu Tomita, Yale School of Medicine, "Molecular Constituents of Synaptic Transmission."
Fall
Sept. 20: Steve Flavell, MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences, "Serotonergic Circuits that Control Persistent Behavioral States."
Oct. 4: Wojciech Krezel, IGBMC, Strasbourg, "Vitamin A in Striatal Development and Neurodegeneration."
Nov. 8: Matthew Kennedy, University of Colorado Denver, "New Approaches for Manipulating Synapse Function and Neuronal Cell Biology with Light."
Dec. 6: Matthew Dalva, Jefferson College of Life Sciences, "Synapse Formation and Plasticity: Effects of Biological-Sex and Synaptic Nanostructure."
Spring
Feb. 9: Joshua Sanes, Harvard University, "Formation of Neural Circuits in the Retina: Cells and Molecules."
Mar. 2: Rachel Wilson, Harvard Medical School, "Neural Correlates of Orienting Behaviors and Latent Action Biases."
Apr. 6: Troy Littleton, MIT Biology and BCS, "Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Heterogeneity of Neurotransmitter Release Probability at Synapses."
May 4: Hisashi Umemori, Boston Children's Hospital, "The Dopaminergic Synaptic Organizers."
May 11: Uri Ashery, Tel Aviv University, "From Protein Structure to Neuronal Network Activity: The Role of DOC2B in Asynchronous Neurotransmitter Release."
Fall
Oct. 5: Rosalind Segal, Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, "Axonal Survival: RNA Transport and Translation."
Oct. 26: Fan Wang, Duke University, "General Anesthesia, Sleep, and Pain." (Note that Wang is now a faculty member in BCS.)
Nov. 16: MCN Student Symposium: Scarlet Barker (Tsai Lab), "Resilient Brains: Mef2 Activity is Associated with Cognitive Enhancement and Reserve in Mice and Humans"; Galen Lynch (Fee Lab), "Rhythmic Continuous-Time Coding in the Songbird Analog of Vocal Motor Cortex"; Hannah Wirtshafter (Wilson Lab), "Neuronal Activity in the Lateral Septum During Navigation."
Dec. 7: Hopi Hoekstra, Harvard University, "The Genetic Basis of Behavioral Evolution."
Spring
March 3: Zhigang He, Harvard Medical School / Boston Children Hospital, “From axon regeneration to functional recovery after injury.”
April 7: Bradford Lowell, Harvard Medical School, "Hunger Management: Feedback/Feedforward Regulation and the Effector Circuits."
May 5: Susumu Tonegawa, MIT Biology, "Monitoring and Engineering Memory Engram Cells and their Circuits."
Fall
Sept. 15: Fen-Biao Gao, UMass Medical School, "Insights from Drosophila and iPSC Models of C90RF72-related ALS/FTD"
Oct. 20: MCN Student Symposium: Kutay Atabay (Reddien Lab), "Mechanisms of Self-Organization in the Planarian Nervous System"; Zoe Hilbert (Kim Lab), "Sexually Dimorphic Decision-Making in C. elegans"; Caitlin Vander Weele (Tye Lab), "Dopaminergic Modulation of Prefrontal Cortex Subpopulations"; Lou Beaulieu-Laroche (Harnett Lab), "Dendritic Integration in Human Neurons."
Nov. 17: Gloria Choi, MIT BCS, "Gut Microbiome to Cortical Dysfunction: Neural Circuits Underlying Behavioral Abnormalities in Mice Exposed to Prenatal Immune Activation."
Dec. 8: Philip Haydon, Tufts Medical School, "Sleep and Wake Coordinated by Glia."
Feb. 5: Steve McCarroll, Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School, "Genetic Evidence for a Neuroimmune Mechanism in Schizophrenia.
March 4: Nace Golding, Univ. of Texas at Austin, “Life in the fast brain: mechanisms and temporal codes underlying sound localization.”
April 8: Kwanghun Chung, MIT Chemical Engineering/IMES, "Scalable Proteomic Imaging of Intact Biological Systems."
May 6: MCN Student Symposium
Sept. 16: Cagla Eroglu, Duke University, "How do Astrocytes Control Development and Plasticity of Synaptic Circuits?"
Oct. 14: Elly Nedivi, MIT BCS and Biology, "Visualizing Synapse Structural Dynamics in Neocortex in Vivo."
Nov. 18: Sebastian Kadener, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, "Molecular and Physiological Functions of Circular RNAs in the Brain." (Note that Kadener is now at Brandeis University)
Dec. 9: Chinfei Chen, Boston Children's Hospital, "A Role for Cortical Feedback in Thalamic Development."