MCN Events
MCN Seminars
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. in the 3rd floor atrium of Building 46. Please contact Charles Moss for additional information.
2023 Seminars

Friday, February 10
Alberto Cruz-Martin
Boston University
“Neuroimmune Modulation of Prefrontal Cortex Development and Function”

Friday, March 17
Paola Arlotta
Harvard University
“Understand the Human Brain: from Embryos to Organoids”

Friday, April 21
Humsa Venkatesh
Harvard Medical School
“Cancer Neuroscience: The Role of the Nervous System in Cancer Growth”

Friday, May 12
Oliver Hobert
Columbia University
"Male and Female Brains: Lessons from C. Elegans"
2022 Seminars

Friday, February 25 Rescheduled to April 22
Wei-Chung Allen Lee, Boston Children’s Hospital
"Neuronal Circuits Enabling Sensory-guided Action and Behavior"

Friday, March 18
Dragana Rogulja, Harvard Medical School
"Sleep and Motivation"

Friday, April 8
Maria Lehtinen, Boston Children’s Hospital
"Illuminating the Choroid Plexus – Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) System"

Friday, April 22
Wei-Chung Allen Lee, Boston Children’s Hospital
"Neuronal Circuits Enabling Sensory-guided Action and Behavior"

Friday, May 13
Steven Flavell, MIT BCS and Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
"Neural Circuits that Generate Persistent Behavioral States in C. elegans"

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"

Friday, November 18
Pascal S. Kaeser, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, "Mechanisms and Roles of Fast Dopamine Signaling".

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."