Dr. Edward F. Chang: Towards a Speech Neuroprosthetic

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Speaking is a unique and defining human behavior.  Over the past decade, we have focused on deciphering the basic neural code that underlies our ability to speak fluently. During speech production, vocal tract movement gestures for all speech sounds are encoded by highly specialized neural activity, organized as a map, in the human speech motor […]


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Dr. Bojana Stefanovic: Neurovascular unit dysfunction in a model of TBI

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the most common type of traumatic brain injury globally. Although its consequences may be short term, mTBI often leads to long-term neuropsychiatric and neurological impairments and has been estimated to increase the probability of later life dementia up to six-fold. It is presently not clear what neuropathological changes underlie […]


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Dr. Shigeki Watanabe: Ultrafast recycling of synaptic vesicles

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

In 1973 John Heuser and Tom Reese demonstrated that neurotransmitter was released from neurons via the fusion of neurotransmitter-filled vesicles with the cell membrane.  But at the same time, these experiments launched a controversy that is unresolved today – do vesicles collapse into the membrane and are then recycled slowly on the order of 20 […]


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Dr. Pascal Kaeser: Mechanisms and Roles for Fast Dopamine Signaling

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Dopamine is a neuromodulator that codes information on various time scales. I will discuss recent progress on the identification of fast release mechanisms for dopamine in the mouse striatum. I will present data on triggering mechanisms of dopamine release and evaluate its roles in striatal regulation. In the long-term, our work will allow for a better understanding of the mechanisms and […]


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Dr. Nelson Spruston: Neurophysiological mechanisms of memory guided behavior

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Mammals use a sophisticated, multi-regional memory system to guide behavior. A major goal of neuroscience is to understand the mechanisms—ranging from molecular to cellular to systems—that make this possible. Spruston will describe recent results from his lab using mouse behavior, patch-clamp recording, imaging, and RNA-seq, which collectively seek to elucidate how a diverse and complex […]


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Dr. Elizabeth Heller: Epigenetic regulation of reward pathophysiology

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

The Heller Lab research program is focused on discovering molecular mechanisms by which epigenetic reprogramming contributes to neuropsychiatric disease. To this end, Dr. Heller pioneered the use of targeted epigenetic editing in brain, to elucidate the precise causal role of histone posttranslational modifications on gene expression and alternative splicing in specific neuronal subpopulations. Dr. Heller […]


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Dr. Takao Hensch: Balancing Brain Plasticity/Stability

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Brain function is largely shaped by experience in early life, creating windows of both great opportunity and vulnerability. Our work has focused on the biological basis for such critical periods, identifying both “triggers” and “brakes” on plasticity. Strikingly, the maturation of particular inhibitory circuits is pivotal for the onset timing of these windows. Manipulations of […]


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Dr. Anke Henning: Metabolic MRI at ultra-high fields – from systems architecture to application

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Metabolic MRI allows observing energy metabolism, neurotransmission, second messaging, endocrine signaling, antioxidants, protein metabolism and dynamic membrane processes in the human brain. Related quantitative metabolic imaging biomarkers are beneficial for differential diagnostics, monitoring of treatment response and patient stratification in various neurological and psychiatric disorders and yield complementary information to structural and functional imaging. To […]


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Dr. Kim Green: Exploring microglia function in the healthy and Alzheimer’s disease brain

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Microglia are the primary immune cell of the brain, but have roles outside of immunity as well as being implicated in the pathogenesis of many CNS disorders. Here I will show how we can use CSF1R inhibitors to control the microglial population in vivo, and elucidate their functions in both the homeostatic and disease brains. […]


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Dr. Eugenii A. (Ilan) Rabiner: Molecular Imaging in CNS drug development

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Zoom option if unable to attend in person Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 99412 188589 Passcode: 188589 Over the past 25 years the costs of drug development have been rising steeply, with later phases being particularly resource intensive. Molecular imaging (primarily PET) has become an indispensable tool in early phase drug development, […]


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Dr. Eric Yttri: Understanding brain-wide circuit dynamics underlying learned and spontaneous behavior with B-SOiD

For decades, neuroscience has focused almost exclusively on stereotyped, reductionist, and over-trained behaviors due to their ease of study. In contrast, naturalistic behavior provides a rich diversity of movements, but this feature also largely precludes it from quantification and use. Recent advances in computer vision have enabled automatic tracking of the position of body parts - but position […]


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Dr. Anthony Filiano: Regulating the Brain from Its Borders

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Zoom option if unable to attend in person Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 99412 188589 Passcode: 188589 The CNS is an immune-privileged organ, yet we know that peripheral immunity is critical for proper brain function. Here we will discuss cell communications in the meninges that regulate patrolling T cells and how the […]


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Neuroscience Research Colloquium

The Neuroscience Research Colloquium (NRC), is a series of lectures featuring local and international neuroscientists.