Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health | DMCBH

Quincy Collins: Exploring embryonic microglial responsiveness to maternal stress during pregnancy
2023-12-01 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Vancouver) | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Quincy Collins from the Rosin lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

Dr. Adrienne Fairhall: Cognitive rule-switching in macaques.
2023-12-08 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Zoom option if unable to attend in person:
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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What is the neural basis of abstraction? Working in collaboration with experimental groups who have trained monkeys and humans on a decision task, we analyze how subjects make use of visual information and feedback to infer a hidden rule, where the rule switches in an uncued fashion. We fit a suite of behavioral models and learn that while humans are close to optimal Bayesian agents, monkey behavior is better fit as reinforcement learning, with a novel additional factor included. We use this behavioral model to elucidate structure in neural activity recorded from 200 sites across the brain, finding low-dimensional and dynamic representations of stimulus, feedback and reward prediction error that support the notion of internal states captured by the behavioral model.

Dr. Joshua Berke: Time, Space and Dopamine
2024-01-12 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Zoom option if unable to attend in person:
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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Dopamine is famously involved in reward, but exactly how continues to be the subject of debate. Two key functions include signaling reward expectations to promote motivated, effortful work, and signaling errors in reward expectation to promote learning. I will present new studies from my laboratory examining each of these processes. We combine recent technological advances for measuring dopamine with novel behavioral tasks, to probe how animals compute reward expectations over multiple temporal and spatial scales.

Brandon Forys: To work or to slack? Choice and cognitive effort
2024-01-12 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Brandon Forys from the Todd lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

Adam Lester: The Omniroute maze: a novel behavioural apparatus for dynamically configurable routes and sensory cues to investigate rodent navigation
2024-01-19 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Adam Lester from the Madhav lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

The Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome: Translational Animal Models and Novel Candidate Drugs
2024-01-22 15:30 - 17:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
This month, three PhD students, Daria Oleinichenko (Phillips/Snutch labs), Isabella Gallello (Seamans/Phillips labs), and Ru Song (Phillips/MacVicar labs) from the Department of Psychiatry, will present “The Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome: Translational Animal Models and Novel Candidate Drugs.”
Zoom link if unable to attend in person:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/5747966049?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 574 796 6049
Passcode: [REDACTED]

UBC Kickstart Updates: Dr. Anthony Phillips and Dr. Kamyar Keramatian
2024-01-26 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Zoom option if unable to attend in person:
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Shayden Schofield-Lewis: The reins of the interbrain: a review of the habenula
2024-01-26 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Shayden Schofield-Lewis from the Floresco lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

UBC Kickstart Updates: Drs. Ipek Oruc, Daniela Palombo and Catharine Winstanley
2024-02-02 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada

Fiza Arshad: Audiovisual cues, Game Immersion, and Performance
2024-02-02 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Fiza Arshad from the Winstanley lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

Dr. Ofer Yizhar: Optogenetic control of synaptic transmission with bistable rhodopsins
2024-02-05 11:30 - 12:30 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Abstract:
Long-range synaptic transmission between brain regions allows synchrony and coordination between neural circuits and is the foundation for complex information processing and behavior. For example, outputs from the prefrontal cortex to diverse subcortical circuits are crucial for regulation of learning, decision-making, and social behavior. Optogenetics has allowed unprecedented advances in understanding the causal roles of distinct neural populations in behavior. However, while optogenetic tools have been widely used for the excitation of neuronal cell bodies and axons, optogenetic silencing of long-range transmission has posed significant challenges. I will present our work developing several novel optogenetic tools for spatiotemporally-precise silencing of long-range axonal projections. To efficiently suppress synaptic transmission, we designed a new set of inhibitory bistable rhodopsins that couple to the Gi/o signaling pathway and can be used to suppress synaptic release in vitro and in vivo, in a spatially and temporally precise manner. New tools within this family allow spectral multiplexing for combined imaging and optogenetic silencing, opening up new avenues for the functional interrogation of long-range connectivity in neural circuits.

Dr. Harriet de Wit: Microdosing: Fact or Fiction?
2024-02-09 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Dr. Harriet de Wit will review evidence for the purported beneficial effects of ‘microdosing’ psychedelic drugs, specifically LSD. She will describe recent studies from her laboratory investigating behavioral and neural effects of low doses of LSD in healthy adults. She will illustrate some of the methodological challenges researchers face in investigating the effects of very low doses of drugs.

Melanie Lysenko-Martin: Novel Approaches to Evaluate how Chronic Cannabis Exposure & Audiovisual Cues drive Impulsivity and Risky Decision-Making
2024-02-09 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Melanie Lysenko-Martin from the Winstanley lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

Dr. Emily Liman: The secret of sour: Discovery structure and function of the sour receptor OTOP1.
2024-02-16 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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Identifying and discriminating among compounds prior to ingestion is essential for animals to survive and thrive. Taste receptor cells encode five basic taste qualities, for which receptors and signaling pathways had been described for all but sour taste. Here I will describe the identification from a screen of genes enriched in sour taste cells of the sour receptor, OTOP1. OTOP1 forms a proton channel, structurally unrelated to previously described ion channels. OTOP1 assembles as a dimer, with three putative pathways, gated by protons and Zn2+. Our recent findings expand the role of OTOP1 in taste cells to the detection of ammonium chloride, a potent taste stimulus used in salty licorice. OTOP1 is a member of a small family of ion channels found throughout the body and conserved across evolution. Ongoing work is aimed at discovering the roles of OTOP channels to various physiological and pathophysiological processes.

Dr. Ramon Diaz-Arrastia: Traumatic brain injury-related neurodegeneration: What is the pathology.
2024-02-23 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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Evidence accumulated over the past decades has shown that for many patients, traumatic brain injury (TBI) triggers cellular and molecular processes that continue to evolve long after the acute period and initial recovery. While these mechanisms result in short-term tissue repair and regeneration, the reparative process is often incomplete, and can also be maladaptive. Long-term outcomes after TBI are not fixed, but rather there can be improvement or deterioration years, even decades, after injury. TBI can result in long-term impairment and disability and increases risk of remote neurodegeneration and dementia. It is estimated that 5-10% of the population-wide burden of dementia is associated with TBI.
Despite the substantial societal burden imposed by long-term neurodegeneration and dementia after TBI, little is known about the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of trauma-related neurodegeneration (TReND). For decades it was believed that TBI was associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, but recent work indicates that other pathologies, including microvasculopathy, axonal degeneration, and neuroinflammation play prominent roles.
This presentation will review the epidemiologic data regarding TReND and will then discuss insights from neuropathologic studies on long-term survivors after TBI. Recent work using neuroimaging and molecular biomarkers measured years after TBI will be reviewed. Finally, we will discuss recent work pointing to potential therapeutic interventions.

Exploring the Impact: A Clinical Study on Fentanyl Use in Vulnerable Populations
2024-02-26 15:30 - 17:00 | DHCC 9299 – Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre, 2775 Laurel Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
This month, Raha Masoudi from the Department of Psychiatry, will present “Exploring the Impact: A Clinical Study on Fentanyl Use in Vulnerable Populations.”
Zoom link if unable to attend in person:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/5747966049?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 574 796 6049
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Dr. Janine Kwapis: Time to learn: Diurnal regulation of memory by the clock gene Per1
2024-03-01 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Zoom option if unable to attend in person:
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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Many biological processes, including memory formation, are strongly influenced by the circadian system, which synchronizes animals’ internal states with the external time of day. Long-term memory performance changes across the day/night cycle in both humans and rodents, yet the mechanisms that support this process are largely unknown. In this talk, I will present my lab’s research suggesting that a circadian clock gene, Period1 (Per1) may serve as a molecular interface between the circadian clock and memory formation. Per1 oscillates in tandem with memory in memory-relevant brain regions, like the hippocampus, with both memory and Per1 levels peaking during the day and showing a trough at night. Interestingly, old animals have repressed hippocampal Per1 levels even during the day, suggesting that they may show impairments in memory due to this persistent “nighttime state” that limits memory across the diurnal cycle. Together, our data suggest that Per1 may function locally in memory-relevant brain regions to exert diurnal control over memory.

Nikolas Kokan: Habituation and the Interstimulus Interval
2024-03-01 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Nikolas Kokan from the Rankin lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

Dr. Nick Steinmetz: Brain-wide coordinated dynamics and Neuropixels Ultra
2024-03-08 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Zoom option if unable to attend in person:
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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In this talk, I will describe two recent projects in my lab. In the first, we discovered that brain-wide spatiotemporal dynamics (i.e. traveling waves) are coordinated on a moment-to-moment basis between neocortex and striatum, thalamus, and midbrain. We used widefield calcium imaging and Neuropixels 2.0 recordings in combination to reveal the structure of these waves in the mouse brain, including a link to the underlying axonal architecture that supports them. Second, I will talk about our work developing a new version of the Neuropixels probe, called ‘Neuropixels Ultra’, which has much smaller and denser recording sites than previous versions. This configuration yields improved characteristics for some applications and reveals new observations about the biophysical phenomena observable with extracellular electrophysiology.

Dr. David Holtzman: The role of APOE and the immune response in amyloid-induced tauopathy and tau-mediated neurodegeneration
2024-03-15 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada

Brittany Docolas: Strategies for Brain-Targeted Estrogen Delivery
2024-03-15 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Brittany Docolas from the Soma lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

Dr. Alicia Izquierdo: Translational models of frontocortical circuits in learning and decision making
2024-03-22 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) have been assigned various overlapping roles ranging from learning and responding to reward, signaling value and uncertainty, and supporting economic decisions, to name a few. Both of these regions share reciprocal anatomical connections with basolateral amygdala, contributing to functional similarities among these circuits. Using a combination of novel behavioral paradigms, DREADDs, and 1P calcium imaging in freely-moving rats, our lab has sought better resolution of diverse frontocortical processes. In this talk I will present data comparing subregional frontal cortex contributions, together with basolateral amygdala, in reward learning and value-based decisions. With few exceptions, our results suggest mostly overlapping, less specialized, roles for ACC and OFC that point to complementary roles in keeping track of expected uncertainty, or the range of typically-experienced outcomes. Collectively these findings may have implications for how we view frontocortical contributions across rodent and primate species.

Jérôme Plumier: Novel Steroidal Mechanisms of Aggression
2024-03-22 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Jérôme Plumier from the Soma lab.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

Safety and Tolerability of Ketamine for Psychiatric Treatment: a Retrospective Chart Review
2024-03-25 15:30 - 17:00 | St. Paul’s Hospital, SPPH 1500, 1081 Burrard, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6Z 1Y6, Canada
This month, Dr. Vivian Tsang from the Department of Psychiatry, will present “Safety and Tolerability of Ketamine for Psychiatric Treatment: a Retrospective Chart Review.”
Zoom link if unable to attend in person:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/5747966049?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 574 796 6049
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Dr. Kaarina Kowalec: Depression polygenicity and its association with multiple sclerosis disease activity and progression.
2024-04-05 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Zoom option if unable to attend in person:
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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Depression is a common comorbidity in those with multiple sclerosis (MS) and is associated with faster MS disability progression. Identifying who may be at higher risk for depression or faster disease activity or progression may facilitate earlier identification. We will examine the polygenicity of comorbid depression in MS and whether it is associated with MS disease activity & disability progression in multiple cohorts from Canada, the USA, Sweden, and UK Biobank.

Dr. Carrie Ferrario: Alterations in brain & behavior that contribute to obesity
2024-04-12 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Zoom option if unable to attend in person:
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
Passcode: [REDACTED]

While urges to eat are regulated by hunger, satiety, and energy demand, they are also strongly influenced by sights, sounds, and smells that are associated with food (food cues). These food cues can influence feeding behavior, triggering cravings that can promote overeating. Dr. Ferrario’s lab examines the neurobiological mechanisms of cue-triggered food craving, and how these processes are influenced by susceptibility to diet-induced obesity and by consumption of sugary, fatty, “junk-food” diets. In her talk, she will discuss how enhanced responsivity to food cues contributes to obesity, and how eating “junk-foods” enhances excitatory transmission within the NAc to influence food “craving”. She will also highlight sex differences in these effects, and the role that susceptibility to obesity plays in diet-induced plasticity.

Gelareh Modara: Experience-Specific Tuning of Postnatally-Born Hippocampal Neurons
2024-04-12 15:00 - 16:00 | DMCBH Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Join us for the UBC Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars (BNS), a lecture series featuring DMCBH trainees and professors in a casual setting. Talks take place from 3-4 pm every Friday in DMCBH 3402A-C and on Zoom. RSVP is not required.
This week’s speaker is Gelareh Modara from the Madhav and Snyder labs.
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61318867702?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 613 1886 7702
Passcode: [REDACTED]

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive reminders each week, please email Melody Salehzadeh (msalehzadeh@zoology.ubc.ca) and/or Jackson Schumacher (schumacher@psych.ubc.ca).

Dr. Aki Taruno: A chemical synapse that lacks vesicles
2024-04-19 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Zoom option if unable to attend in person:
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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Chemical neurotransmission is essential for a variety of neural processes and is traditionally understood to be mediated by Ca2+-dependent exocytosis of synaptic vesicles. Nevertheless, it has been recognized for decades that taste receptor cells in taste buds do not possess synaptic vesicles, yet they can transmit gustatory information to the nervous system. Here I will describe the identification of a unique synapse of taste receptor cells where the ion-conducting pore of a voltage-gated channel, CALHM1/3, serves as the conduit for action potential-dependent neurotransmitter (ATP) release. This mechanism has been termed a ‘channel synapse.’ Anatomically, a channel synapse is characterized by its tripartite structure, which includes a presynaptic mitochondrion adjacent to a CALHM1/3-enriched plasma membrane that faces a post-synaptic afferent nerve. Our recent discoveries extend the roles of channel synapses to various extraoral physiological and pathophysiological processes.

Family in crisis: Family as a resource
2024-04-22 15:30 - 17:00 | Meeting Room 3402, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
This month, Dr. Michael Krausz from the Department of Psychiatry, will present “Family in crisis: Family as a resource.”
Zoom link if unable to attend in person:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/5747966049?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 574 796 6049
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Dr. Edward Boyden: Tools for Analyzing and Repairing the Brain
2024-05-03 11:00 - 12:00 | Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
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Meeting ID: 91512 289258
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Understanding and repairing complex biological systems, such as the brain, requires technologies for systematically observing and controlling these systems. We are discovering new molecular principles that enable such technologies. For example, we discovered that one can physically magnify biological specimens by synthesizing dense networks of swellable polymer throughout them, and then chemically processing the specimens to isotropically swell them. This method, which we call expansion microscopy, enables ordinary microscopes to do nanoimaging – important for mapping molecules throughout cells, and cells throughout brain circuits. Expansion of biomolecules away from each other also decrowds them, enabling previously invisible nanostructures to be labeled, and seen. As a second example, we discovered that microbial opsins, genetically expressed in neurons, could enable their electrical activities to be precisely controlled in response to light. These molecules, called optogenetic tools, enable causal assessment of how neurons contribute to behaviors and pathological states, and are yielding insights into new treatment strategies for brain diseases. They are also beginning to be used in human patients, in experimental clinical contexts like treating blindness. Finally, we are developing, using new strategies such as robotic directed evolution, fluorescent reporters that enable the precision measurement of signals such as voltage. In order to reveal relationships between different molecular signals within a cell, we are developing spatial and temporal multiplexing strategies that enable many such signals to be imaged at once in the same living cell, using ordinary microscopes, and requiring only fully genetically encoded constructs. We share all these tools freely, and aim to integrate the use of these tools so as to enable comprehensive understandings of neural circuits.
