September – October 2023

We are pleased that A&N will be welcoming 6 new graduate students to our department this year. Four are 2^nd year students, with one being a MSTP student, and two are first year students. In addition, Dr. Laura Ewell is taking over the role of Associate Director of the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program.

Congratulations to Dr. Kei Igarashi, who received the distinction of Chancellor’s Fellow (2023-26) for his extraordinary achievements in scholarship and work on the circuit mechanism of memory and Alzheimer’s disease. This honor also comes with an award of $25K per year in research support. In addition, Dr. Igarashi was featured in an August 9^th article in the Orange Coast Magazine as a “person of interest” for his work on Alzhemier’s disease and being recently awarded the Japan Academy Medal in February.

The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, headed by Dr. Xiangmin Xu, held their annual conference on August 21^st -23^rd at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences & Engineering. This year’s meeting on Structure, Function and Development of Neural Circuits featured 31 speakers, two workshops, and two bootcamps.

Dr. Munjal Acharya, and colleague Dr. Alexandre Chan (School of Pharmacy and Pharm Sci), have been awarded an $2.4 million NIH grant from the National Cancer Institute to work on neurotrophic strategies to mitigate chemotherapy-related brain injury.

Dr. Andre Obenaus and colleagues, Dr. Vivek Swarup (UCI, Biological Sciences) and Dr. Denes Agoston (Uniformed Services Univ.) have been awarded a 5-year grant from NIH to work on the blood borne protein biomarkers of cerebrovascular pathologies in Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.

Dr. Magdalene Seiler’s work on human stem cells as a treatment for retinal degeneration was featured in Drug Discovery News. Their work showed that transplantation of retinal organoids into the back of eyes integrated into the host and markedly improved vision in a rat model of retinal degeneration.

Dr. Jamie Wikenheiser and colleagues were awarded the satiric 2023 IG Nobel Prize in Medicine for their unique work on “Measurement and quantification of cadaveric nasal hairs” published International Journal of Dermatology. The aim of the award is to “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”.

Postdoctoral researcher Yannick Fotio, PhD (Piomelli Lab) has received an NIH K-99 award under the NIH HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) Initiative con-supported by NCCIH and NINDS. This award will support Yannick’s work on the role for peripheral NAAA-regulated lipid signaling in the control of hyperalgesic priming.

Heechul Jun, MSTP (PhD 2022, Igarashi Lab), has been awarded the 2023 Krieg Cortical Kudos Scholar award. This award, given by the Cajal Club to a recent PhD graduate, is for Heechul’s outstanding contribution to understanding the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit, and exploring the brain regions critical for learning and memory at both basic levels and in the disease state.

Nora Jade Nabi (Steward Lab) received the Rose Hills Foundation Fellowship for 2023-24. This fellowship is awarded to meritorious underrepresented graduate students in STEM programs and to develop and support future leaders.

Cassandra Kookier, MSTP (Baram Lab) received the UCI MD-PhD Outstanding Service Award.

Jazmine Moore (and Tzu Chia (nini) Liu (both Flannagan Lab) have been awarded pre-doctoral fellowship slots on a NIH-NINDS funded T32 for Stem Cell Translational Medicine for Neurological Disorders.

Daisy Gallardo (Steward lab) and Jasmine Chavez (Lynch and Gall labs) are each recipients of the Society for Neuroscience 2023 Trainee Professional Development Award. This award recognizes trainees who demonstrate scientific merit and excellence in research, and comes with a travel stipend for this year’s meeting in Washington D.C.