How joy and wide-ranging curiosity leads to neurobiology tools for new types of questions
“I’m basically a microscopist who wants to be a neurobiologist,” says Na Ji from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). It makes her happy when neurobiology colleagues tell her she is already one of them. Ji designs and develops tools for experimental neurobiologists that do not require a physics PhD to operate and maintain them, […]
2020 Call for Proposals: Rennie Fund for the Study of Epilepsy
The Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) calls for proposals to the Rennie Fund. This fund provides 1-year awards to support new research on epilepsy. Proposals can be directly related to epilepsy, or to closely related areas in neuroscience. The funding amount is in the range of $20-50K, for 1 year of support, for a single […]
Brain cells protect muscles from wasting away
While many of us worry about proteins aggregating in our brains as we age and potentially causing Alzheimer’s disease or other types of neurodegeneration, we may not realize that some of the same proteins are aggregating in our muscles, setting us up for muscle atrophy in old age. University of California, Berkeley, scientists have now […]
Brohawn named a 2020 Sloan Fellow
Stephen Brohawn has also been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The fellowships are given to the most promising early-career scholars across North America from eight scientific and technical fields. Brohawn was one of 126 fellows selected this year, nine of whom are from UC Berkeley. He will receive a […]
World’s highest resolution functional MRI brain scanner installed at Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
HWNI member David Feinberg led the development of this cutting-edge NexGen T7 MRI brain scanner. Watch the drone video of it getting delivered to campus!
New study reveals molecular and cellular pathways underlying cognitive inflexibility
The Bateup lab found that deleting a gene that causes a neurodevelopmental disorder from dopamine neurons reduces cognitive flexibility in mice, with potential implications for autism and other disorders.
From bench to bedside: PhD alum Oscar Vazquez works to make new treatments a reality
Vazquez’s experiences in the military drove him to study traumatic brain injuries and help patients. He’s now finishing med school and has started a cancer immunotherapy company.
Weiner and Brohawn win early-career investigator awards
Congratulations to Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute members Kevin Weiner and Stephen Brohawn for winning early-career investigator awards from the American Association for Anatomy! Only four scientists received these early-career awards this year. Weiner, an assistant professor of psychology, won the W.M. Cobb Award in Morphological Sciences for his work relating brain structure and function to […]
John Ngai named director of NIH BRAIN Initiative
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has picked long-time UC Berkeley neuroscientist John Ngai to head its BRAIN Initiative, a multibillion-dollar federal research push to develop new tools that will help scientists understand how the brain works and lead to new treatments for brain dysfunction. “The BRAIN Initiative aims to revolutionize our understanding of the […]