News
Messing lab publishes in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
Geoff Dilly and colleagues in the Messing Lab just published a research article n Brain Behavior and Immunity entitled "Knockdown of Tlr3 in dorsal striatum reduces ethanol consumption and acute functional tolerance in male mice". This work investigated the role of toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3), a receptor that is involved in inflammatory pathways...Dr. Micky Marinelli receives NINDS Rigor Champion Award
Congratulations to Dr. Marineli on receiving the NINDS Rigor Champion Award! The NINDS lauched the Rigor Champions Award in 2023 in an effort to promote research rigor and transparent reporting and to foster a culture of reserach quailty withing the scientific ecosystem. The goal of this prize is to help recognize and reward...The Lee Lab publishes in The Journal of Neuroscience and is featured on the cover
Josue Lopez and colleagues from the Lee Lab published a reserach article in The Journal of Neuroscience entitled "Caldendrin Is a Repressor of PIEZO2 Channels and Touch Sensation in Mice". This study investigated the role of the calmodulin-like Ca2+ sensor, caldendrin, in the regulation of mechanically activated ion channels and their roles...Dr. Jon Pierce receives CNS Spark Grant
Congratulations to Dr. Jon Pierce on being award a CNS Spark Grant to support his research proposal entitled "Predicting Genes that Cause Phenotypes as Extra Copies". The CNS Spark Grants program supports new ideas that have the potential to elevate or transform a research program but that are too early-stage in...Colgin lab publishes in Nature Translational Psychiatry
The Colgin Lab published a research article entiteld, "Ank3 mouse model of epilepsy-bipolar disorder comorbidity" in Nature Translational Psychiatry. The research reveals the potential comorbid role the gene ankyrn 3 (ANK3) may play in bipolar disorder and epilepsy. ANK3 is a leading bipolar disorder (BD) candidate gene and has also been shown to be invovled in...Dr. Alex Huth's brain-computer interface language decoder is one of UTs top research stories of 2023
The University published a recap of the top reserach stores, iInnovations and world-changing ideas produced by Longhorns across all disciplines this year. Dr. Alex Huth's reserach developing a non-invasive brain-machine interface that can decode brain activity into language was one of the highlights!Dr. Michael Drew elected member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Dr. Michael Drew was elected to full member stats in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ANCP). The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology is an international organization of leading brain scientists. Sceintists are selected for membershipon the basis of their original research contributions, and are drawn from diverse subfields of neuroscience, including behavioral...Dr. Thibaud Taillefumier chosen as a 2024-25 Provost's Mentored Faculty Scholar
Dr. Thibaud Taillefumier was among the 17 junior faculty selected from across the University to participate in the Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars interdisciplinary mentorship program. The Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars program augments traditional, within-department faculty mentoring at UT by facilitating 1:1 mentor-mentee pairing across departments, or even across colleges. This program offers...Mike Mauk receives the 2023 Pavlovian Society Gantt Award
Dr. Mike Mauk receives the 2023 Pavlovian Society Gantt Award. The Pavlovian Gantt is awarded to individuals who have made distinguished contributions to the fields of psychology, physiology, behavioral neuroscience, psychophysiology, mental health or medicine within the confines of Pavlovian conceptual models.Dr. Lief Fenno and colleagues publish in Nature Neuroscience
Dr. Lief Fenno, along with a team of researchers from Northwestern University, publisedh a research article in Nature Neuroscience entitled "Unique functional responses differentially map onto genetic subtypes of dopamine neurons". In this study, the researchers identified and recorded from three genetic subtypes of dopamine neurons in the midbrain region of...Drs. Denisse Parades and Nihal Salem awarded UT Provost's Early Career Fellowship
Congratulations to Dr. Denisse Paredes, postdoc in the Drew lab and Dr. Nihal Salem, postdoc from the Mayfield lab, for being awarded a UT Provost's Early Career Fellowship The Provost’s Early Career Fellows program supports promising postdoctoral fellows and graduate students from a variety of disciplines and colleges across the university in their...Drs. Audrey Brumback and Jon Pierce receive NIH grant to study genetics in autism
The important role of genetics in autism development has become increasingly obvious. Many genes implicated in autism are so fundamental to basic neurobiology that species as diverse as worms and humans share them. After discovering that natural variability in autism-related genes correlates with alterations in worm social behavior, Audrey Brumback, MD, PhD,...Dr. Dayne Mayfield invited to the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Dr. Dayne Mayfield was invited by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve a 3 year term on the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism . The Council will advise and make recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the National Institute...Zakon Lab publishes in BMC Biology
The Zakon lab recently published a manuscirpt in BMC Biology entitield "A potential cost of evolving epibatidine resistance in poison frogs". The paper investigates how poison frogs have evolved resistance to the deadly alkaloid toxin that they accumulate in their bodies as protection against predators. York JM, Borghese CM, George AM, Cannatella...Dr. Alex Huth and colleagues publish in Nature Neuroscience
Dr. Alex Huth and colleagues in the department of Computer Science published a research article in Nature Neuroscience entiteld "Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from non-invasive brain recordings". This research produced a non-invasive decoder that reconstructs continuous language from cortical semantic representations recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and revealed the viability...Congratulations to Neuroscience's Dean's Honored Graduates!!
Congratulations to Neuroscience's Dean's Honored Graduates!! This year 4 of the 27 Dean's Honored Scholars gradauted with a degree in neuroscience. Eva Beckett, Neuroscience, Distinction in Research LuLu Eisenberg, Neuroscience, Distinctions in Research & Entrepreneurship Ren Smith, Neuroscience, Distinctions in Research & Service and Leadership Maya Kayla Webb,...Dr. Mike Mauk receives President's Associates Teaching Award
Dr. Mauk was one of seven faculty across UT honored with the President's Associates Teaching Award. This award recognizes great teaching of undergraduates in the core curriculum. Recipients are UT Austin’s educational innovators whose commitment and performance not only instruct, but inspire. Dr. Mauk also won a CNS Teaching Excellence Award...Dr. Thibaud Taillefumier receives NSF CAREER Award
Dr. Thibaud Taillefumier receivesa NSF CAREER award for his project entitield "Nontrivial correlations in the neural code: a question of synchrony". This award will support Dr. Taillefumier’s research to understand how synaptic synchrony can stably emerge in neural networks that are plagued with biological noise. In addition, the awards will support Dr. Taillefumier’s effort...Rick Aldrich honored with Lifetime Achievement Symposium
Dr. Rick Aldrich recently retired to Emeritus status and in recognition of his contributions to the field and the legacy he has left through the work of his many trainees, he was honored by his colleagues with a Lifetime Achievement Symposium. Rickfest_program_full.pdf
