Upcoming Events
CNI Accessible Lecture - The Brain Skin Connection: Research on Your Largest Endocrine Organ
Dr. Claudia Aguirre travels the world lecturing on a broad range of topics from neuroscience to skincare, and everything under the wellness umbrella. For the most part, her work has focused on longevity. From studying the aging brain to aging skin, Dr. Aguirre is interested in extending the health of our mind and body.
CNI Accessible Lecture - Our Biocultural Brain: Tracing the Gene-Culture Coevolution of the Oxytocin Signaling and Sociality in Humans
Dr. Minwoo Lee joined the Life History Lab in 2023 after completing his Ph.D. in anthropology at Emory University. His research revolves around the evolutionary and developmental basis of prosociality in humans. He is especially interested in how the neuropeptide oxytocin helps us interface with our ever-changing social environments via neural and bodily mechanisms such as reinforcement learning, social bonding, stress response, and energy expenditure. In the long run, he aims to build a research program that can contribute to basic science and public health, especially concerning social minorities and foreign immigrants in South Korea. Outside the lab, he loves hiking, cooking, and playing the piano- as far as his cat grants him some free time.
CNI Accessible Lecture - Neurons: How Children’s Brains Share Information and Make Connections
Dr. Laura Cocas is an assistant professor of biology at Santa Clara University. Dr. Cocas researches the programs that regulate neural circuit formation in the developing brain. She is also a course instructor for the First Gen SCU LEAD program, and works with local schools to bring neuroscience to the classrooms of BIPOC Bay Area students. She will share her empirical work in the vertebrate, determining how synaptic activity affects neural development and myelination, and in the Invertebrate, investigating how inhibition regulates circuit formation in the cephalopod visual system. She will also lead a discussion on how to introduce children to neurons as a way to help them better understand themselves and their own brain health.
CNI Accessible Lecture - Mom Brain, Dad Brain: Identifying Distinct Maternal and Paternal Neural Networks
Dr. Alberto Corona is a postdoctoral fellow in the Kenny Lab in the neuroscience department at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Alberto earned his neuroscience Ph.D. in 2022 in the lab of Dr. Stephen Shea at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and his B.S. in Biology at the University of California, Riverside in 2016.
CNI Accessible Lecture - Plasticity: How Experience Shapes Traits and Generations
Dr. Sebastian Alvarado’s research program at Queens College is motivated by understanding the molecular boundaries of biological plasticity. While genetics provides a reasonable molecular framework for certain evolutionary processes, it does not provide the entire picture. Reversible molecular processes, such as DNA methylation/RNA editing/histone remodeling can steer the function of genes in dynamic environments allowing for adaptive plasticity regardless of genetic predisposition. While a good half of a century has focused on the role of genes underlying a given trait, we know very little about how such plastic processes can influence traits and their evolution.
The Alvarado Lab is interested in the plastic molecular mechanisms that shape a genome’s response to natural changes in the environment. The Alvarado Lab primarily works with an African cichlid system Astatotilapia burtoni as well as various other animals capable of changing their body coloration (i.e.: Arctic mammals and cephalopods).
CNI Accessible Lecture - Utilizing Novel Models to Explore New Drug Target for Parkinson’s
Her talk will focus on our new growing understanding of Parkinson’s disease, the second most common and fastest-rising neurodegenerative disease in the world. Dr. Roman-Vendrell's innovative work at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory helps us identify molecular and cellar changes from the disease- using Sea Lampreys. Her elegant work has helped us understand better the important roots of the disease and the shared biology between humans and other species. During her talk, she’ll break down the science of the disease and help us understand the importance of a cross-species approach in science and health. Parents should join to think about their health in middle age and help communicate the shared health mechanisms in humans and other animals. Educators should join to learn to better communicate to their students the importance of cross-specific research and the science of disease. Researchers and students should join for a Q&A with the expert.
Speaker: Dr. Cristina Roman-Vendrell, Parkinson’s Foundation
CNI Accessible Lecture - The Cerebellum's Hidden Powers: Insights into Learning and Motor Skills
Dr. Dominique Pritchett is an assistant professor of biology at Howard University. His lab is largely interested in understanding the neural mechanism that underlies simple associative learning behaviors and Autism which has significant connections to motor learning and adaptive behavior. In this conversation, he will share his nonhuman work on exercise and cerebellar activity boosting learning and the creation of a new motor ball app to assess human brain plasticity. This event will allow for a discussion of the empirical studies on motor skills, neurodiversity, and boosting brain plasticity and learning for our most vulnerable students.
CNI Accessible Lecture - Neurodiversity: Understanding the Supports and Value of Diverse Learning in the Classroom
Dr. Caroline G. Richter's research expertise is in the area of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. She is the founder and director of the Science of Child DevelopmenT And NeuRodiverSity (STARS) laboratory. She is interested in understanding the cognitive and socio-emotional aspects that contribute to the variability of the academic achievement of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. She is particularly interested in working with children with learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and Williams syndrome. She hopes that the results of her research can be used to inform targeted assessments and interventions, leading to improvements in the quality of life of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders and their families.
CNI Accessible Lecture - The Long Road to Alzheimer’s: Making the road visible and getting on the road to health instead
Dr. Elizabeth Riley is a postdoc in neuroscience in the Department of Psychology within Cornell’s College of Human Ecology. She holds a Ph.D. from the Boston University School of Medicine, and her research at Cornell focuses on the norepinephrine system and its relation to Alzheimer’s Disease. She is a recipient of a Postdoc Achievement Award for Excellence in Community Engagement as part of Cornell’s celebration of National Postdoc Appreciation Week 2022.
CNI Accessible Lecture - The Science of Social Justice: A Cultural Embodied Movement
Dr. Sará King is a mother, a neuroscientist, political and learning scientist, medical anthropologist, social entrepreneur, public speaker, and certified yoga and meditation instructor. She is an internationally recognized thought leader in the interdisciplinary field that examines the role of social justice, art, and mindfulness in neuroscience.
She specializes in researching and teaching about the relationship between mindfulness, community alternative medicine, and social justice with an emphasis on examining the relationship between individual and collective awareness as it relates to well-being and the healing of intergenerational trauma.
She currently works as an NIH post-doctoral fellow in Neurology at Oregon Health Science University (OHSU) in the Oregon Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Neurological Disorders.
Dr. King is also a member of Mobius, a non-profit supporting compassion in tech, is guest faculty in the MNDFL mindfulness certification program, as well as she is the Co-Director for the Embodied Social Justice Certificate program alongside Rev. Angel kyodo Williams and Dr. Rae Johnson.
CNI Accessible Lecture - Introduction - The Purpose and Function of your Brain
Dr. Aadil El-Turabi, a vaccinologist specialist at the University of Oxford Jenner Institute, will lead his talk Introduction: The purpose and function of your brain, to help educators, community members, and leaders build a foundation for understanding and using information about the brain. Dr. El-Turabi has experience in academia, SME biotech, large pharma, and CROs in the UK and internationally. He leverages the translational potential of the virus-like particle (VLP) based vaccines for developing novel therapeutics (and prophylactics) for the benefit of patients living with non-communicable disorders and infectious diseases. Dr. El-Turabi has also leveraged his vaccine expertise during the COVID-19 pandemic to challenge anti-vaxxers' weaponization of the fears of the Black community based on genuine historical events that vaccines could, for example, violate religious laws or affect fertility. This conversation will allow Dr. El-Turabi to share his approach to asking questions about the role of the brain in health, cognition, and society, with educators who can best democratize the information and foster a rich discussion that bridges neuroscience and culture.
CNI Accessible Lecture - Estrogen and Cognitive Function: Synaptic Transmission in the Entorhinal Cortex
Speaker: Dr. Ariel Batallán Burrowes, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
CNI Accessible Lecture - From Eye to Action: The Dance of Senses and Movements
Dr. Madineh Sedigh-Sarvestani, assistant professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowski Scholar, will introduce the sensory system's influence over our actions, perceptions, and knowledge. Dr. Sedigh-Sarvestani’s research helps us better understand how the brain and visual signals help us act on what we see. Her approach to using brain imaging, brain signal recordings, behavioral testing, and mathematical modeling is designed to create research that better reflects our experience as constantly moving and adapting to life. Understanding how our bodies and movements shape our visual systems can help us learn more about our decision-making, behavior, and attention. Dr. Sedigh-Sarvestan also shares her work with high school students and will share suggestions for creating lessons on this topic for educators and community members.