Adrienne Fairhall will serve as the principal investigator on a new Computational Neuroscience training grant from NIH. The grant will initiate two new programs. A two-year sequence in computational neuroscience for undergraduate students will feature a common core curriculum (including new courses), required mentored laboratory research, and a series of faculty seminars. The PhD graduate component offers a tailored curriculum including neurobiology core courses and quantitative courses in computational neuroscience, mathematics, computer science and physics. PhD candidates will attend a…
News & Announcements
Eb Fetz named Alexander von Humboldt Fellow
Eberhard Fetz is a pioneer in the field of neuroprosthetics and brain-computer interface research. He discovered that single cells in the brain can learn to permanently change their firing behaviour if positive consequences (reward) follow a particular firing rate. In healthy humans and patients with brain disease this discovery pioneered self-regulation of brain activity and behaviour leading to the field of neuroprosthetics. In Germany, Professor Fetz will study the learned regulation of brain blood flow with functional magnetic resonance imaging…
Nobel Laureate Erwin Neher presents 2011 Hille Lecture
Professor Erwin Neher, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, presented the 2011 Einar Hille Memorial Lecture in the Neurosciences on March 1. He discussed his latest studies on “Biophysics of Short Term Synaptic Plasticity”. Professor Neher earned a baccalaureate in physics from the Technische Hochshule in Munich, and later a Master of Science degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin as a Fulbright Scholar in 1967. He returned to Munich intent on pursuing a doctoral…
Rapping Professor – Mad scientist behind songs about science
Greg Crowther, a former PhD student in PBIO, has always enjoyed combining science and music. As a graduate student with Kevin Conley, Greg was famous for his musical renditions of the energetics of muscle contraction. Now, as a faculty member in the Department of Medicine, Greg studies malaria prevention, but he has not lost his love of music and how it can be used to inspire others to become medical researchers, as this story from KING5 illustrates. Recently, his rap…
Chris Liu joins PBIO faculty
We welcome Qinghang (Chris) Liu to the department faculty as assistant professor. A native of China, Chris did his PhD work in cardiovascular physiology with Polly Hoffman at the University of Tennessee and then postdoctoral research with Jeff Molkentin at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. His research focuses on defining the novel signaling and transcriptional regulatory mechanisms that underlie cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, using gene targeted and transgenic mouse models. Chris held an American Heart Association postdoctoral fellowship and…
Eb Fetz and colleagues win Keck Foundation grant to develop implantable computers to restore brain function
Eb Fetz and his team, including Brian Otis and Babak Parviz (Electrical Engineering), and Jeffrey Ojemann (Neurological Surgery) have been awarded a 3-year, $1 million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to continue their neurochip studies to restore brain function. The interdisciplinary team will create the “Keck Active Electrode Array” to promote restoration of brain, spine and muscle function in cases of brain injury due to trauma, stroke and other events. See full story here. From UW Today