About this Event
The human brain boasts 100 billion cells that communicate with each other through 100 trillion connections. When the right combinations of cells activate at the right time, we are able to produce an astounding diversity of motions and movements. How does the activity of individual brain cells give rise to behavior, and what happens when this precise orchestration falls apart? In this event, three experts bring together perspectives from computational, experimental, and clinical approaches to discuss how form meets function in the brain.
Lea Duncker, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Neuroscience Department at Columbia University and Principal Investigator at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, will open our event by exploring how the brain performs the computations that underlie our everyday actions. Whereas neurons in the brain are constructed from similar building blocks, they can achieve an impressive suite of different functions through dynamic, adaptable connections. How do neurons form these flexible networks? By simulating brain activity with computational models, Dr. Duncker reveals how the circuits in our own brains get us moving.
Hemali Phatnani, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences in the Department of Neurology, in the Division of Neuromuscular Medicine, at the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University and Director of the Center for Genomics of Neurodegenerative Disease at the New York Genome Center, will then discuss the significance of cell-to-cell connections in the brain through the lens of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A complicated disease of motor neurons, ALS results in the loss of muscle control through the death of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Why can’t these cells recover? What would it take for them to stay healthy? It may come down to not just who these cells are, but how they are wired and which neighbors they talk to.
Following the two talks, Leslie Sibener, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Dr. Priya Rajasethupathy at Rockefeller University, will moderate a discussion and Q&A with the speakers. Audience questions are welcomed, either submitted during registration or live at the event.
About the experts
Lea Duncker, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Neuroscience Department at Columbia University and a Principal Investigator at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. Her research merges theoretical and data-driven approaches: developing computational models of neural networks, and applying machine learning methods to analyze large-scale brain recordings. By integrating these perspectives, Dr. Duncker aims to uncover how neural circuits perform complex computations underlying cognition and motor control. Before joining Columbia, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, working with Krishna Shenoy and Scott Linderman. She completed her PhD at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London working with Maneesh Sahani. She holds undergraduate and master's degrees from UCL in Natural Sciences and Computational Statistics and Machine Learning, respectively.
Hemali Phatnani, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences in the Department of Neurology, in the Division of Neuromuscular Medicine, a member of the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center, a CTNI Scholar in the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative (CTNI), and a member of the Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease at the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University. Dr. Phatnani also directs the Center for Genomics of Neurodegenerative Disease at the New York Genome Center. Dr. Phatnani’s research program bridges Columbia University and the New York Genome Center and has three main goals: 1) To be the hub of collaborative interactions between clinicians and basic scientists; 2) To build and disseminate resources for the research community; and 3) To understand the role of intercellular interactions in neurodegenerative disease. To understand human disease, it is necessary to study human samples, which present some unique challenges – her research team needs to be particularly careful when designing experiments and interpreting the data. To address these challenges, Dr. Phatnani’s lab takes a multidisciplinary approach by leveraging clinical, genomic, computational, and imaging data. Her team integrates antemortem and postmortem phenotyping data with spatially resolved transcriptomic and proteomic data that span single cells to whole tissues. They then use tailored analytical approaches to interpret such data and learn how communities of cells in the brain and spinal cord change with aging, and how this causes disease. Dr. Phatnani is the recipient of the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, and she was recently awarded Columbia’s Harold and Golden Research Award in Clinical Sciences.
Leslie Sibener, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Priya Rajasethupathy’s lab at Rockefeller University. She earned her PhD in neurobiology and behavior at Columbia University with Dr. Rui Costa, and her B.S. in neuroscience and B.A. in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University. Leslie’s ongoing research examines why specific memories are selected for long-term storage, while others are forgotten. During her doctoral studies, Leslie investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the learning of skilled motor action. Her work focused on how the thalamus, an often-overlooked motor area of the brain, contributes to the learning and refinement reaching actions in mice. Currently, Dr. Sibener’s postdoctoral research focuses on how the saliency of events is reported to memory centers of the brain, and how that saliency gates the selection of memories for long-term storage. During her graduate studies at Columbia, Leslie was awarded with the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Leslie is currently a Junior Fellow in the Simons Society of Fellows. In the broader scientific community, she has worked closely with groups dedicated to transparent scientific communication, advocacy, and education, such as Stories of Women in Neuroscience, BioBus and co-founded Scientist on the Subway.
This talk is part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Brain Insight Lecture series, offered free to the public to enhance understanding of the biology of the mind and the complexity of human behavior. The lectures are hosted by Columbia’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. When registering, please indicate whether you wish to attend in person or watch the livestream virtually. All registrants will receive a Zoom link for the livestream and a recording of the lecture afterwards.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Jerome L. Greene Science Center, 605 West 129th St, New York, United States
USD 0.00
