Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Rasband on receiving a renewal for his R01 grant! The work proposed in this grant focuses on the scaffolding protein AnkyrinG (AnkG), the gene that encodes AnkG, and Ank3 is one of the strongest risk genes for bipolar disorder and other diseases.

Dr. Kara Marshall has received the 2026 McKnight Scholars Award! 🧠🔬 The McKnight Scholar Awards are granted to scientists in the early stages of establishing their own independent laboratories & research careers & who have demonstrated a commitment to neuroscience.

Another successful New-Bee 🐝 neuro program in the 📚! We were delighted to host Elkins HS for a day of neuroscience demos and lessons. The future is bright with these future STEM leaders! 🤩 Special thanks to generous support from @bcmneurosci.bsky.social and @rsb.org.uk.

Join us tomorrow for our seminar series!🧠 Dr. Philip Sabes, PH.D., from the University of California San Francisco, will present: "Neuromodulation at Scale: Tools for Human Circuit Neuroscience" 📅 Feb. 27, 2026 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 N315, Alkek

#BCMNeuroscience continues to excel, remaining ranked in the top 10 for grant funding in 2025, as reported by The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. This achievement highlights our commitment to advancing research and supporting innovative projects in the field. 🧠

Join us Friday for our seminar series!🧠 Dr. MICHAEL HÄUSSER, PH.D., from the University College of London, will present: "All-optical interrogation of mammalian neural circuits" 📅 Feb. 20, 2026, 2026 🕑 11am-12pm 📍McMillian Auditorium, DeBakey

Today, we honor the contributions of women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We celebrate the brilliant women faculty, staff and students of our department who are shaping the future of neuroscience.🧠 #WomenInSTEM

Join us tomorrow for our seminar series!🧠 Dr. Farzan Nadim, from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, will present: “Convergent comodulation: Rules and influence on circuit input” 📅 Dec. 5, 2025 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 N315, Alkek

Join us Friday for our neuroscience seminar series!🧠 Dr. Nick Turk-Browne, from Yale University, will present: “Episodic and Statistical Learning in the Hippocampus” 📅 Nov. 21, 2025 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 111A Cullen

Congratulations to Dr. Francois St-Pierre on 10 years with the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine! Dr. St-Pierre joined BCM in 2015 and has continued to make an impact ever since. We appreciate his continued dedication and contributions to our team!

Join us Friday for our neuroscience seminar series!🧠 Dr. Yang Yang, from Purdue University, will present: “SCN2A-mediated autism and epilepsy: from mouse and hiPSCs models to genetic medicine” 📅 Nov. 7, 2025 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 M112 DeBakey

Dr. Ben Arenkiel, Professor in the departments of Molecular & Human Genetics and Neuroscience, collaborated with other authors on a recent publication explaining how prolonged exposure to food odors can suppress appetite. Read about it here! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Prolonged exposure to food odors suppresses feeding via an olfactory bulb-to-hypothalamus circuit - Nature Communications

Olfactory perception of food-derived odors influences feeding behavior, but the underlying neural pathways remain unclear. Here, the authors show that prolonged exposure to food odor suppresses food i...

nature.com

Join us Friday for our neuroscience seminar series!🧠 Dr. Forrest Collman, from the Allen Institute for Brain Science, will present: “Cortical Connectomics” 📅 Oct. 24, 2025 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 M112 DeBakey

Join us Friday for our seminar series!🧠 Dr. Peter Penzes, from Northwestern University, will present: “Intercellular signaling through soluble ectodomains at neuronal synapses: from basic biology to biomarkers and treatments” 📅 Oct. 17, 2025 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 M112 DeBakey

Welcome Dr. Nicole Provenza! 🎉 Dr. Provenza joins the Department of Neuroscience as a secondary faculty member, with her primary appointment as Assistant Professor in Neurosurgery. We’re excited to have her on board and look forward to her contributions!

Join us Friday for our neuroscience seminar series!🧠 Dr. Paul Jenkins, from UMMS, will present: “Molecular convergence of High-Risk Autism-Associated Genes, ANK2 and SCN2A, in the Control of Dendritic Excitability” 📅 Sept. 26, 2025 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 N315 Alkek

Join us Friday for our neuroscience seminar series!🧠 Dr. Colleen McClung, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will present: “Circadian Genes, Rhythms and the Biology of Psychiatric Disorders” 📅 Sept. 19, 2025 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 N315 Alkek

Join us Friday for our neuroscience seminar series! Dr. Madeleine Oudin (TUFTS University) will present: “Development of Splice-Switching Antisense Oligonucleotides for the Treatment of Development Epileptic Encephalopathies” 📅 Sept. 12, 2025 🕑 11am-12pm 📍 N315 Alkek

Please join us this Friday for the start of our neuroscience seminar series! 🧠 Our first speaker, Dr. Laura DeNardo, from UCLA, will present: “Neural Circuits Underlying Long Term Memory Across the Life Span” 📅 Date: Sept. 5, 2025 🕑 Time: 11am-12pm 📍 Location: N315

We are excited to kick off our 2025-2026 seminar series on Friday, September 5th! Join us for engaging talks and discussions with leading experts in the field. Look for weekly updates and announcements with everything you need to know about the upcoming seminars!🧠

We are pleased to announce a new Assistant Professor has joined the Neuroscience Research Institute, Dr. Xiangling Meng! Dr. Meng will focus on enhancing our research as her skills and experience will be a valuable addition to the team. Welcome, Dr. Meng!🧠🔬📚

We’re proud to recognize Dr. Jeannie Chin for 10 years of outstanding service and dedication to the Department of Neuroscience. Her commitment and passion continue to inspire all of us. Thank you, Dr. Chin, for everything you’ve done and continue to do!

Dr. Gao @yudonggao.bsky.social has received the 2024 Simons Foundation Pilot Award! 🥇 The Pilot award provides support for novel, high-risk projects within autism research. Project title: Identifying functional convergence of autism risk genes in regulating sodium channel membrane trafficking.

Dr. Javier Medina has reached an incredible milestone! 10 years of dedication, innovation, and impact in the Department of Neuroscience! We’re so grateful for his commitment to advancing neuroscience, as he is such a valued member of our team. Here's to many more milestones!

It’s been a season of successful thesis defenses for the department, and we’re so proud of all our new doctors! Last but not least, congratulations to Dr. Gabriel Escobedo from the lab of Dr. Matt Rasband on a successful defense - what an incredible achievement!🎉

A special thank you to Dr. Peter Saggau for returning to Baylor and delivering the final talk in our 2024-2025 #neuroscience seminar series! We’re grateful for your insights and continued connection to our community!

Join us Friday, June 27th (11am-12pm) in Auditorium N315, Alkek, for a special #neuroscience seminar featuring Peter Saggau, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. Seminar Title: ‘Acousto-optic Techniques in Neurophotonics.’

Congratulations to Fish Kunxun Qian, grad student from the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Magee, on on a successful thesis defense! Your hard work, dedication, and passion for research have truly paid off. We’re proud to celebrate this incredible milestone with you! 🎉🎓

Another student defense has been completed! In early June, Peter Kim defended his thesis, showcasing his hard work and dedication to his research. Peter will continue working alongside his mentor, Dr. Joanna Jankowsky, at Washington University (WashU). Best of luck, Dr. Kim!

Our faculty members were honored at the BCM Faculty Awards Day. Dr. Matt Rasband received the Award for Excellence in Education, while Drs. Javier Medina and Francois St. Pierre were recognized for their new leadership positions. Thank you all for the incredible work you do! 🧠