Spencer Smith was awarded a Human Frontier Science Program grant for the “real-time tracking and imaging of neuronal dynamics in freely moving vertebrates.

Jason Yi, PhD, a postdoc in the Zylka lab was selected as a finalist for the SFARI Bridge to Independence Award for his proposed research project, “Inhibitory circuit dysfunction in autism spectrum disorder”.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, Janet Berrios, a graduate student in the Philpot lab, discovered that the loss of UBE3A decreases the release of the GABA neurotransmitter and alters reward-seeking behavior in an important neural pathway once presumed to be principally regulated by the dopamine neurotransmitter.

The UNC School of Medicine has awarded the 16th Perl-UNC Prize to Christopher A. Walsh, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School, for the “discovery of genes and mechanisms regulating human cortical development.”

Garret Stuber publishes new review in Nature Neuroscience on the neurocircuitry of the lateral hypothalamus for feeding and reward related behaviors.

Mark Zylka, PhD, will serve as director and Ben Philpot, PhD, will serve as associate director of the UNC Neuroscience Center at the UNC School of Medicine, effective July 1. William Snider, MD, who has served as the center’s director for nearly 17 years, will step down from his leadership role, but will remain on faculty as professor of neurology, while also continuing his research.

In a paper published in Cell Reports, Vijay Swahari, a postdoctoral fellow in Deshmukh lab, identifies how the critical role of Dicer in DNA damage response can be exploited for therapy in aggressive brain tumors like Medulloblastoma.

In the article published in Developmental Cell, Stephanie Gupton’s lab shows that the E3 ligase TRIM9 ubiquitinates the actin polymerase VASP, altering VASP tip localization and dynamics and reducing filopodial stability and density.

Spencer Smith developed a new microscope which can simultaneously view individual neurons firing in two or more brain regions of a moving laboratory animal, enabling researchers to see how different areas of the brain work together to process information.

In a paper published in Cell Host and Microbe, Anna Cliffe, a postdoctoral fellow in Deshmukh lab, identifies how activation of JNK in response to neuronal stress triggers changes to the HSV chromatin and reactivation from latency.