{"id":7407,"date":"2025-08-13T09:02:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T13:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/?p=7407"},"modified":"2025-08-13T09:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T13:03:11","slug":"7407-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/7407-2\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

En Yang<\/a>, a neuroscientist in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill, has won a Pew Biomedical Scholar award for her engineering-informed research on learning and memory.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences<\/a>\u00a0provides research funding to early-career investigators whose work stands to substantially impact human health. This year, 22 scholars were appointed from 209 nominations submitted by leading U.S. academic centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPew-funded scientists have long contributed to biomedical research discoveries that have improved human health,\u201d said Lee Niswander, a 1995 Pew scholar and chair of the program\u2019s national advisory committee. \u201cI\u2019m confident this new class of scholars, with their innovative and creative approaches to scientific research, will continue this tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2025 scholars were announced by Pew on Aug. 12. Each scholar will receive four years of funding support to pursue an exploratory research project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis award will significantly accelerate my research by providing the flexibility to pursue high-risk, high-reward directions beyond the scope of traditional grants,\u201d said Yang, who is an assistant professor in the department of biology and an\u00a0Institute for Convergent Science<\/a>\u00a0faculty fellow.<\/p>\n

Yang uses zebrafish as an experimental model to study the neural pathways involved in learning and memory formation. At the intersection of experimental and computational neuroscience, she and her colleagues image zebrafish brains in real time \u2014 at a single-cell resolution \u2014 for a uniquely comprehensive view of how memories are written. They aim to use these insights to explore how these pathways are disrupted in neurodegenerative diseases, and how they might reactivate these pathways or help the brain adapt around the deficits.<\/p>\n

With this award, Yang will use virtual reality to study the neurons and signaling pathways that activate while fish navigate simulated scenarios. Her team will then disrupt those pathways to evaluate the impact on memory and wayfinding capabilities and examine how the brain adapts to overcome these challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Pew\u2019s support, I can bridge systems neuroscience, behavior and neural engineering to uncover the brain-wide mechanisms underlying memory formation, recall and internal visualization,\u201d Yang said.<\/p>\n

Yang said she also looks forward to the unique sense of camaraderie the Pew Biomedical Scholars program will provide. She is excited to connect \u201cwith a vibrant community of scientists who challenge norms, support one another and push the boundaries of biomedicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage in my career, that sense of community and intellectual freedom is invaluable,\u201d she said. \u201cIt strengthens my commitment to mentoring the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists and fostering a lab culture grounded in curiosity and rigor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about Yang\u2019s research.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

En Yang, a neuroscientist in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill, has won a Pew Biomedical Scholar award for her engineering-informed research on learning and memory. The\u00a0Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences\u00a0provides research funding to early-career investigators whose work stands to substantially impact human health. This year, 22 scholars were appointed … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7858,"featured_media":7411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n| UNC Neuroscience Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/7407-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"| UNC Neuroscience Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"En Yang, a neuroscientist in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill, has won a Pew Biomedical Scholar award for her engineering-informed research on learning and memory. 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