The IBACS executive committee is thrilled to announce the appointment of three new directors who will assume leadership of the Institute this fall. Their selection culminates from a major visioning process involving community feedback (2021-22), a University-wide request for nominations (fall 2022), a review of qualifications and candidates' willingness to serve, candidate interviews with the executive committee (winter 2023), and a final review of recommendations by the CLAS Dean Juli Wade.

New IBACS Directors

Our new Director of Training will work to connect and publicize UConn’s many outstanding training programs in the brain, cognitive, and neurosciences space. Myers will work with leadership of existing programs to build strengths and optimize use of shared resources. She will coordinate with departments to support and grow opportunities for cross-training (e.g., inter- disciplinary training programs that cross over traditional degree programs). She will also manage IBACS Graduate and Undergraduate Student Summer Award programs, and work with the Director of Research to support and coordinate graduate lines (RAs) for students working in our service cores.

Our new IBACS Director of Communication and Outreach will manage the outward face of IBACS, including the curation of our website/media presence – both inside and outside the University. John will work to enhance integration and cooperation among departments, programs, and centers critical to the thriving brain, cognitive, and neurosciences space at UConn. This will include improving the coordination of related talk and seminar series, ListServs, etc. Salamone will work to engage new IBACS stakeholders, and to build new interdisciplinary connections and breadth of representation within the Institute and its initiatives.

Our new Director of Research will work to support existing and promote new interdisciplinary research in the brain, cognitive and neurosciences space. Eigsti will strive to increase external funding and sustainability of IBACS-affiliated programs and service cores. She will manage the IBACS Seed Grant Programs and work with IBACS-affiliated service cores in support of their respective missions – including a newly refurbished EEG/eye-tracking lab, and our new Science Alliance Mobile (SAM), which will bring cutting-edge mobile research facilities to new off-campus test sites and outreach locations. She will organize speaker events, and work together with the Director of Training and Director of Communication/Outreach where missions overlap.

Yulia Bereshpolova and Maxim Volgusev, Psychological Sciences

Title of Project: Intracellular analysis of thalamic input to visual cortex in awake brain

Visual perception is dramatically influenced by changing level of alertness. While being awake and fully alert is optimal for vision, we still can detect and perceive visual stimuli while drifting to drowsiness and even light sleep states. The goal of our study is to understand how synaptic connections between the thalamus and cortical neurons which are responsible for mediating visual perception are changed during transition from the alert to drowsiness and light sleep and how these changes affect vision.

Xiaojing Wang, Neuroscience, UConn Health

Title of Project: Identifying the Cellular Composition of the Inferior Colliculus

The inferior colliculus (IC) is a major hub in the central auditory system and is implicated in tinnitus and speech processing difficulties. While different cell types in the IC have been identified, an un-biased approach that encompasses all cell types at once is still missing.

This project aims to establish a dataset of the cell types present in the IC of adult mice with normal hearing and after noise-induced hearing loss via single-nucleus RNA sequencing.

Brian Kelley, Neurosurgery, UConn Health

Title of Project: Neuronal Responses to Diffuse Axonal Injury

Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is a major component of traumatic brain injury-related morbidity. Despite better understanding of DAI mechanisms, there have been minimal improvements in clinical outcomes. Recent basic science experiments show that neurons undergoing DAI within a region close to the cell body do not die. This unanticipated finding prompted the current study’s aim to determine the cellular mechanisms responsible for this observation. We anticipate our results will provide insights into this survival process.

Brittany Lee, Psychological Sciences

Title of Project: Investigating reading disability and comprehension using eye movements

Expository texts are informational texts that are particularly difficult for children to read and comprehend. They place greater cognitive demands on the reader compared to stories, making them especially challenging for children with reading disability. We will measure children's eye movements while they read different kinds of texts to better understand what makes expository comprehension so difficult for children with and without reading disability. With this knowledge, we hope to tailor reading instruction and intervention.

Mallory Perry-Eaddy, Nursing

Title of Project: Pediatric Recovery after sepSIS Treatment and the Microbiome (PERSIST-Microbiome)

Critically ill children who survive the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit are at increased risk of new cognitive dysfunction after they leave the hospital. While specific mechanisms have been considered, the underlying biological reasons are largely unknown. PERSIST-Microbiome aims to explore the potential role of the gut microbiome in critically ill children, especially those with inflammatory conditions such as sepsis and pneumonia, and their recovery after critical illness as it pertains to cognitive outcomes (i.e. gut-brain axis).

Gregory Sartor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

Title of Project: RNA-targeted Therapeutics for Substance Use Disorder

For several years, noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been implicated in drug use and relapse, yet ncRNA-targeted therapeutics have not advanced to clinical studies. The lack of translational progress is largely due to the poor physicochemical properties of established RNA interference approaches. Recent innovations have revealed that small molecules can selectively target ncRNAs and produce physiological effects in vivo. Here, we will test and develop novel, ncRNA-targeted small molecules for the treatment of substance use disorder.

Erika Skoe, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

Title of Project: COVID-19 and Central Nervous System Dysfunction

COVID-19 is a global health crisis impacting the health of millions. While some recover fully, others develop a poorly understood post-viral syndrome characterized by “brain fog.” These symptoms have raised concerns that the virus, or its sequelae, may cause enduring neurocognitive symptoms from central nervous system (CNS) damage. In collaboration with Dartmouth Medical School, this study uses central auditory testing methods to study CNs function in control and patients with Post-Acute COVID Syndrome (PACS).

Ephraim Trakhtenberg, Neuroscience, UConn Health

Title of Project: Novel mechanisms inhibiting axonal regeneration after optic nerve injury

Dr. Trakhtenberg was awarded a seed grant that will fund an exploratory research project aimed at testing a novel hypothesis regarding the molecular mechanisms which inhibit regeneration of injured axons. Axons are the connections through which neurons in the brain communicate with each other over long distances. If these axons are disrupted by trauma or stroke, they will not regenerate spontaneously. In this project we will study the mechanisms which prevent injured axons from regenerating

Pengyu Zong, Neuroscience, UConn Health

Title of Project: Novel therapy for ischemic stroke by targeting TRPM2-PKCy

TRPM2-NMDAR coupling promotes brain injury during stroke, while the underlying mechanism remain unclear. PKCy is an activator for NMDAR. I observed that TRPM2 physically associates with PKCy, and developed a drug to dissociate their binding. I hypothesize that the enhanced activity of NMDAR caused by TRPM2 is mediated by PKCy. In this study, I will test the protective effects of my drug against ischemic neuronal death and brain damage.

Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Month: March 2023

Announcing NEW IBACS Leadership