Leaderboard

Hello SfN community! I am thrilled to be a Neuronline Community Leader. My name is Daisy Gallardo, and I'm a third year PhD Candidate in the Anatomy and Neurobiology department at the University of California, Irvine. My research focuses on neurodegeneration in an Alzheimer’s disease model, exploring how neuronal death could be delayed or reduced. I'm interested in mechanistic changes that occur as neurons age and how this could inform our approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease. My research interests align with my lifestyle interests, including topics like aging and non-pharmacological approaches to disease prevention, such as exercise. I’m an avid runner and participate in strength/running races, marathons and obstacle course races. I’m excited to engage with all of you in critical discussions and learn from diverse perspectives.

Hello everybody! My name is Valeria Muoio and I am a neurosurgeon at the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil. I have always been a person who is unhappy with the outcome of some neurological diseases, especially in children, and for that reason, I got involved in research. I obtained my doctorate at the University of São Paulo with a period at Johns Hopkins University. Afterwards, I worked as a researcher at Charite University in Berlin. Currently, I work as a neurosurgeon and researcher at the University of São Paulo. I am fascinated by people, in their incredible richness and diversity. I believe I take this passion to my medical students, and try to show how vital neuroscience is - it not only explains our ailments but also explains who we are. Last year, I had the honor of participating as SFN's Community Leader, and I can say that being part of such a group changed many aspects of my career. For this year, I am excitedly preparing my department's Brain Awareness Week, where hundreds of students in different states of Brazil will participate. And of course, I intend to serve and participate in SFN with all the excellent opportunities and people it brings together. Cheers to all!

First, I want to say to all scientists that science matters, that even in these complicated conditions, science matters. When I saw the video I felt sadness for all situations, but at the same time, I felt that there is hope whereas we stand for science. In the same way that the Ukranian Fellows stand and resist for science. In Mexico, we don't have this kind of problem, but we have different adversities that change society and science (drug cartels, natural disasters, social movements, strikes, etc.). In my case, we faced a huge strike in the 2000 year, I was a student and I was researching with rats and drug discrimination. In the beginning, everybody thought that the strike would be only a few days. However, after two months things changed, the strike did not show possibilities of change and all the researchers and academics started to worry about the future. I remember that we went to talk with the heads of the movement and we explained why we should continue with the science. At this moment we were so nervous because in the past, one social clamor released all the experimental subjects and that was a possible choice for the heads of the strike. After a few days, the heads of the strike told us that we were allowed to continue with the experimental work, but there would be no external resources or participation of any person or entity. We accepted those terms and we did everything (the experiments, the training, the cleaning, the maintenance of the building, the baths, etc!!). The strike was for one year, in that year we stood and resisted for science, It was hard but at the end, we didn't stop science. Finally, I would like to add that science is part of society, if something happens in society of course it's going to impact science. We should be prepared and ready to stand for science and the changes in our society.

Hey there! My name is Diego, and I'm a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. I'm passionate about understanding how our nervous system responds to inflammation and finding ways to improve neuronal survival after injury. I received my MD degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico School of Medicine in 2012, and then pursued a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences with a focus on neuropathology from the same institution. Apart from my research, I love sharing knowledge with people from all walks of life, and I'm particularly interested in promoting scientific awareness for the betterment of society. As a mentor, I strive to create an environment that fosters personal and academic growth, as well as overall well-being, for young scientists who are eager to learn and make a positive impact on the world.

I gained significant knowledge in characterizing microglial activation and polarization in vivo and in vitro central nervous system injury models. As a postdoctoral researcher, I have continued to enhance my skills in examining microglia activation and neurotoxicity in different models of neuronal damage by utilizing molecular biology, biochemistry, and confocal microscopy techniques. I aim to unravel the molecular mechanisms governing microglia activation and how immunoregulatory processes influence their behavior. By identifying signals regulating their activation, we hope to develop targeted immunomodulatory strategies to mitigate neuroinflammation and its detrimental effects, ultimately enhancing brain resilience.

Hi Diego, I would love to chat with you more about your work. We have begun to investigate inflammatory and microglial responses in the context of implanted devices and deep brain stimulation. Mitigating neuroinflammation would be huge to the clinical landscape

To promote diversity and inclusivity in neuroscience, we should implement policies that promote diversity and fairness, celebrate voices from all backgrounds, establish mentorship programs, engage schools and communities, provide training on cultural competency, allocate resources to support diversity initiatives, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, create safe spaces and networks, assess diversity efforts, and track progress to ensure momentum. "We cannot afford to ignore underrepresented groups any longer. To achieve true social justice, we must provide them with the necessary resources to succeed.

I really enjoy this question because I believe that our research is driven by our motivations, our encounters in life, and even our expectations and beliefs. In my case, I started to be involved in pharmacology because when I was young I saw many of my friends change after the consumption of alcohol. That amused me because it was something like Dr. Jeckill and Mr. Hide!!! How one calm person could be a totally different person after alcohol intake?... At that very moment, I realized that I really wanted to understand that... The other source of motivation was stress, at that crazy young age, one day I was in a car accident, I was with my friends, and the driver lost the vehicle control and we hit a wall. In the moment of the accident, I saw how time expanded itself... I saw everything in slow motion, for me it was several minutes, but after the accident the people said that everything happened in a few seconds!!!! I know that I should have had a different reaction, but I was so excited because the time was different, how my brain did that????... In this event, I incorporated time into my perspective of life. Finally, neuroscience was the last ingredient that took me on this Wonderful path... In my lab, we study: PTSD and related disorders in humans and rodents Timing behavior and its pharmacological basis Stress and addictions Learning and Memory on Cephalopods Best

Neurological disorders involving dysfunction or deregulation of neural circuits such as Parkinson's disease, Epilepsy, and others are chronic and progressive diseases that severely impact quality of life. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as an effective and efficacious treatment paradigm for these "circuitopathies" as well as a powerful tool for exploring basic functionality of neural circuits. Despite DBS' clinical and scientific successes, it is fraught with off target stimulation and a lack of understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of effective stimulation. My research centers around the development of new neural stimulation and recording tools to better understand and translate neuromodulation therapies. To this end, I have worked in the following areas: 1. Optical DBS to constrain stimulation only to local microcircuits implicated in disease. 2. Development of chronic small and large animal implantable pulse generators (IPGs) to better mimic clinical DBS practice in rodent and pig models. 3. Study of differential thalamocortical dynamics and thalamic contributions to traveling cortical waves 4. Development of awake behaving calcium imaging tools in DBS rat models to better understand thalamic entrainment of DBS stimuli. 5. AI-enabled closed-loop neuromodulation tools that learn subject neural dynamics in real time to provide target stimulation only when needed. My research is driven by a desire to serve those whose neurological conditions currently have no recourse to current medicine. I am equal parts engineer and neuroscientist and work to translate new neuromodulation tools which work with, and not against, the nervous system to provide safer and more efficacious medical tools.

Firstly, I just want to emphasize how happy I am to discuss something related to diversity once more! Linking my emotions to an actual written content, I share the opportunity I'm having as a Community Leader. Just from the part of my context I'm happy to share - as a latina and undergraduate student - it's amazing to interact with such incredible researchers, doctors and all of you here at SfN! Yours experiences, kindness and engagement make it all amazing! After all, amidst the struggles - once there's no quick modification on the demographics of the scientific community as a whole - smaller steps might be the source to rely on. Surely, it's a scenario I'm gratefully finding at many science and academia groups but, specifically, extremely happy to see it happening here at SfN. Resources, such as content (incredible stories and articles) and the creation of programs - like the Community Leader opportunity for Early Career scientists - are mere exemples on how I gladly see change beginning to appear, though at my local and immediate surroundings. Engaging people from all backgrounds - degrees and life experiences included - might be just the beginning, but it has been done thoroughly. Doing our own bests it's not all that matters. Still, it represents the will and the courage for the changes we are going to see on the future.