Yale Kavli Institute for Neuroscience
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kavliatyale.bsky.social
Yale Kavli Institute for Neuroscience
@kavliatyale.bsky.social
780 followers 140 following 97 posts
We aim to understand how genes, molecules, cells, and neural circuits interact to give rise to brain development and behavior, and to apply this knowledge to advance treatments for brain disorders.
https://medicine.yale.edu/kavli/
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kavliatyale.bsky.social
Happy Monday! 🍁🍂
Kick off your week to a great start by registering for THIS FRIDAY's (10/17) ✨ @kavliatyale.bsky.social Networking Hour✨ Food & drinks will be provided.

Thank you to the @mhigley.bsky.social lab for hosting! Open to all Yale neuroscientists - registration required & limited.
Flyer for Kavli Networking Hour on Friday, October 17th at 4pm. Registration QR code at bottom left.
October 13, 2025 at 6:48 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Thank you to everyone who joined this year’s @kavliatyale.bsky.social Chalk Talk - there were many of you!

And a big thank you to our incredible speakers @schandralab.bsky.social and @trevorsorrells.bsky.social, and all the faculty who gave feedback to postdocs during their mock chalk talks.
Sreeganga Chandra, PhD, presenting what to do and not to do during a chalk talk, in front of a full room of postdocs.
October 10, 2025 at 7:22 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Huge thanks to everyone who joined us for last Friday’s @kavliatyale.bsky.social Networking Hour, hosted by @colon-ramos-lab.bsky.social! 🙌 Missed it? No worries—you’ll have another chance at the next one! 😉🎉
Flyer for the Kavli Networking Hour of Sept 5, with a sunset background. Yale neuroscientists mingling with food and beverages at the Kavli Networking Hour. Yale neuroscientists mingling with food and beverages at the Kavli Networking Hour.
September 8, 2025 at 1:41 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Aya received a NIH K99/R00 to lead the development of clinical tools to predict impaired consciousness during seizures. She is also co-leading a multisite adversarial collaboration testing competing theories of consciousness—Global Neuronal Workspace Theory and Integrated Information Theory. [4/5]
Quote from Aya Khalaf, PhD: “This work shows how collaborative efforts and big data approaches in neuroscience can reveal principles about brain function that would be difficult to discover through smaller, isolated studies, ultimately opening new possibilities for understanding and treating neurological disorders.”
July 15, 2025 at 9:12 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
With a BSc and MSc in Biomedical Engineering from Cairo University in Egypt and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, Aya has strong computational skills that she applies to answer clinical and translational research questions to improve patient care. [3/5]
Quote from Aya Khalaf, PhD: “Yale's world-class research in consciousness and epilepsy, combined with the interdisciplinary environment at the School of Medicine, perfectly matched my goal of applying engineering approaches to fundamental brain questions with immediate clinical applications.”
July 15, 2025 at 9:12 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
The analysis of massive fMRI datasets shed light into the fundamental mechanisms of attention and consciousness, which could lead to better targeted therapies for epilepsy and other consciousness-related conditions. [2/5]
Quote from Aya Khalaf, PhD: “This work was incredibly exciting because we discovered that all sensory modalities activate the same central brain regions during attention transitions—something that had never been demonstrated before across multiple senses.”
July 15, 2025 at 9:12 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Currently, Soraya is working toward launching her own lab 🥼and remains committed to developing spatially patterned brain organoids 🧫🔬 to contribute to both basic discovery & translational insights!
We can't wait to see what she does next! 🙌 [5/5]
Quote from Soraya Scuderi, PhD: “[I believe my research helps] bring us closer to bridging the gap between in vitro and in vivo brain development by introducing spatial complexity into organoid models”
June 17, 2025 at 2:20 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Soraya found working on DuoMAPS incredibly rewarding and dedicated years to its development. Her hard work paid off, and this year, Soraya was given the honor of presenting the seminal tool at the International Cortical Development from Stem Cells to Circuits conference in Italy 🙌 [3/5]
Quote from Soraya Scuderi, PhD: “This project represents a key step in building experimental systems that more closely mimic human brain development—central to both my scientific interests and long-term research goals”
June 17, 2025 at 2:20 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Congrats to @yale.edu senior Parisa Vaziri on winning the 2025 Kavli at Yale Undergraduate Thesis Prize 🏆!

Working with @mcdb-yale.bsky.social's Damon Clark, her thesis uncovered a novel auditory illusion👂& the algorithms underlying it. Next, she'll pursue a PhD in Neuroscience at Harvard.
Headshot and Quote from Parisa Vaziri: "With both Damon Clark and Tom Clandinin (during a summer at Stanford with Tom), I conducted research on visual motion detection algorithms in the fruit fly. Overall, I am interested in studying how sensory system algorithms compare between different modalities and across species.”
June 10, 2025 at 6:10 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Congrats to @yale.edu Neuroscience senior Zach Moynihan on winning the 2025 @kavliatyale.bsky.social Undergraduate Thesis Prize! 🧠

During his thesis, titled “Application of predictive score to identify novel microcephaly genes”, Zach was mentored by Drs. Tanyeri Barak & Adife Gülhan Ercan-Sencicek.
Headshot and Quote from Zach Moynihan: "For the next two years, I will be working as a computational research assistant in the Bi Lab at Mass General Brigham in Boston. I will be studying brain tumors of all kinds and am especially eager to investigate how cancers penetrate and co-opt the central nervous system. This work interests me not only as a lover of all things neuroscience but also as an aspiring physician!”
June 10, 2025 at 6:07 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Join us THIS FRIDAY 🗓️, June 6, for @yale.edu's ✨NextGen in #STEM Conference✨ to learn from scientists who took different career trajectories, and connect with faculty and industry professionals. Organized by grad student and Kavli scholar April Pruitt and faculty member @ehoffmanlab.bsky.social.
Flyer for NextGen in STEM Conference
June 3, 2025 at 6:27 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Mark your calendars 🗓️ for June 23 for a Kavli Awards Research in Progress!🧠

Hear from Drs. Bhaskar (@krishnaswamylab.bsky.social‬), @lashaeneuroxp.bsky.social‬, Chen (@emonetlab.bsky.social)‬, Martinez-Magaña (@janitzamontalvo.bsky.social), @kuanawanda.bsky.social‬, Teefe, & ‪‪@haohy.bsky.social‬.
Flyer for the Kavli Awards Research in Progress of June 23 showing pictures of the speakers in the Kavli logo, with a schedule: 12:00 pm Dhananjay Bhaskar, PhD 2024 Kavli Postdoctoral Fellowship Krishnaswamy & Colón-Ramos labs 12:20 pm LaShae Nicholson, PhD 2022 Kavli Award for Academic Diversity Strittmatter lab 12:40 pm José Jaime Martínez-Magaña, PhD 2023 Kavli Award for Academic Diversity Montalvo-Ortiz lab 1:00 pm Kevin Chen, PhD 2024 Kavli Postdoctoral Fellowship Emonet & Clark labs 1:20 pm break 1:30 pm Aaron Kuan, PhD & Joerg Bewersdorf, PhD 2024 Kavli Teams Award 1:50 pm Enock Teefe, MD 2023 Kavli Award for Academic Diversity Pittenger & Fernandez labs 2:10 pm Hongyan Hao, PhD 2024 Kavli Postdoctoral Fellowship Hammarlund & De Camilli labs
May 27, 2025 at 8:31 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year's @kavliatyale.bsky.social Distinguished Lecture 🗣️ & a huge thank you to the amazing Erika Holzbaur 🙌 for sharing her insights! 🧠
Erika Holzbaur, PhD, standing next to a podium and smiling. In the background is a screen with her intro slide saying "Mechanisms locally regulating organelle dynamics in neurons. Erika Holzbaur, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine." A full auditorium, facing away from the camera, looking at Erika Holzbaur's slide in the background.
May 21, 2025 at 7:32 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Calling all @yaleneuro.bsky.social postgrads, grad students & postdocs! 🧠Join us for a workshop on the Essentials of Mentoring🤝 led by @yale.edu 's Dr. Suzanne Young 🙌

📅 Wed., May 21 | 🕙 10am–12pm
📍 Room 180A

See flyer for more details and info on how to register 👇
Flyer for a Workshop on the Essentials of Mentoring on Wednesday, May 21 from 10 am to 12 pm at 100 College St, room 180A, led by Suzanne Young. With QR code to register.
May 16, 2025 at 1:32 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
In 1️⃣ week! On May 20th, we are delighted to host Erika Holzbaur, PhD, from @pennmedicine.bsky.social, who will give the 2025 @kavliatyale.bsky.social Distinguished Lecture ✨

This event is open to all Yale affiliates, and a reception will follow.
Flyer of the Kavli Distinguished Lecture by Erika Holzbaur, PhD on May 20, 2025, at Yale
May 13, 2025 at 5:57 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Don't forget to mark your calendars for May 20th 🗓️🎉 and join us for the ✨ 2025 @kavliatyale.bsky.social Distinguished Lecture ✨ by Erika Holzbaur, PhD 🧠 from @pennmedicine.bsky.social.

This event is open to all Yale affiliates.
Flyer of the Kavli Distinguished Lecture by Erika Holzbaur, PhD on May 20, 2025, at Yale
April 10, 2025 at 2:20 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
🌸🌿 Spring is finally here! 🌿🌸
To celebrate, we're hosting a Kavli Networking Hour next Friday (3/28)! 👥✨

A huge thank you to the lab of @emiliafavuzzi.bsky.social for hosting! 🙌 We can't wait to see you all there.

Register today (Yale only)
Flyer for Spring Kavli Networking Hour on March 28th
March 21, 2025 at 3:37 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Her scientific journey started collecting bugs in rural South Korea during her childhood, and led her to study the circadian and phototransduction systems of common fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster, and then pivoted to mosquitoes 🦟 for her postdoc. [4/5]
Quote from Lisa Baik, PhD: "I ended up coming to Yale for my postdoc because of my postdoc advisor, John Carlson. He is one of the most incredible mentor, scientist, and human being and I knew I had to work with him."
March 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Lisa also recently received the Yale Postdoc Mentoring Award, an achievement made especially meaningful to her, because the nomination came directly from her students. [3/5]
Quote from Lisa Baik, PhD: "Mentoring others has been one of the most rewarding parts of being a scientist. I'm greatly looking forward to opening my own lab, where I can pursue my passion for both science and teaching."
March 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Lisa’s work is especially impactful given the rapid spread of mosquito-borne diseases accelerated by climate change. Many studies have focused on mosquitoes’ senses of smell, but Lisa found that taste is an essential factor in determining whether mosquitoes choose to bite. [2/5]
Quote from Lisa Baik, PhD: "We found that some people may 'taste better' to mosquitoes than others."
March 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
This #TraineeTuesday, meet Lisa Baik, PhD (@mosquitolady.bsky.social), a postdoc in the @carlsonlabyale.bsky.social @mcdb-yale.bsky.social! Lisa's research has recently been published in Nature, uncovering groundbreaking findings on how mosquitoes taste their environment, including human skin. [1/5]
Headshot of Lisa Baik, PhD
March 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Mark your calendars 🗓️ because next Thursday (3/6) Colleen McLaughlin 👩‍🔬 from @stanford.edu's Luo Lab will be presenting a #SYNAPSES seminar! 🗣️

Thank you to Andrea Cuentas-Condori for hosting 🙌 Co-sponsored by @kavliatyale.bsky.social & @yaleneuro.bsky.social

See flyer for details 👇
Flyer for SYNAPSES seminar by Colleen McLaughlin, PhD on March 6th
February 27, 2025 at 4:16 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
We are excited to announce our 2025 @kavliatyale.bsky.social Distinguished Lecture: on May 20th, @erikaholzbaur.bsky.social from @pennmedicine.bsky.social will present "Mechanisms Locally Regulating Organelle Dynamics in Neurons" 🧫🔬

Open to Yale only. Mark your calendars today! 🗓️
Flyer of the Kavli Distinguished Lecture by Erika Holzbaur, PhD on May 20, 2025, at Yale
February 5, 2025 at 5:55 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social, a researcher in the Kaye lab 👩‍🔬, investigates the relationship between sensory processing, norepinephrine release, and arousal states using a novel virtual height-threat task 🪜🧠
Congrats on this amazing accomplishment! [3/3]
Picture of Stephanie Staszko with a quote: “[My] background has shaped my world-view, my scientific questions, and my passion for improving my community and uplifting others.”
January 16, 2025 at 4:04 PM
kavliatyale.bsky.social
Antoneta Gavoci, a researcher in the Yogev Lab 👩‍🔬, focuses on investigating how neurons maintain their axonal and dendritic structures 🔬 through microtubule turnover in C. elegans 🪱
Congratulations! 🙌 [2/3]
Picture of Antoneta Gavoci with a quote: "More than anything, I am determined not to give up on the skills, knowledge and achievement I have strived to obtain, and use this life experience to serve as a role model for scientists who have undergone similar experiences.”
January 16, 2025 at 4:04 PM