Lab news and links.
April 2024
Congratulations to Alec Cabalinan, Seojin Lee, and Anny Shi on presenting at the Johns Hopkins DREAMS!
April 2024
Baldomero Ramírez Cantú received an honorable mention from the Graduate Research Fellowship Program of the National Science Foundation!
Congratulations Baldo!
April 2024
Jenny Zeng received a Summer Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award. She was also accepted into the Research Honors Program in Neuroscience.
Congratulations Jenny!
August 2023
Sophia Spindler-Krage presented her poster on dynamic changes in pupil diameter in response to rewards in behaving mice.
Sophia is a Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Scholar who joined the lab this summer. She will be attending Grinnell College in the fall while continuing her work in the lab. You can learn more about the Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Scholars Program here.
Congratulations to Sophia and her mentor, Ahmad Taha!
July 2023
Congratulations to Ingie Hong, Juhyun Kim and the whole gang on their preprint demonstrating that calcium-permable AMPA receptors govern the response properties of parvalbumin-positive interneurons in visual cortex. You can find the preprint here.
And you can learn more about our wonderful collaborators in the Huganir Lab here.
July 2022
Thank you to Adam Packer and Ami Citri for organizing a symposium on the claustrum at FENS. Wonderful to share our findings on claustrum function alongside Alan Carleton, Mar Reus-Garcia and Lorenz August Fenk in Paris!
July 2022
After a two year delay, European Barrels was hosted at EPFL. Excited to share the lab’s work on the synaptic organization of layer 6 after a long hiatus! Thank you to Carl Petersen, all the speakers and all the attendees for a great meeting!
June 2022
Juan Pineda is a rising junior at Macalester College majoring in Neuroscience. As an Amgen Scholar at Johns Hopkins, he will be working with Chris An on better understanding the organization of corticothalamic projections into the thalamus. To learn more about the Amgen Scholars Program, click here.
Welcome Juan!
May 2022
Adhith graduated with University Honors and Honors in Neuroscience. We will miss his dedication to understanding the function of the claustrum despite the limits imposed by the pandemic as he (finally) goes off to Baylor for the Debakey Summer Surgery Program.
Congratulations Adhith!
May 2022
Alina Spiegel was awarded a Kavli NDI predoctoral fellowship for her proposal on the molecular diversity of cortical neurons.
Congratulations Alina!
May 2022
Chris An was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada / Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada Postgraduate Scholarship (Doctoral Program) for his proposed work on layer 6 corticothalamic neurons.
Congratulations Chris!
February 2022
Hyunwook Kang’s last day in lab!
Thank you Hyunwook for all that you have done for the lab over the past years. Looking forward to your next adventures!
December 2021
Maxime and Eric’s paper showing that neurons in anterior claustrum primarily encode lick direction, not sensory responses, is published in Neuron! This was a wonderful collaboration with the O’Connor lab, testing the role of claustrum neurons in sensory selection. You can view the paper here.
Congratulations Maxime, Eric and Su-Jeong!
June 2021
Welcome to Cameron Battersby! Cameron is an Amgen Scholar at Johns Hopkins. He recently graduated from California State University - Monterey Bay where he majored in Psychology and was selected as a McNair Scholar.
Looking forward to a great summer with Cam!
June 2021
Congratulations Kenji!
Kenji was recognized as an SMDP Scholar. The program pairs outstanding trainees from diverse backgrounds interested in pursuing a career in biotechnology with mentors currently in leadership positions at companies like Genentech, GSK, Amgen and AstraZeneca. The program also provides additional training and opportunities specific to industry careers. See the 2021 SMDP Scholars here and learn more about the SMDP Biotech and MedTech programs here.
June 2021
Congratulations to Sooyeon Yoo and Juhyun Kim and the whole team on their work on mechanisms regulating tanycyte-derived neurogenesis! A wonderful collaboration with the Blackshaw Lab recently published in Science Advances.
You can read more here and visit the Blackshaw lab here.
May 2021
The cicadas are starting to make an appearance: Brood X - a once every seventeen year wonder of nature!
April 2021
Congratulations to Courtney, Maxime and Chris! Their paper on the presynaptic inputs to different classes of corticothalamic neurons in the somatosensory cortex of the mouse has been published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology.
The manuscript can be found here!
Congratulations again!
April 2021
Michael Liew was awarded a Summer Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award to study the molecular identity of corticothalamic neurons.
Congratulations Michael!
March 2021
Ashley was awarded a Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Fellowship! She will be spending the next year looking at how health insurance models affect cardiac care outcomes and health inequities.
Congratulations Ashley!
October 2020
Adhith was awarded a Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award to study the claustrum’s interactions with subcortical structures and their impact on behavior.
Congratulations!
October 2020
Maxime and Rachael were married in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Congratulations!!!
October 2020
Jonathan’s paper with his advisor, Gregory Quirk, at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, has been published in eLife. You can find it here.
Congratulations Jonathan!
July 2020
Meet the #BlackInNeuro Community! Check out the website at BlackInNeuro.com.
Chanel Matney is a panelist in “Beyond the PhD: Neuro Careers in Academia, Policy, and Industry.” You can watch the video of the panel discussion here. And you can find Brandie Morris Verdone’s profile here.
July 2020
Ahmad joins the lab. Ahmad will be studying decision-making and will be jointly co-mentored by Jeremiah Cohen.
Welcome Ahmad!
July 2020
Courtney recounts how she went from rural Victoria, Virginia to pursuing a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Harvard.
Read her story here.
June 2020
Maxime defended his thesis via zoom. His audience spanned the world including France, the U.S. and Australia.
Congratulations Dr. Chevée!
June 2020
If you want to learn more about what Chanel has been doing since she graduated, listen to her recent podcast here.
Inspirational and amazing!
May 2020
Courtney is the first lab member to graduate virtually! Congratulations for graduating with General University Honors and Departmental Honors!
We will miss you when you move north!
April 2020
Courtney Whilden was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to join a lab in Norway!
Learn more about Courtney’s project and other 2020 Hopkins Fulbright Fellows here.
Congratulations Courtney!
March 2020
Congratulations Adhith! Adhith has accepted a position in the DeBakey Summer Surgery Program. Should be an amazing experience!
March 2020
Congratulations to Courtney! Courtney is headed north to the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard to pursue her Ph.D.! We will miss you!
March 2020
Congratulations to Jonathan Morán Sierra who has been accepted to the University of Michigan’s SMART Summer Undergraduate Research Program. Will miss him in the lab this summer!
October 2019
Courtney presents her poster at the 2019 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
Congratulations Courtney!
October 2019
Maxime presented his work on the single-unit responses of claustrum neurons in awake behaving mice. A big thank you to the University of Chicago and George Augustine for organizing a great conference!
Maxime also presented his work at Barrels XXXII and the Annual Meeting for the Society for Neuroscience. A busy week!
Congratulations Maxime!
September 2019
Our new paper on the synaptic organization of layer 6a is published in Cell Reports. We show that interlaminar parvalbumin-positive (PV) inhibitory interneurons are located in upper layer 6a and receive input from VPM-only projecting layer 6 corticothalamic neurons, corticocortical neurons and thalamocortical afferents. Lower L6a, in contrast, contains local PV interneurons. Corticocortical neurons have a higher probability of connection onto these local PV interneurons than do VPM/POm-projecting layer 6 corticothalamic neurons and their VPM/POm-projecting layer 6 corticothalamic neurons depress. The overall synaptic organization suggests that inhibition is a primary intracortical output of upper layer 6a. Congratulations Jaclyn, Chanel, Kihwan, Juhyun, Maxime, Su-Jeong and Aaron!
The full article can be found here.
September 2019
Mini Brown Lab reunion in Daegu, South Korea! Kihwan and Chanel together at IBRO 2019.
September 2019
Courtney Whilden’s poster was named the Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation at the Greater Baltimore Society for Neuroscience Meeting. Courtney has been elucidating the sources of long-range input to different types of corticothalamic neurons.
Congratulations Courtney!
September 2019
Congratulations to Alina Spiegel on being named a Kavli NDI Graduate Student Fellow! She joins a community of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty combining neuroscience, engineering and computational data science to better understand the brain.
Congratulations Alina!
August 2019
Madisen Mason presented her poster on the effects of manipulating the gut microbiome on anxiety levels and neuronal excitability at the Summer Visiting Student Research Symposium. Madisen is an Amgen Scholar who has been working with Juhyun Kim this summer.
Congratulations Madisen!
July 2019
Congratulations to Jonathan Morán Sierra and Courtney Whilden for their poster presentations at the 2019 Johns Hopkins Career Academic and Research Experiences for Students Summer Symposium.
Jonathan is a NeuroSIP Summer Fellow. Courtney received a Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award to support her work in the laboratory. Both did a great job today!
June 2019
Welcome to Jonathan Morán Sierra, a NeuroSIP Summer Fellow. Jonathan is joining the laboratory to work on corticothalamic interactions for the summer. He is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras who is majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology. He will be working on clearing protocols to better understand the axonal relationships of different types of corticothalamic neurons.
June 2019
Welcome to Madisen Mason, an Amgen Scholar, who is joining the laboratory for the summer to work on interactions between the nervous system and the gut microbiome. She will be co-mentored by Juhyun Kim, an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry. Madisen is a rising senior at the University of New Mexico double-majoring in psychology and biology with a minor in chemistry. She has a strong interest in the diversity of bacteria including interests in extremophiles and astrobiology.
April 2019
Courtney was awarded a Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award to pursue her project in the lab this summer. She also presented her work at the Third Annual DREAMS Symposium at Hopkins.
Congratulations Courtney!
April 2019
Jonathan is heading to Harvard to pursue a Ph.D. in the Program In Neuroscience. Sorry to see you head north! We will miss you in the lab.
Congratulations!
March 2019
Juhyun has started his tenure track position as an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. We will miss him and wish him all the best in his new position!
Congratulations Juhyun!
March 2019
Zuly will be attending Cambridge University in the fall to pursue her PhD in the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit with Professor Michael Anderson.
Congratulations Zuly!
January 2019
The Society for Claustrum Research will hold a symposium in conjunction with the Annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago. George Augustine is the current president and will be leading the symposium. Please email him or any of the other officers (Solange Brown, Christina Torgerson and Brian Mathur) with ideas for speakers and topics. More details to come!
Looking forward to seeing you in Chicago!
November 2018
Lab graduate Brandie Morris received a Trainee Professional Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience. Here she is presenting during the TDPA Awardee poster session. She also presented at an SFN Nanosymposium. She is a co-author on a recently published paper entitled Repeat-associated non-AUG translation in C9orf72-ALS/FTD is driven by neuronal excitation and stress published in EMBO Molecular Medicine. And to top it all off, she was recently engaged!
Congratulations Brandie!
November 2018
Alan Wei, a current rotation student in the laboratory, visited Chanel Matney’s poster at the annual Society for Neuroscience Meeting in San Diego. She is presenting her work on the Johns Hopkins Science Policy Group which she co-founded.
Congratulations Chanel! And thank you, Alan, for capturing the moment!
November 2018
Thank you to Eddie Zagha and Hongdian Yang for hosting Barrels XXXI at UC-Riverside. Pictured are Sonja Hofer, Rebecca Mease, Randy Bruno, Sabine Kastner and Alison Barth discussing the functions of higher order thalamic nuclei in perception and behavior. Other great sessions focused on motor control and on adaptable perception and sensory prediction.
Join us next year for Barrels XXXII in Chicago on October 17 and 18, 2019, just before the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
September 2018
Alan Wei joins the laboratory for his first rotation. Welcome Alan!
September 2018
Kenji Johnson joins the lab as a new postdoctoral fellow. Kenji is interested in the mechanisms underlying cell dysfunction and death in the neurodegenerative diseases Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS; also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). She holds a joint position in the Brown and Goff labs.
Welcome Kenji!
July 2018
Maxime’s review on the development of local circuits in the neocortex is published. You can find the link here.
Congratulations Maxime!
June 2018
Aaron Bickert graduates! Aaron will be working in the IRTA Program at the NIH.
Congratulations! We will miss you!
May 2018
Ashley Kyalwazi graduated from the University of Notre Dame! She is off to Harvard Medical School in the fall. Congratulations to Ashley!
May 2018
Juhyun and his colleagues just published a comprehensive review on cortical projection neurons in the Journal of Neuroscience. A link to the article can be found here.
Congratulations to Juhyun and Arielle Baker, Brian Kalmbach, Mieko Morishima, Ashley Juavinett, Nuo Li and Nikolai Dembrow!
May 2018
Presented the lab's work at Barrels and Beyond 2018: Developmental, cellular and circuit mechanisms of cortical sensory information processing in Göttingen, Germany. The link to the program is here.
Jochen Staiger organized a wonderful conference!
Hope to see everyone at a European Barrels Conference in 2020!
April 2018
Jaclyn is off to medical school! A celebratory lab lunch to thank Jaclyn for all she contributed to the lab over the last few years!
February 2018
Regjinae Davis, an undergraduate student majoring in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins, joins the lab.
Welcome Regji!
January 2018
Juhyun's poster was selected for an oral presentation at the Third International Brainstorm Symposium hosted by the Center of NeuroGenetics at the University of Florida. Laura Ranum and Maury Swanson organized a thought-provoking few days of discussion on neurodegenerative diseases.
Congratulations Juhyun!
January 2018
Maxime's paper showing that the transcriptional profiles of cortical projection neurons encode axonal projection pattern, laminar position within the cortex, and neural activity state was published in Cell Reports. This collaboration with the Goff laboratory used single cell RNA sequencing approaches to identify sources of transcriptional variation both within and between cortical cell types. The full article can be found here.
Congratulations Maxime!
December 2017
Jaclyn Frandolig will be attending SUNY Upstate Medical University in the fall to focus on primary care medicine.
Congratulations Jaclyn!!
November 2017
Juhyun presented his work in the minisymposium on Deep-Layer Projection Neurons of the Neocortex: Specialized Subpopulations Exhibiting Distinct Integration and Output. Solange organized a minisymposium on New Breakthroughs in Understanding the Role of Functional Interactions Between the Neocortex and the Claustrum. Read the summary of the minisymposium written in collaboration with the other speakers in the Journal of Neuroscience here.
November 2017
Maxime presents his work on the transcriptional heterogeneity of layer 6 corticothalamic neurons in somatosensory cortex at the 30th annual Barrels Conference held this year at Johns Hopkins. Join us next year in California for Barrels XXXI.
Congratulations Maxime!
November 2017
Solange presented the lab's work at a great Society for Claustrum Research meeting at George Washington University. Join us next year for the 5th Annual Symposium. Visit the Society's website for more details: www.claustrumsociety.org
August 2017
The paper from Kai, Juhyun, Thomas and Stephanie is published in Nature showing that Lhx6-positive GABAergic neurons of the zona incerta promote sleep. This work was a collaboration with the Blackshaw lab as well as labs at UNC, MIT, the Francis Crick Institute and the NIMH. Here is the link: DOI: 10.1038/nature23663
Congratulations on a great team effort!
August 2017
Juhyun's paper showing that increases in neuronal excitability are not restricted to cortical cell types that degenerate in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) was just published in the Journal of Neuroscience. These findings suggest that therapies for ALS may need to be tailored for different cell types and stages of disease. This work was a collaboration with the Hughes Lab at the University of Colorado, Ashwin Shetty and Paola Arlotta at Harvard, and the Bergles and Goff labs at Johns Hopkins. Here is the link: DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0811-17.2017
Congratulations everyone!
August 2017
The solar eclipse in the Baltimore-Washington Area!
July 2017
Juhyun's work in collaboration with Abe Langseth and the Bergles lab on the cell-type specific expression of C9orf72, a gene linked to the neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, has been published.
Congratulations Abe and Juhyun!
See full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05864-2
June 2017
Chanel defends her thesis and gives her public presentation. Congratulations to the first graduate from the lab! Chanel is completing an internship this summer at FASEB before officially handing in her thesis in the fall.
Congratulations!
June 2017
Ashley is joining the lab for the summer as a JHU-SIP fellow. Ashley is currently a senior at the University of Notre Dame who is majoring in Neuroscience and Behavior and minoring in Science, Technology and Values.
Welcome Ashley!
April 2017
The Brown and Goff laboratories receive a grant from the National Science Foundation to determine cell-type specific gene expression differences induced by experience-dependent plasticity. Experiences in our environment affect the activity of genes expressed in neurons and lead to changes in brain circuits. How different cell types in the brain differ in their responses to changes in incoming sensory input is the focus of this study.
Congratulations to all who contributed to the grant!
March 2017
Seung-Chan Lee joins the laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow.
Welcome Seung-Chan!
February 2017
Oluwa Oshewa joins the laboratory. Oluwa is an undergraduate student majoring in neuroscience.
Welcome Oluwa!
November 2016
Zuly presents her work at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) and wins Best Oral Presentation in Neuroscience.
Congratulations Zuly!
November 2016
Presented our work on the circuits of the claustrum. Thank you to the Salk for hosting and fostering lots of interesting discussions.
November 2016
Maxime presents his work at Barrels XXIX in Los Angeles. Barrels XXX will be in Baltimore in 2017!
August 2016
The laboratory receives a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to understand the function of a poorly understood brain structure, the claustrum. The claustrum may play important roles in perception, attention, and sleep.
Congratulations to everyone who contributed to the grant proposal!
July 2016
Maxime receives a Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Ph.D. Fellowship.
Congratulations Maxime!
May 2016
Zulikayida Maimaiti joins the lab for the summer as an American Physiological Society STEP UP Fellow. Zuly just finished her freshman year at MIT where she is a Biological Engineering major.
Welcome Zuly!
January 2016
Our work on the synaptic organization of the claustrum is published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The link is here: DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3643-15.2016
Congratulations Juhyun, Chanel and Richard!
January 2016
Maxime passes his qualifying exam for the Ph.D. Program in Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology. Congratulations Maxime!
December 2015
Dohee is accepted by Seoul National University College of Medicine, her top choice. Congratulations Dohee!
November 2015
Jaclyn Frandolig joins the lab. Welcome Jaclyn!
September 2015
Maxime Chevée officially joins the lab. Welcome Maxime!
September 2015
Dohee was accepted into the prestigious Catholic University of Korea Medical School. Here is her formal application portrait. Congratulations Dohee!
August 2015
Lab lunch thanking Lisle for his contributions to the lab over the summer. Lisle will start at the Medical College of Wisconsin this fall. Congratulations Lisle!
June 2015
Spotlight on corticothalamic circuits: Juyhun's image is on the membership cards for the Society for Neuroscience!
May 2015
Austin Coye graduated and will be starting medical school at the University of Miami in the fall.
Congratulations Austin! We will miss you!
February 2015
Brandie Morris will be starting as a graduate student in the Department of Neuroscience at Thomas Jefferson University this fall. Congratulations Brandie!
December 2014
Juhyun Kim won a first prize for his poster presentation at the Baltimore Society for Neuroscience meeting. Juhyun also presented his poster at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Washington.
Congratulations!
October 2014
Kihwan Lee joins the lab. Kihwan received his Ph.D. from Seoul National University in 2014. He will be initially working on white matter neurons in the cortex.
Welcome Kihwan!
August 2014
BrainFacts.org features Juhyun Kim and Chanel Matney's image as the picture of the week.
July 2014
The first paper from the lab featuring work by Juhyun Kim and Chanel Matney is published. Juhyun's image is even on the cover! The link can be found here: DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1325-14.2014
Congratulations!
June 2014
Solange Brown receives a Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award which will be used to understand the neural circuits regulating the cortical response to sensory input.
May 2014
Robbie Callen, Daniel Gill and Eva Schulteis graduate!
May 2014
Dohee Kim is awarded a Provost's Undergraduate Research Award for her work on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
April 2014
Lab members run in the 2014 Fiesta 5K in support of the Packard Center for ALS Research. Come join us next year to support a great cause!
April 2014
Daniel Gill will be joining the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Chicago for his graduate studies.
Eva Schulteis will be joining the Corporate Executive Board as an Analyst.
Congratulations Dan and Eva!
Solange Brown receives a NARSAD Young Investigator Award which will be used to support work on the role of white matter neurons in regulating cortical activity.
May 2013
Eva Schulteis is awarded a Provost's Undergraduate Research Award for her work on white matter neurons and neuropsychiatric diseases.
2013
Chanel Matney is awarded a Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Science Foundation
Chanel was also named as a finalist for the Robateau-Epps Fellowship and received an Honorable Mention from the Ford Foundation. Congratulations!
