Weekly Seminars

The Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology conducts a weekly seminar series during the spring and fall semesters, wherein we enjoy presentations from national and international experts in their respective fields. The seminar series covers wide-ranging topics including central nervous system (CNS) circuit function, CNS injury and repair, glial cell biology and molecular mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders.

All seminars are open to interested faculty, postdocs, staff and students, and we welcome your attendance.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will conduct our spring 2021 seminars virtually. We look forward to engaging with even more participants now that you can Zoom in from the comfort of your own home or office. 

You must have a registered Zoom account in order to access these seminars.  For the Zoom meeting link for these virtual seminars, please contact Sharon Toussaint (sharon.toussaint@vcuhealth.org).

January 29, 2021

Genetic and Metal Neurotoxicant Interactions in Neurological Disease

Speaker: Aaron Bowman, PhD, Professor and Head

School of Health Sciences, Purdue University

Host: Andrew Ottens

February 5, 2021

Targeting Microglia in Neurodevelopment Injury and Disorders

Speaker: Ukpong Eyo, PhD, Assistant Professor

Department of Neuroscience, University of Virginia

Host: Audrey Lafrenaye

February 12, 2021

Title To Be Announced

Speaker: John Povlishock, PhD, Professor and Chair

Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

Host: Andrew Ottens

February 19, 2021

Tuning Cortical Microcircuits by Myelination

Speaker: Maarten Kole, PhD, Professor and Department Head

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Utrecht University

Host: Kimberle Jacobs

February 26, 2021

Target-specific Delivery of CRISPR/Cas Genome Editors to Fight Virus Infection

Speaker: Wenhui Hu, MD, PhD, Associate Professor

Center for Metabolic Disease Research, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University

Host: Dong Sun 

March 5, 2021

Steady-State Intracellular pH and the Recovery from NH4+-Induced Acidosis in Rat Hippocampal Neurons and Astrocytes: A New Look on the Analysis

Speaker: Vernon Ruffin, PhD, Assistant Professor

Department of Natural Sciences, Virginia Union University

Host: Kelly Harrell

March 26, 2021

Using Human iPSCs to Model the Neurodevelopmental Impact of Drug Exposure

Speaker: Kimberly Christian, PhD, Research Assistant Professor

Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Host: Pam Knapp

April 9, 2021

Sex Differences in Striatal Neurons

Speaker: John Meitzen, PhD, Associate Professor

Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University

Host: Peter Hamilton

April 16, 2021

Using Transcriptional Regulation of the Glutamate Transporter 1 (GLT-1) to Define Mechanisms that Contribute to Astrocyte Development

Speaker: Zila Martinez-Lozada, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania

Host: Babette Fuss

April 23, 2021

Magic Mushrooms: New Hope for the Treatment of Depression?

Speaker: Javier Gonzalez-Maeso, PhD, Professor

Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

Host: Babette Fuss

April 30, 2021

Early Life Origins of Risk and Resilience: Exploring Sex Differences following Neuroinflammation

Speaker: Amanda Kentner, PhD, Associate Professor

Department of Psychology, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Host: Gretchen Neigh

May 7, 2021

CSF Peptidome Marks Dysfunction at the Neurovascular Unit and Hyperexcitation following Pulmonary Exposure to Carbon Nanotubes

Speaker: Ekaterina Mostovenko, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

Host: Andrew Ottens