Department News

Watch the 2025 Department of Neuroscience Distinguished Lecture presented by Michael Rosbash, PhD, a 2017 Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine.

A new paper in eLife from the Cavalli Lab reveals that inhibiting ETBR function enhances axon regeneration and rescues the age-dependent decrease in axonal regenerative capacity, providing a potential avenue for future therapies.

An early interest in epilepsy research led Joanna Jankowsky to her focus on understanding the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s.

Read more about the David Van Essen Symposium and see photos from the two-day event.

Jennifer Phillips-Cremins will join the Department of Neuroscience in November with a dual appointment in the Department of Genetics as the James McDonnell Professor.

Anthony Pappas, PhD, has joined WashU Medicine as an assistant professor of anatomy in neuroscience.

Lawrence Snyder, MD, PhD, is part of a new study in Nature Communications that demonstrates that artificial neurons can function as trans-functional devices (transneurons) that reconfigure their behavior to attain instantaneous computational needs, each capable of emulating several biological neurons.

Harrison Gabel, PhD, collaborative partnership awarded grant through 2025 Natural History Study Small Grant Program.

Wendy Bridges is the new business director for the WashU Medicine Department of Neuroscience.

Gaia Tavoni, PhD, and Kaining Zhang, PhD, have published a new paper that offers insights into the memory capacity of brain-inspired networks.

Harrison Gabel, PhD, and Hysell Oviedo, PhD, are part of a team of WashU Medicine researchers who have received an $11.85 million NIH grant.

In a study published June 12 in The Journal of Neuroscience, WashU researchers show how they used optogenetics in the larval zebrafish to map the connectivity and activity of V2b neurons, a major inhibitory spinal population, to receive the results.

Jason Yi, PhD, received a $400,000 pilot grant from the Eagles Autism Foundation to advance a new approach to treating autism spectrum disorder.

Tom Franken, MD, PhD, has recent papers published in iScience and Neuron that add new knowledge to how the brain processes complex visual input.

Thomas Papouin, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience, is the senior author of a groundbreaking study published May 15 in Science.

Join the WashU Medicine Department of Neuroscience on Sept. 8-9 for the David Van Essen Symposium: Insights Into the Cortex, a tribute to the 80th birthday of Van Essen.

Jason Yi, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience, is acknowledged for his work with the Angelman Syndrome Foundation and his hands-on, compassionate approach to the syndrome’s community.

Christina Gurnett, MD, PhD, and Lawrence Salkoff, PhD, are lead authors on a case report that describes how Prozac can be used in the treatment of children with rare forms of epilepsy.