"Using cross-disciplinary approaches across more than 20 animal phyla, we revealed independent origins of neurons and complex brains from genealogically different cell populations. In descendants of earliest metazoans neural and immune systems are simpler and functionally coupled, enabling making hybrid nerve circuits and even entire chimeric animals. The obtained neurobots and fused animals were able to be autonomous and survive, opening unprecedented opportunities for experimental 4D+ synthetic biology, from the reconstruction of ancient neural architectures to the design of elementary brains and basal cognition." 

Come celebrate the end of the Fall semester.  Neuroscience faculty, students, staff and those working with the program are encouraged to attend.  Food and drinks will be available.

We are delighted to showcase the work of some of our most productive and creative faculty in this informal series of intellectually and spiritually invigorating presentations. You are invited to drop in when you can to learn about the exciting projects undertaken by our faculty.

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

11:00am-11:45am: Mattia Gazzola, CAS Beckman Fellow 2023-24, Mechanical Science & Engineering

Mind in Vitro -- Computing with Living Neurons

Can computing systems be built out of living neurons? Can they achieve basic hallmarks of cognition such as learning, attention, curiosity, or creativity, so pervasive in biology yet elusive in modern computing? In the Mind in Vitro Expedition we imagine computers and robots that are human-designed but living. That can be programmed, but whose behaviors are not specified, and instead, emerge. These systems will grow, heal, learn and explore. In this talk, Professor Gazzola will discuss his research group’s vision, progress to date, successes and challenges.

Noon-12:45pm: Ned O’Gorman, CAS Associate 2023-24, Communication

Rethinking Liberalism

Liberalism was until recently a dominant global ideology. Professor O’Gorman’s work over the last several years has been focused on trying to understand the reasons for and consequences of liberalism’s success in the 20^th century. Digging into liberalism’s modern history he has found that it is surprisingly shape-shifting and frequently thin, forcing him to rethink liberalism and its history. In this presentation, Professor O’Gorman will offer ten new theses on liberalism that have grown out of his expanding research on the topic.

Dr. Jon-Fredrik Nielsen, Research Associate Professor in the fMRI laboratory at University of Michigan, will lecture on, "Harmonizing MRI data acquisition with Pulseq: Why, how, and current state of the field."

 Abstract: A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experiment is fundamentally very simple: It consists of radiofrequency (RF) and quasi-static magnetic fields that vary in time according to a desired schedule. The hardware to make that happen is ubiquitous and available from several commercial vendors, with nearly identical performance specifications across vendors. Unfortunately, the high degree of harmonization that exists on the hardware side is not matched on the software side: The programming interfaces that allow the sequence designer to control the time-varying magnetic fields are unique to each vendor and difficult to learn, which has (1) resulted in MRI protocols (pulse sequences) that cannot be ported between vendor platforms or even described accurately to a third party, (2) slowed down new pulse sequence development by creating “siloed” developer communities with a high barrier to entry, and (3) made it difficult to know if any observed differences in MRI measurements between sites is due to true biological variation or differences in sequence implementation. Pulseq is both an open file specification for MRI pulse sequences and an associated ecosystem of programming tools and vendor-specific interpreters (drivers) that overcome these barriers. Pulseq has seen significant growth within the pulse sequence developer community in the last 1-2 years, and interpreters for all major MRI vendors are, or will likely soon be, available. In this talk I will describe our role in the Pulseq project including our experience developing a Pulseq interpreter for one of the vendor platforms (GE), and our ongoing efforts to develop and evaluate a Pulseq functional MRI protocol that we hope will enable robust, truly harmonized multi-site and longitudinal functional studies. 

  Bio: Dr. Jon-Fredrik Nielsen is Research Associate Professor in the fMRI laboratory at University of Michigan, specializing in MRI sequence design and implementation. He created and manages the Pulseq interpreter for GE scanners, and is co-PI of the HarmonizedMRI project that seeks to implement and disseminate vendor-agnostic functional and quantitative neuroimaging protocols for more reproducible MRI research. 

A-WIS Science Uncorked: A Public Seminar Series 

Tuesday, December 10th 6-7 pm 
Speaker TBD
The Literary
122 N Neil St. Champaign, IL 61820

Please join Academic Women in STEAM (A-WIS) as we continue our monthly public seminar series, Science Uncorked. Our next seminar event will be Tuesday, December 10th at 6 pm at The Literary in downtown Champaign. 

Interested in presenting in the future? Let us know!
Feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be interested in attending. ALL are welcome to attend! 

Join us at noon on Wednesdays for yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome to bring their own mat!