Annie completed her B.S. in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience with Dr. Matthew Rowan at Emory University. During her Ph.D., she explored early mechanisms of Alzheimer’s Disease, focusing on the vulnerability of inhibitory interneurons in the Lateral Entorhinal Cortex. She recently joined the Soltesz Lab where she will continue to work between the Entorhinal Cortex and Hippocampus, focusing on Dentate Spikes. 

Eliza and Sky are currently rotating in our lab during her studies.

SCE Conference in honor of Ivan Soltesz | Chaminade Resort | Santa Cruz | January 19-21 | 2024 | Website

In 2024, Quynh Ann became a faculty member and started her own lab in the department of Pharmacology and Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville. QA’s lab aims to bridge our understanding of neural function and dysfunction at the level of molecules, cells, circuits, and behavior. A central focus of the lab is to understand mechanisms of hyperexcitability in the brain. Aberrant firing of neurons underlies many neurological disorders such as epilepsy and a greater understanding of how this dysfunction arises can pave the way for the identification of novel targets for therapeutic intervention. We utilize techniques such as slice electrophysiology, in vivo silicon probe recording, 2-photon imaging, closed-loop optogenetics, EEG recording, and computational modeling in mice for our investigations. The lab has an interdisciplinary group of collaborators, including biochemists and bioengineers who develop tools to aid our basic science investigations as well as clinicians who help translate our basic insights from mouse to humans.

Another Soltesz Lab reunion at AES in the books.

Congratulations to Ivan on being selected for the Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship.

This annual award is from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NINDS established this award to emphasize mentorship and encourage faculty to make mentorship a vital component of their career. An incredible achievement and honor!

Last week, Stanford Neurosurgery held its first annual Neurosurgery Department Awards. Awards were given to both residents and med students who have shown exemplary work and research in their areas of interest. Ryan Jamiolkowski, who is performing research in our lab, was one of the awardees. Congratulations!

We are thrilled to welcome Balazs in his new role as a Research Assistant in our lab. With two decades of experience in neuroscience, pharmacological research, and development, Balazs is a highly skilled behavioral pharmacologist.

In 2023, Dr. Barna Dudok moved to Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, where he started his new job as McNair Scholar and Assistant Professor at the Department of Neurology. His research is focused on better understanding how GABAergic inhibitory interneurons shape circuit dynamics in healthy brains and in epilepsy. His goal is to identify optimal targets for neuromodulatory intervention and develop cell type-specific strategies for inhibiting epilepsy.