Max Planck Floridas Neurotransmissions Podcast

"Where are we and where are we going?" Our sense of where we are in the world is one of the most fundamental cognitive elements of our day-to-day lives, and the discovery of our brain's internal system for mapping our physical location is one of the landmark achievements of modern neuroscience. In this episode we sit down Dr. Edvard Moser, one of the three recipients of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work discovering the neural computation of our brain's internal "GPS" system. We discuss the organization of this system, as well as many of the mysteries that remain unsolved in understanding the functional circuits involved in forming a neural representation of space.

Live from West Palm Beach, it's Sunposium 2017! Here is Part 1 in a series of conversations we had at MPFI's Sunposium Conference, which is a biennial scientific meeting featuring talks from many renowned names in neuroscience. Misha and Joe sat down with Dr. Thomas Südhof, recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on synaptic vesicle trafficking, to discuss the importance of scientific research in society. Enjoy!

Our series of interviews from SfN 2016 concludes with a grand finale! Two fantastic researchers share their experiences studying neural circuits regulating important behaviors. First, Joe sits down with Dr. Annegret Falkner to discuss her amazing work on aggression circuits, as well as her thoughts on the current academic job market (she has since been hired as a faculty member in the Princeton Department of Neuroscience). Next, Misha talks to Dr. William Giardino from Stanford about his work on the regulation of sleep and wakefulness, and the relevance of this research for understanding neurological and psychiatric disorders. Enjoy!

We’ve heard that an injured cerebellum can make you uncoordinated, but can it also make you mean? Listen to an awesome and engaging interview where Misha, Ben, and first time host Audrey Bonnan learn how the cerebellum interacts with the the rest of the brain from Dr. Kamran Khodakhah, professor and chair in the Department of Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Khodakhah also shares some solid and insightful statistics and advice for career scientists.

In this very special episode, we get to talk with emergency room physician, engineer, neuroscientist, scientific advisor, and person extraordinaire Brett Mensh. As a professional grant writing specialist, Dr. Mensh shares his insights on how to get your ideas funded and papers published by telling compelling stories. We also learn about his unique and diverse career history, and the path that brought him to be a highly successful scientific advisor. All this and more with two brand new co-hosts, Dr. He Zheng and Dr. Paul Evans!

Everything we do requires energy, so it's not surprising that our brains are wired to regulate how we acquire and use that energy for survival. In this episode, Joe is joined by Dr. Jens Bruning, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, Germany, to discuss how the brain regulates feeding behavior and energy use in the body. Dr. Bruning also describes the surprising ways in which our evolutionary history conflicts with our current lifestyles in a way that contributes to modern day health problems. After hearing this, you won't think about food the same way again!

Whether you're navigating through a forest, hunting prey, avoiding predators, or listening to a podcast in the gym, behaviors in the world require the coordination of both sensory and motor circuits in the brain. Part 3 in our series of interviews from the 2016 SfN meeting in San Diego gets into science sensory-motor integration. Joe sat down with two great auditory experts, David Schneider and Ross Williamson, who describe their postdoctoral research studying the circuits that govern hearing and motor control. Take a listen!

The neocortex is a hallmark of mammalian brain evolution, and the underlying principles that define cortical circuits have captured the attention of neuroscientists for decades. In this episode, we sit down with Andreas Tolias from Baylor College of Medicine to discuss how his lab is unraveling both the cellular organization of the neocortex, as well as the information processing power of cortical circuits. We also welcome first time host, Michael Yetman, to the show!

For the second installment of our on-the-floor recording from SfN, we find out about some lesser-known opportunities and careers available to PhDs. Misha talks to Dr. Sofia Jurgensen, senior scientist at Sanofi Genzyme and head of the SfN Training Committee about the volunteering opportunities available through the SfN committee system. We also hear from Dr. Lauren Ullrich, Health Program Specialist at NINDS, about her experience working in science advocacy and her current position at the NIH. Finally, Misha talks to Dr. Bridget Queenan, Associate Director of the UCSB Brain Initiative, about her efforts in creating interdisciplinary collaborations for neuroscientists. Tell your friends.

In what has been hailed as the discovery of the century, Emmanuelle Charpentier and her colleagues unraveled the molecular machinery of bacterial immune systems and repurposed them into the powerful CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology. Since 2012, CRISPR has taken the world by storm, transcending all branches of the biomedical and life sciences. Today, Dr. Charpentier shares the story behind this breakthrough with us, as well as the potential for CRISPR/Cas9 in therapies for diseases ranging from cancer to neurodegeneration.

The podcast hit the road to San Diego for the annual SfN meeting and met up with new and old friends to talk all things neuroscience. In this weeks episode, Joe talks with award-winning NPR correspondent Jon Hamilton about his career in science journalism, and what scientists can do to give their work a broader impact to the general public. Then we hear from Misha and fellow podcaster Anthony Lacagnina, host of the amazing Brain Matters Podcast at UT Austin. Listen while they talk about the joys and benefits of science podcasting.

Epilepsy is a complex group of disorders with a diverse set of causes. We sit down with Georgetown University's Dr. Patrick Forcelli to discuss different forms of epilepsy, as well as his research into the effects of anticonvulsant medications on brain development. We'll also hear about what the epileptic brain can tell us about neural circuits in general.

Neurons share information via synapses, but how do scientists? We talk to the distinguished Dr. Karel Svoboda from Janelia Research Campus about his breakthroughs in understanding synapses, problems with "big data", and the role of machine learning in future scientific progress. We also learn about ways in which open data sharing can benefit science. All of this and more on this special episode of Neurotransmissions!

Welcome to a special mini-episode of Neurotransmissions. After our interview with Dr. Ferster, we had and unexpectedly candid and enlightening conversation about communicating Science. Find out why sometimes the science doesn't really start until you put pen to paper.

The mammalian visual cortex performs important transformations of the information that is transmitted from the eye to the brain. We sit down with Dr. David Ferster, Professor Emeritus from Northwestern, to discuss his long career studying the cellular mechanisms of these transformations. We also find out what life after academic retirement is like, and how he's continuing to use his scientific expertise in the private sector to develop new technology for neuroscientists.

Looking inside the brains of translucent amphibians, Dr. Hollis Cline studies the development and plasticity of the visual system. Join Misha, Joe, and Andre as they get to know more about her research as well her position as the president of the Society for Neuroscience.

Women are awarded over half of all doctorate degrees in the life sciences, but account for a small fraction of high-ranking academic positions. To investigate this phenomenon, Joe and Misha explore the various barriers and experiences unique to women in science with Dr. Leslie Vosshall of The Rockefeller University, Dr. Na Ji of Janelia Research Campus, and Ellie Hozhabri at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience.

What can we learn from studying the vast complexity of wiring in the brain? In this week's episode, Professor Movshon explains why a functional perspective is lacking in a connectomics approach that limits our ability to understand what the brain is doing. We'll also hear about how a diverse set of scientific interests can make for a fruitful and enjoyable career in research.

How do neuroscientists see through layers of grey matter to produce images of cells that are deeply embedded in living brains? Dr. Na Ji from HHMI's Janelia Research Campus explains how optical tricks from astronomy can be applied to solve this problem. We cover her exciting academic career from China to California and beyond. Tune in to get the inside scoop on the next big advancements in neuroscience.

From Cornell to Bell Labs and beyond, Eric Betzig spent an entire career trying to see the unseeable. The optics of conventional microscopes face a fundamental, physical limit on their resolution. Dr. Betzig's quest to break this limit ultimately led to the development of a super-resolution microscopy technique, providing researchers a level of detail in biology and that had never been possible before. Misha, Ben and Joe sit down with him to discuss his incredible life story, and discover how a lauded physicist walked away from a promising career in science, only to return a decade later to achieve great scientific success that earned the 2014 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.