On our final episode recorded at SfN 2017, Joe sits down with Dr. Christine Constantinople, now Assistant Professor at New York University, to discuss risk-reward learning and starting up a lab. Then Joe sits down with Dr. Matthew Lovett-Baron, postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and soon to be Assistant Professor in the Neurobiology section at UCSD, to discuss his work using zebrafish the look at the role of neuromodulation in the regulation of escape behavior.

Our series of in the field recordings from SfN 2017 continues as Misha gets a chance to catch up again with Dr. BN Queenan (Episode 13), associate director of the UCSB Brain Initiative, to chat about the role of institutional and implicit biases in the gender inequality in academia.

Once again the podcast hit to road to meet up with new and old friends to talk all things neuroscience at the 2017 SfN meeting in Washington D.C. This week Misha sat down with Dr. Mark Burns, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Georgetown University, to discuss traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

How do you learn the appropriate response to a fear-inducing stimulus? Misha and Andre are joined on this episode by Dr. Andreas Lüthi, Group Leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel Switzerland to discuss the role of the amygdala in attributing emotional significance to external stimuli and the generation of appropriate responses. Learn more about how Dr. Luthi and are combining new techniques to further dissect how the local circuits within the amygdala allow appropriate responses to be learned.

On this episode, Michael is joined by former MPFI Post-Baccalaureate Research Experience (PRE) Fellow Amber Luongo and Dr. Hisashi Umemori, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hisashi studies synaptic connections between neurons and how they established, refined and maintained in the nervous system. Learn more about Dr. Hisashi identifies molecules he calls synaptic organizers and the possible translational applications these molecules could have in treating neurological disorders.

On this episode, Joe and Misha are joined by Dr. Cris Niell, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Oregon. Learn how Dr. Niell is looking at the effects of meditation in the brain, how he got interested in the visual system of the mouse, the work his lab has done on predatory behavior, and why he’s expanding into the looking at the visual system of the octopus. We’ll also finally answer the age-old question: is it octopuses or octopi?

On this episode we’re digging back into the vault to a Spring 2016 conversation Joe, Misha, and Ben had with Dr Carol Mason Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology, Neuroscience and Ophthalmic Science at Columbia University and former Society for Neuroscience President. Topics they’ll cover include the work Dr. Mason’s group is doing looking how the brain wires together during early development, the evolving landscape of neuroscience research over the years, and Dr. Mason’s advice for prospective graduate students.

What is it that defines us, nature or nurture? Michael and Andre sit down with Liqun Luo, Professor of Biology at Stanford University, to discuss the role of genetics and experience in the development of the brain. As a trained geneticist Dr. Luo uses both flies and mice to investigate the development of the nervous system. Learn more about how the olfactory system differs from other sensory modalities and the genetic tools Dr. Luo is developing and using to help investigate the roles genes play in the construction of neural circuits.

On this episode of Max Planck Florida's Neurotransmissions Podcast Misha and Paul sit down with Dr. Brenda Bloodgood, assistant professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California San Diego. Hear how Dr. Bloodgood’s path from aspiring undergraduate neuroscientist to professor informs her approach to not only her lab’s research linking gene expression to neural plasticity, but also to her philosophy of teaching and the greater role scientists can play in their communities.

On this episode of Max Planck Florida's Neurotransmissions Dr. Paul Evans, former Postdoc in the Yasuda lab and current MPFI Academic Programs Coordinator, and Dr. Audrey Bonnan, Postdoc in the Christie lab, are joined by Dr. Claudia Bagni. Dr. Bagni is the Professor and Chair in Fundamental Neuroscience at the University of Lausanne where her group has been studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and their dysfunction in inherited intellectual disabilities. Learn about how Dr. Bagni's research has led her beyond neuroscience into cancer research and how she has pursued opportunities to translate her research from the bench to the clinic. Enjoy!