One goal of the Simons Center for the Social Brain is to build and strengthen the community of scientists and clinicians in the Boston area who contribute to advancing research on autism and the social brain. Our funding mechanisms are designed to encourage cooperation between investigators and across institutions and disciplines. Our public events feature a diverse range of speakers. The Simons Center itself is made up of Investigators, Fellows, and a small and dedicated Staff.
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Polina Anikeeva, Ph.D., Class of 1942 Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Research Keywords: Biophysics, Medical, Nanotechnology Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: anikeeva@mit.edu |
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Mark Bear, Ph.D., Picower Professor of Neuroscience, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Research Keywords: brain plasticity, experience-dependent plasticity, neurological disease Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: mbear@mit.edu |
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Bonnie Berger, S.M., Ph.D., Professor of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at MIT; Head, Computation and Biology group at MIT’s Computer Science and AI Lab Research Keywords: network inference, genomics, protein folding, medical informatics Role: Seed Grant PI email: bab@mit.edu |
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Paul Blainey, Ph.D., Core Member, Broad Institute; Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Engineering Research Keywords: Microfluidics, single-cell analysis, single-molecule analysis, genomics, high-throughput screening, facilitated diffusion, sample preparation Role: Seed Grant PI email: pblainey@broadinstitute.org |
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Ed Boyden, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering,Co-Director, MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, Associate Professor, Media Lab and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Departments of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: neuroengineering, psychiatry, neural circuits Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: esb@media.mit.edu |
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Emery Brown, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Department Head IMES; Professor of Computational Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: computational neuroscience, statistical methods, signal-processing algorithms Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: enb@neurostat.mit.edu |
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Chris Burge, Ph.D., Whitehead Career Development Associate Professor, Whitehead Institute Research Keywords: computational biology, gene expression Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: cburge@mit.edu |
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Steven Carr, Ph.D., Director of Proteomics, Broad Institute Research Keywords: proteomics, mass spectrometry, disease biomarkers Role: Seed Grant PI email: scarr@broadinstitute.org |
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Gloria Choi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: olfactory system, piriform cortex, social behaviors, oxytocin, vasopressin Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: gbchoi@mit.edu |
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Kwanghun Chung, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute for Medical Engineering & Science, Department of Chemical Engineering, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Research Keywords: develop and apply novel technologies, CLARITY Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: khchung@mit.edu |
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Martha Constantine-Paton, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: synaptogenesis, development, disease Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: mcopaton@mit.edu |
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Mark Daly, Ph.D., Co-Director, Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Keywords: visual attention, neural synchrony, attention deficit disorder, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia Role: Targeted Project PI email: mjdaly@atgu.mgh.harvard.edu |
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Alan Edelman, Ph.D., Professor of Applied Mathematics, Mathematics/CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab) Research Keywords: applied mathematics, high performance computing, networks, software, algorithms, Random Matrix Theory Role: Seed Grant PI email: edelman@mit.edu |
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Evelina Fedorenko, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Keywords: linguistic processing, language comprehension Role: Targeted Project PI email: evelina.fedorenko@mgh.harvard.edu |
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Michale Fee, Ph.D., Professor of Computational and Systems Neuroscience, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Research Keywords: systems neuroscience, neural mechanisms underlying sequence generation and learning Role: Seed Grant PI email: fee@mit.edu |
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Guoping Feng, Ph.D., Investigator, McGovern Institute and Poitras Professor of Neuroscience Research Keywords: synapse, circuit, optogenetics, OCD, autism, bipolar disorder Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: fengg@mit.edu |
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John Gabrieli, Ph.D., Grover Hermann Professor in Health Sciences and Technology and Cognitive Neuroscience, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Research Keywords: memory, brain imaging, cognition Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor; Targeted Project PI email: gabrieli@mit.edu |
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Frank Gertler, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Department of Biology Research Keywords: cell movement, cell motility, axon guidance, cytoskeletal remodeling Role: Seed Grant PI email: fgertler@mit.edu |
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Edward Gibson, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: language processing, culture and cognition Role: Targeted Project PI email: egibson@mit.edu |
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Matthew Goodwin, Ph.D., Interdisciplinary Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University Research Keywords: interpersonal biobehavioral synchrony, social reciprocity, emotion regulation Role: Seed Grant PI email: m.goodwin@neu.edu |
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Ann Graybiel, Ph.D., Institute Professor, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Research Keywords: basal ganglia, habit learning, multielectrode recording Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI email: graybiel@mit.edu |
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Michael Halassa, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: Cognition; Attention; Executive function; Working memory; Thalamus; Neural Circuits Role: Targeted Project PI email: mhalassa@mit.edu |
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Robert Horvitz, Ph.D., David H. Koch Professor, Department of Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Research Keywords: cell lineage and cell fate, programmed cell death, signal transduction, morphogenesis, neural development, behavior, micro RNAs, human disease Role: Seed Grant PI email: horvitz@mit.edu |
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David Housman, Ph.D., Virginia & D K Ludwig Professor Cancer Research, Department of Biology Research Keywords: genetics, development, disease onset email: dhousman@mit.edu |
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Jun Huh, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Immunology, Harvard Medical School Research Keywords: epigenetic regulatory mechanisms, pro-inflammatory immune cells, neural development Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: jun_huh@hms.harvard.edu |
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Rudolf Jaenisch, M.D., Professor of Biology, Whitehead Institute Research Keywords: transgenics, model organisms Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: jaenisch@wi.mit.edu |
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Alan Jasanoff, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biological Engineering Research Keywords: functional MRI, neural systems, reward learning Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: jasanoff@mit.edu |
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Gagan Joshi, M.D., Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director, Autism Spectrum Disorders Program, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Keywords: obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, child and adolescent psychiatry Role: Seed Grant PI email: gjoshi1@partners.org |
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Zsuzsanna Kaldy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston Research Keywords: cognitive development in infants, visual attention, salience, eye-tracking Role: Seed Grant PI email: Zsuzsa.kaldy@umb.edu |
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Nancy Kanwisher, Ph.D., Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Research Keywords: human cognitive neuroscience, fMRI, vision and perception Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI email: ngk@mit.edu |
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Walter Kaufmann, M.D., Professor of Neurology, Children’s Hospital Boston Research Keywords: Autism, Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, Rett Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Down Syndrome,SHANK3, genetics, phenotyping, DSM-5 Role: Seed Grant PI email: walter.kaufmann@childrens.harvard.edu |
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Margaret Kjelgaard, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Clinical Assistant Professor, Comm. Sci. & Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Keywords: prosody, spoken language, specific language impairment Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: mkjelgaard@mghihp.edu |
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Isaac S Kohane, M.D., Ph.D., Lawerence J. Henderson Professor of Pediatrics and Health Sciences and Technology, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School, Children’s Hospital Informatics Program Research Keywords: bioinformatics, development, macrobiological perspective Role: Seed Grant PI email: isaac_kohane@harvard.edu |
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Roger Levy, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT |
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Henry Lieberman, Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist, MIT Media Laboratory Research Keywords: artificial intelligence, Programming by Example, user interface, visual programming Role: Seed Grant PI email: lieber@media.mit.edu |
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Yingxi Lin, Ph.D., Fred & Carole Middleton Career Development Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Research Keywords: GABAergic synapses, neuronal activity, circuit homeostasis email: yingxi@mit.edu |
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Stephen Lippard, Ph.D., Arthur Amos Noyes Professor, Department of Chemistry Research Keywords: neurochemistry, inorganic neurotransmitters, signal transducers Role: Seed Grant PI email: lippard@mit.edu |
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J. Troy Littleton, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Biology, MIT Research Keywords: molecular neuroscience, neurotransmitter release, synaptic plasticity Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: troy@mit.edu |
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Eleni Maneta, M.D., Assistant in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children’s Hospital; Instructor, Harvard Medical School Research Keywords: child Psychiatry, learning algorithms, qualitatively different complexity, human emotions, learning style Role: Seed Grant PI email: Eleni.Maneta@childrens.harvard.edu |
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Dara Manoach, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Research Keywords: autism, schizophrenia, multimodal neuroimaging, cognition, sleep, memory Role: Targeted Project PI; Seed Grant PI email: dara.manoach@mgh.harvard.edu |
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Steven McCarroll, Ph.D., Director, Stanley Center Genetics Program, Broad Institute; Professor, HMS Genetics Research Keywords: Role: Seed Grant PI email: mccarroll@genetics.med.harvard.edu |
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Earl Miller, Ph.D., Picower Professor of Neuroscience, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Research Keywords: goal-directed thought, executive control, cognition, attention email: ekmiller@mit.edu |
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Elly Nedivi, Ph.D., William R. (1964) and Linda R. Young Professor, Brain & Cognitive Sciences; Biology Research Keywords: cellular mechanisms, activity-dependent plasticity, neuronal structural dynamics Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: nedivi@mit.edu |
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Thomas Nieland, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor, Tufts University Research Keywords: Brain tissue engineering; 3-dimensional brain culture models; Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s disease and autism research, functional genomics, stem cell biology, drug discovery Role: Seed Grant PI email: thomas.nieland@tufts.edu |
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Aude Oliva, Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist, CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab) MIT Computer Vision & Graphics Group, Investigator, Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center Research Keywords: image statistics, computer vision, computer graphics, human perception, cognition, neuroscience email: oliva@mit.edu |
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Rosalind Picard, Sc.D., Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab Research Keywords: multidimensional signal modeling, computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, human-computer interaction, affective computing Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: picard@media.mit.edu |
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Tomaso Poggio, Ph.D., Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences and Human Behavior, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Director, Center for Brain, Minds & Machines Research Keywords: computational neuroscience, vision, learning theory Role: Seed Grant PI email: tp@ai.mit.edu |
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Aviv Regev, M.Sc., Ph.D., Core Member, Broad Institute; Associate Professor, MIT Biology, Early Career Scientist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Keywords: Computational and Systems Biology, Regulatory Circuits, Genomics Role: Seed Grant PI email: regev-office@broadinstitute.org |
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Caroline Robertson, Ph.D., Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, Harvard University Research Keywords: vision, attention, autism, fMRI, MRS Role: Seed Grant PI email: cerw@mit.edu |
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Mustafa Sahin, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurology; Director, Translational Neuroscience Center; Director, Multi-Disciplinary Tuberous Sclerosis Program, Children’s Hospital Boston Research Keywords: tuberous sclerosis, autism, clinical trials, vascular anomalies, spinal muscular atrophy Role: Seed Grant PI email: mustafa.sahin@childrens.harvard.edu |
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Rebecca Saxe, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Cognitive Science, Martinos Imaging Center, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: development, social cognition, neuroimaging Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: saxe@mit.edu |
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Laura Schulz, Ph.D., Class of 1943 Career Dev Associate Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: early childhood, learning, cognition Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: lschulz@mit.edu |
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Ed Scolnick, M.D., Chief Scientist, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research Research Keywords: genetic analysis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder email: scolnick@broad.mit.edu |
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Sebastian Seung, Ph.D., Evnin Professor in Neuroscience, Princeton Neuroscience Institute Research Keywords: connectomics, machine learning, imaging Role: Seed Grant PI email: sseung@princeton.edu |
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Susan Silbey, Ph.D., Leon and Anne Goldberg Professor of Humanities and Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Research Keywords: ethnography, social organizations, expert communities Role: Seed Grant PI email: ssilbey@mit.edu |
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Pawan Sinha,Ph.D., Professor of Vision and Computational Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
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Hazel Sive, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Whitehead Institute Research Keywords: vertebrate development, frog, zebrafish, genetic analysis Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: sive@wi.mit.edu |
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Alexander H. Slocum, Ph.D., Neil and Jane Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering Research Keywords: MEMS, Nanotechnology, Precision Engineering, Machine Design, Product Design Role: Seed Grant PI email: slocum@mit.edu |
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Jesse Snedeker, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Harvard University Research Keywords: language development, comprehension, semantics, concepts Role: Targeted Project PI email: snedeker@wjh.harvard.edu |
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Elizabeth Spelke, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University Research Keywords: infants and children basic understanding of the physical world, how children acquire language, and social interactions Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: spelke@wjh.harvard.edu |
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Michael S. Strano, Ph.D., Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering Research Keywords: Nanotechnology, biosensors, plant nanobionics, in vivo, thermopower waves Role: Seed Grant PI email: strano@mit.edu |
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Mriganka Sur, Ph.D., FRS, Paul E. Newton Professor of Neuroscience, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: cerebral cortex, development, plasticity and dynamics, brain disorders Role: Director Simons Center for the Social Brain email: msur@mit.edu |
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Peter Szolovits, Ph.D., Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, MIT Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard/MIT Div. of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), Head of the Clinical Decision-Making Group, MIT Computer Science and AI Lab (CSAIL) Research Keywords: medical decision making, natural language processing, clinical information systems Role: Seed Grant PI email: psz@mit.edu |
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Steven Tannenbaum, Ph.D., Underwood-Prescott Professor of Biological Engineering, Chemistry, and Toxicology Research Keywords: nitric oxide, inflammation, mass spectrometry, signaling pathways, microphysiological systems, drug metabolism, toxicology Role: Seed Grant PI email: srt@mit.edu |
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Joshua Tenenbaum, Ph.D., Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: bayesian models of cognition, learning and inference, computational cognitive science Role: Seed Grant PI; Targeted Project PI email: jbt@dmit.edu |
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Themistoklis Sapsis, Ph.D., American Bureau of Shipping Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, MIT Research Keywords: learning algorithms, emotional Intelligence, quantification of learning styles, variable complexity Role: Seed Grant PI email: sapsis@mit.edu |
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Alice Ting, Ph.D., Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor of Chemistry Research Keywords: quantum dots, molecular signaling, protein imaging, proteomic analysis Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: ating@mit.edu |
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Kay Tye, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: motivated behaviors, affective valence, optogenetics Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: kaytye@mit.edu |
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Li-Huei Tsai, Ph.D., Picower Professor of Neuroscience; Director, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Research Keywords: epigenetic regulation of learning and memory, alzheimer’s disease, neurogenesis Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: lhtsai@mit.edu |
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Krystyn J. Van Vliet, Sc.B., Ph.D, Associate Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Biological Engineering Research Keywords: mechanics, chemomechanics, mechanobiology, mechanotransduction, molecular, cell, and tissue mechanics Role: Seed Grant PI email: krystyn@mit.edu |
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Ken Wexler, Ph.D., Professor of Brain & Cognitive Science Research Keywords: linguistic structure, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, morphology email: wexler@mit.edu |
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Forest M. White, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Engineering, MIT Research Keywords: Signaling networks, tyrosine phosphorylation, mass spectrometry Role: Seed Grant PI email: fwhite@mit.edu |
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Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Ph.D., Research Scientist, McGovern Institute for Brain Reserach Research Keywords: Resting state functional connectivity, biomarkers, autism, schizophrenia Role: Seed Grant PI email: swg@mit.edu |
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Ian Wickersham, Ph.D., Research Scientist; Head, Genetic Neuroengineering Group Research Keywords: viral vector engineering, synthetic biology Role: Seed Grant PI email: wickersham@mit.edu |
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Matthew Wilson, Ph.D., Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neurobiology; Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT Research Keywords: TRN, hippocampus, memory Role: Targeted Project PI; Postdoc Mentor email: mwilson@mit.edu |
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Weifeng Xu, Ph.D., Whitehead Career Development Assistant Professor of Neuroscience; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Keywords: calcium channels, plasticity mechanisms, learning and memory, synaptic molecules Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: weifeng@mit.edu |
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Mehmet Fatih Yanik, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, High-throughput Neurotechnology Group, RLE Research Keywords: high-throughput technologies, ultrafast optics, microfluidics, neuronal regeneration, coherent photonics Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: yanik@mit.edu |
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Feng Zhang, Ph.D., W.M. Keck Career Development Assistant Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering; Broad Institute Research Keywords: neuropsychiatric diseases, synthetic biology, neuroengineering Role: Seed Grant PI; Postdoctoral Mentor email: zhang_f@mit.edu |
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Xiaowei Zhuang, Ph.D., Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, David B. Arnold Jr. Professor of Science, Harvard University Research Keywords: nanoscopic Optical Imaging, single-molecule biology and bioimaging, single-virus tracking Role: Postdoctoral Mentor email: zhuang@chemistry.harvard.edu |
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Ezra Zuckerman, Ph.D., Nanyang Technological University Professor and Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management, MIT Sloan School of Management Research Keywords: economic sociology, social network analysis, peer groups Role: Seed Grant PI email: ewzucker@mit.edu |