Visitor of the Week: Predrag Janjic

Meet Predrag Janjic of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Republic of Macedonia). Predrag is associated with the Laboratory of Complex Systems and Networks led by Ljupco Kocarev, and with the Research Program in Psychiatric Diseases led by Andrew J. Dwork of the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University. The research scientist is on a multi-week trip in New York – first to take part and present a poster in the 2018 Glia in Health & Disease meeting titled “Multistability in a model of membrane voltage dynamics in hippocampal astrocytes—Interplay between Kir and K2p currents” and then to meet with his States-side collaborators.

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
The main focus of my present work is computational modeling of glial cells, both their structure and function. Within the structural studies we try to quantitate myelin in psychiatric disease, while on the functional side, I develop dynamical models of conductivity of astrocytic membrane.

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research?
While I knew cell-level modelling would be the focus of my work, as I was considering the particular phenomena I should concentrate on, it was a striking realization that computational cellular neuroscience had almost completely ignored glial cells during the last few decades, or have modeled their roles in a rudimentary way. From a biophysical perspective, I found it unacceptable and decided to take a closer look into how biophysical theory could describe some of the basic experimental properties. For getting into closer contact with the real issues and challenges, apart of the collaboration with Columbia University on myelin, for functional cell-level modelling I collaborate with Prof. Christian Steinhaüser’s lab in Bonn and Prof. Pavle Andjus’ lab in Belgrade where advanced neurobiology of glia is being explored experimentally.

How did your scientific journey begin? 
After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, I pursued a masters in the theoretical physics of nonlinear phenomena from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje; where my interest in dynamical descriptions of neuronal membranes began. The freedom I was given by Prof. Kocarev to explore less established areas enabled me to carry over my earlier interest into Ph.D. studies, focusing on the variations of modeling frameworks in non-excitable (or non-spiking) cells. The NIMH/Fogarty-funded research led by Columba University provided me with the critical opportunity to join a larger research program and pursue neuroscience.

Was there something specific about the Glia in Health & Disease meeting that drew you to attend?
I was attracted by: 1) the growing evidence from several labs that specific glial potassium-channel families (which I study) are implicated in more and more disordered conditions, and 2) the possibility to have face-to-face discussions on those implications and experimental observations.

What is your key takeaway from the meeting?
During the last several years, I have struggled to find my home community. The computational neuroscience community – where I belong on paper – still unfortunately stands aside on most of the glial phenomena. On the other hand, the concepts and methods used by the computational neuroscience community are still a bit abstract for the glial biologists, where molecular studies presently dominate. Computational studies of glia will have to bridge the gap between the experimental observations and their quantitative descriptions, and CSHL is a very unique place where both experimentalists and theoreticians feel at home. The explosion of molecular findings will show  researchers like me where to look when refining the computational descriptions of the phenomena we observe.

What did you pick up or learn from the meeting that you plan to apply to your work?  
This was the first meeting I attended where a notable number of leading researchers in glial biology were present. I needed to get a first-hand account of the molecular studies aimed at showing what (de)regulates the ion channel populations I am quantitatively modeling, as well as what is the latest in the imaging and molecular studies of myelin. 

If someone curious in attending a future iteration of this meeting asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
As the glial biology community is definitively growing, the Glia meeting at CSHL will further gain popularity. And since both, the cell-level and molecular biological contexts are addressed here, CSHL is really a great place to get inspired  while meeting and working with other glial biologists.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
The CSHL campus has a unique quality conducive to relaxing and thinking about what really inspires you. The history-rich facilities, artistic touches in each and every corner, supportive staff, and the great food will make anyone feel really pleasant.

Thank you to Predrag for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Visitor of the Week: Heiko Schutt

Meet Heiko Schütt of the University of Tübingen (Germany). Heiko is currently finishing his PhD in Felix Wichmann’s lab within the Neural Information Processing Group. He is on campus attending his first CSHL course: Computational Neuroscience: Vision. 

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I model human visual behavior: what images humans can differentiate and where in the image they look. For my models, I use neural data for inspiration which I implement using image-processing methods.

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research? 
I knew I wanted to study visual perception once I realized how well it can be understood and the number of fascinating problems still unresolved. For example, I am deuteranope which means I am missing the photoreceptor type needed to register medium wave length lights. Therefore, there are some colors which I cannot differentiate. As this process is well understood, we can calculate which colors I can identify and which ones I cannot. Displaying colors on a screen, which everyone -- but me -- could easily distinguish from each other made a very impressive illustration. Such exact predictions are a rarity in neuroscience and psychology, and gave me hope that exact solutions are possible in other parts of vision science. 

How did your scientific journey begin? 
My scientific journey began as a psychology student in Gießen, which has a large group of psychologists working on visual perception. I started as a research assistant and was immediately fascinated by the illusions in visual perception, its complexities, and how much we can understand in this field.

Was there something specific about the Computational Neuroscience: Vision course that drew you to apply?
I was mainly drawn to apply for this course by the great collection of speakers and alumni. This course really brings together a broad selection of world-leading scientists in this field.

What and/or how will you apply what you've learned from the course to your work? 
I learned a lot about the neural basis of my models. The retinal physiology discussed at the course will be a great source of inspiration for the front end of the early vision model I currently develop.

What is your key takeaway from the course?
The most important takeaway are the people I have met here. Of course, I increased my knowledge and beliefs about visual neuroscience, but getting to know the researchers behind the original studies and meeting a great set of peer scientists will be invaluable for my future in science.

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
If you can attend, do it! This is one of the best visual neuroscience courses in the world. Once you are here, don’t take yourself too seriously and allow yourself to get to know the science and other scientists.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
From our evening discussions to our Nerf gun battles, ultimate Frisbee matches, and evenings on the beach - I enjoyed the relaxed attitude of this course.

Heiko received a scholarship from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to cover a portion of his course tuition. On behalf of Heiko, thank you to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network. 

Thank you to Heiko for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Visitor of the Week: Doris Ling

Meet Doris Ling of Washington University in St. Louis. The graduate student is a member of the Barani Raman Lab which studies the insect olfactory system; as well as the Yehuda Ben-Shahar Lab which studies the genetic basis of behavior. Doris returned to CSHL to take part in the annual course on Drosophila Neurobiology: Genes, Circuits & Behavior. 

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I am interested in how the brain encodes complex sensory information – currently I am researching this in the fruit fly brain and how it represents chemical information such as smells.

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research? 
My background is in engineering and in a previous life I was interested in developing artificial chemical sensors. I quickly came to realize that man-made chemical sensors tend to fail in complex odorant environments but natural chemical sensors, such as our noses or a fly’s antennae, easily deal with these complexities. So why not study how nature builds such robust chemical sensors? 

How did your scientific journey begin? 
Growing up, I had great teachers whose enthusiasm for teaching and the sciences made it easy for me to get excited about science too.

Was there something specific about the Drosophila Neurobiology: Genes, Circuits & Behavior course that drew you to apply?
I applied to this course because I wanted to learn more laboratory skills specific for studying the fruit fly nervous system. Learning such hands-on technical skills from leaders in the field has been truly invaluable in ways that I am not sure I would have been able to obtain anywhere else.    

What and/or how will you apply what you've learned from the course to your work? 
This course has provided me with such a breadth and wealth of knowledge regarding everything from the developmental neuroscience to the genetic tools available in fruit flies. It was also great to learn from people with such diverse academic backgrounds. I hope to channel everything I’ve learned to ask more informed and interesting questions about Drosophila neurobiology!

What is your key takeaway from the course?
Flies are awesome. Even though their brains only have 100,000 neurons (compared to humans which have 100 billion neurons), they are still capable of so many interesting and elaborate behaviors. And considering how many biological processes are fairly conserved throughout the animal kingdom, the fly is a necessarily simple but sufficiently complex model that can teach us a lot about ourselves.  

How many CSHL courses have you attended? 
Just this one, and I attended the Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting last fall. 

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
Do it! This course has been invaluable to me in terms of the experimental skills I have learned, the conversations I’ve had, and the people I’ve met. The instructors are so knowledgeable, but more importantly, ever so patient and kind teachers. It has been a great opportunity to get to know them and to have them on our team.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
The people I met at CSHL during the course are nothing short of amazing. Their company has brought me countless laughs and gave me an unwavering faith about the future of the field. I already miss our late-night conversations and gossiping about science at every coffee break. I hope that I may one day be as motivated, diligent, and ambitious as they are. 

Doris received a fellowship from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to cover a portion of her course tuition. On behalf of Doris, thank you to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Doris for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Visitor of the Week: Linda Rubenstein

Meet Linda Rubenstein of the NASA Ames Research Center! The NASA Postdoctoral Fellow is a part of the Bone and Signaling Lab headed by Ruth Globus. She is on campus participating in her first CSHL course: Advanced Techniques in Molecular Neuroscience. 

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
We aim to understand the responses of mammalian tissue to the spaceflight environment with the goal of developing effective countermeasures to maintain crew health during and after space missions. 

My research focuses on the impact of microgravity and radiation on the brain in mice. 
How did you decide to make this the focus of your research? 
During my PhD, my focus was on aging. More specifically, prolonged exposure to the spaceflight environment leads to excess production of ROS and oxidative damage, culminating in an acceleration of tissue degeneration – similar to aging – and I am working to to further explore and understand this link. 

How did your scientific journey begin? 
My father is a chemist, and from young age, he inspired me to pursue scientific questions. I am also very lucky to have had wonderful and supportive mentors while I earned my Masters (Prof. David Lichtstein and Prof. Dvora Rubinger in the Jerusalem Hadassah Medical Center) and PhD degrees (Prof. Martin Kupiec in Tel-Aviv University). They inspired me to continue onto my postdoc. 

Was there something specific about the Advanced Techniques in Molecular Neuroscience course that drew you to apply?
Since I am relatively new to the neurobiology field, I was keen to acquire the newest methods with hands-on laboratory experience and meet with the experts of the field. This course came highly recommended.

What and/or how will you apply what you've learned from the course to your work? 
I will be able to apply the majority of the methods I have learned in the course - such as FISH, TRAP, CLIP techniques – to my work and I also plan to start working on neuronal cell cultures.

What is your key takeaway from the course?
Most importantly, the wonderful people I have met here. There is a vast range of new exciting techniques (both genome wide and single cell) that are relatively accessible and fascinating topics waiting to be explored – we just have to choose the suitable method for our scientific question and per aspera ad astra. And besides the novel techniques, I was also inspired by the lectures given by the guest lectures and our instructors. I return to California with many new ideas and offers for technical support and possible future collaborations.   

Taking a break from the course with a sail trip around the Bay.

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
I would warmly recommend this amazing course. In addition to acquiring a palette of amazing techniques, you get the chance to meet and discuss with the top researchers in the field the newest discoveries in a friendly and informal environment.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
I have loved the dedication and enthusiasm of our instructors (Cary Lai, Joseph LoTurco and Anne Schaefer) and the teaching assistants in helping us understand the different methods and how they can be applied to our research. I also love the diversity and vibrancy of my fellow course participants, from whom I have also learned a lot and whose company I have enjoyed. I am sure we’ll keep in touch in the future. 

Linda's attendance and travel were funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP), respectively. On behalf of Linda, thank you to HHMI and NPP for supporting and enabling scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Also, thank you to Linda for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Visitor of the Week: Sonia Chin

Meet Sonia Chin of Friends’ Central School. After earning her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 2016, Sonia joined the independent and co-educational Quaker day school as an Upper School Science Teacher and just completed her first year teaching Biology I Advanced and Biology II Advanced Genetics Super Lab. She is on campus for the Frontiers & Techniques in Plant Science course where she is gathering material for a plant biology course she would like to begin offering her high school students.

Before becoming a teacher, what were your research interests? What were you working on?
Before becoming a teacher, I was interested in sensory neuroscience - particularly how animals sense the environment and what their brains do to generate an appropriate behavioral response. My graduate work in Chris Potter’s lab involved studying how the female fly brain processes olfactory stimuli to decide where to lay eggs, an important choice that impacts the survival of her offspring. I completed my PhD in October 2016 from Johns Hopkins University Department of Neuroscience; and I’m excited to say that on July 4th (during this course) my thesis work identifying a brain region specifically geared towards recognizing and avoiding smells associated with bacterial infection and larval parasites was accepted for publication!

As a teacher, what are your science interests and goals for your students?
I aim to introduce my students to how wonderfully weird biology can be and challenge them to use what they know to form novel and interesting ways to ask questions and problem solve. By incorporating practices rooted in the training of a scientist – such as the scientific method, frequently posing open-ended questions, and troubleshooting inquiry-based labs – I hope to help my students achieve these goals and make biology relevant and interesting. Most importantly, I hope that the skills they work so hard to hone in my class transfer to the other domains of their lives to logically evaluate information they encounter out in the world.

How did you know you wanted to become a teacher (as opposed to continuing to work in the lab)? What factor(s) helped/led you to make the career decision?
Typical of any young scientist’s developmental progress, I had an existential crisis at the beginning of my third year of graduate school. This, along with the added stress of a health scare, motivated me to take off a couple of months from graduate school to work on my mental and physical health. During that time, I found summer employment at a nonprofit called the Biotechnical Institute of Maryland teaching Baltimore City high schoolers interested in biomedical sciences to work in the lab. It was there that I discovered a love for teaching high schoolers.

While I love the life of the mind that professional scientists live, upon graduation, I thought hard about what to do next and determined that there are plenty of newly-minted PhDs who will become great scientists and, perhaps, relatively fewer PhDs who joyfully see teaching high school biology as a viable, first choice career path. Having just completed my first year of teaching, I love it. Teaching high school is equally dynamic to doing science day-to-day, puts me in contact with endlessly interesting people, and has been incredibly rewarding.

How did your scientific journey begin? 
I think I have a classic story here: During senior year of high school, I remember looking at a neuron slide and thinking how cool it was that I could see cells and measure things to understand how they work. More importantly, my high school biology teacher, Karen Shepherd, encouraged us to read popular science books, and a book called Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Guide to All Creation by Olivia Judson really captured my imagination about evolutionary biology and the weird behaviors in the animal world. 

Was there something specific about the Frontiers & Techniques in Plant Science course that drew you to apply?
I constantly think about what I can offer to my students not only through the curriculum but also from my experiences as a scientist. Presently, I teach a fall semester course, Genetics SuperLab which covers epigenetics and optogenetics, followed by an independent project by the students. I would like to expand my curriculum by offering a more molecular biology and experiments-based plant biology course in the spring (which will complement the botany course my colleague teaches in the fall).

Also, since earning with my PhD in October 2016, I miss working with my hands and doing science so I thought a CSHL course would be an amazing opportunity to hang out with scientists and bring new skills back to my school.

What and/or how will you apply what you've learned from the course to your work? 
I already plan to replace one of my labs with a technique I learned in the Plants course. When a pollen grain contacts the stigma of a flower with female anatomy, the single-celled grain of pollen extends a tube (up to one meter long in corn!) to deliver two sperm cells inside the ovary. One of the two sperm ultimately fuses with an egg cell to form an embryonic plant while the other fuses with a large cell, called the central cell, which eventually grows into endosperm, the part of a seed that provides nutrition for the new plant. In foods like beans and corn, endosperm is where we gain the most nutrition from eating. I like this system because it is dynamic and I think my students would really enjoy learning about some of the cell biology and signaling involved in double fertilization in plants. And to watch the process in real time would (literally and figuratively) help the lesson come alive for them. 

I will also probably use some of the bioinformatics tools covered in the course to talk about gene expression and how understanding evolution and phylogenetic trees can inform hypotheses about biological phenomena.

What is your key takeaway from the course?
Plants have evolved to address evolutionary pressures that are very different than animals, and their biology is both similar and different to animal biology in some pretty profound ways. Because of some major differences from animal biology, it has been interesting - to me - to see how differently plant biologists use inferences derived from the similarities in genetic sequences across species to support their hypotheses and conclusions. 

How many CSHL courses have you attended? Have you participated in a CSHL meeting? 
This is my first course at CSHL, and I would never have predicted that I would be taking this course as a high school teacher. Also, I attended the Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting in 2011 and 2015. 

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
Frontiers & Techniques in Plant Biology is an excellent course for someone who wants to quickly get up to speed on plant science. I have really enjoyed hearing talks and learning from scientists  in their areas of expertise; it feels a bit like being at a really long conference because it includes such a diversity of topics and types of techniques. Learning to use computational tools and programming would have been tremendously useful at the beginning of my PhD which leaned more towards animal behavior and genetics. I am happy to see my fellow students, who are mostly early-year graduate students, getting such a well-rounded training covering multiple levels of research.  
 
What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
How welcoming the students, instructors, and scientists have been to answering my (probably) naive questions!

Sonia received funding support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and from an endowment created by an alumnus dedicated and passionate about science education at Friends' Central School. On behalf of Sonia, thank you to NSF and to the alumnus for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Also, thank you to Sonia for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.