Mount Sinai Neuroscience seminars (MSNseminars) is a seminar series and competitive program organized by our postdoctoral fellows. Leading postdocs from around the country are selected and invited to give an institutional seminar and meet with the neuroscience community at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. For more information, please contact: Swagata Dey - swagata.dey@mssm.edu or Marco Rizzo - marco.rizzo@mssm.edu

2025 Speakers

• April 25, 2025
  Kevin Guttenplan, PhD - Vollum Institute
  How do astrocytes regulate neuronal circuits?
• May 23, 2025
  David Marcus, PhD - University of Washington
  Endocannabinoid tuning of behavioral engagement via thalamo-striatal projections.
• June 27, 2025
  Deepa Ramamurthy, PhD - UC Berkeley
  Rewarding experiences guide attention and dynamically shape the sensory neural code.
• July 25, 2025
  Harris Kaplan, PhD - Harvard University
  A coming-of-age story: development of instinctive behavior circuits.
• August 22, 2025
  Hannah Wirtshafter, PhD - Northwestern University
  A universal hippocampal memory code across environments and animals.

The Friedman Brain Institute hosts a Neuroscience Retreat held in the spring of each year. Neuroscience is multidisciplinary by nature and, reflecting this, the scientists and physicians that contribute to the neurosciences at Mount Sinai hail from a variety of departments and campuses. The Retreat provides an opportunity for everyone in the Neuroscience community at Mount Sinai – faculty, fellows, students, researchers and clinicians – to meet and discuss their work in order to increase awareness of ongoing research and approaches, to foster new interactions, and to generate novel ideas.

Learn more about the Annual Neuroscience Retreat here.

For information about the retreat, please contact Vena Persaud  or  Veronica Szarejko.

The Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is deeply committed to promoting brain health by sharing our expertise with our partners and the local community. In celebration of Brain Awareness Week, Mentoring in Neuroscience Discovery at Sinai (MiNDS) with support from the Friedman Brain Institute and the Center for Excellence in Youth Education, hosts an annual Brain Awareness Fair for local students, their parents, and community members. Learn more about our Brain Awareness Week activities here.

Cells, Circuits, and Behavior

The Cells, Circuits and Behavior WIP includes 13 laboratories whose work focuses on the integration of molecular, cellular, and behavioral studies in the context of normal and diseased states. The co-organizers are Hiro Morishita, MD, PhD, Peter Rudebeck, PhD, and Paul Slesinger, PhD.

WIPs are held Thursdays from 9:30-10:30 am (Hess 8-101). Find future presenters on the events page.

Epigenetics

The Epigenetics WIP includes nine laboratories whose work focuses on transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms by which environmental stimuli (e.g., a drug of abuse, stress) over a lifetime change cell and circuit function to mediate lasting behavioral abnormalities. The co-organizers are Ian Maze, PhD, and Eric Nestler, MD, PhD.

Find future presenters on the events page.

Neurodevelopment and Disease

The Neurodevelopment and Disease WIP is a seminar series for Icahn School laboratories that study the process of neural development, regeneration, and stem cells. Investigations include studies of the underlying biology of the disease processes in neurodevelopmental diseases (e.g., autism), neural degeneration (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease), and neural malignancies (brain cancer). The co-organizers are Silvia De Rubeis, PhD, and Roland Friedel, PhD.
For future presenters, visit the events page.