Symposium brings together neuroscience experts, students
August 21, 2023
A new symposium at The University of New Mexico will bring together students and researchers of neuroscience to look at the progress made and brainstorm about the future. Specification of Complex Behaviors will be held Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 30-31, in the Physics Astronomy and Interdisciplinary Science (PAÍS) building on the UNM campus.
The event is free of charge for all attendees and will be useful for senior undergraduates, post-baccalaureate students, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty who are interested in neuroscience.
The conference is the brainchild of Mubarak Hussain Syed, assistant professor of Biology at UNM and head of the Syed Neural Diversity Lab, and his colleagues and co-organizers Drs. Katherine Nagel of the New York University School of Medicine and Josie Clowney from the University of Michigan.
Syed and his team in the Neural Diversity Lab investigate the genetic and molecular mechanics regulating neural diversity ̶ from stem cells to neural circuits. The findings will help uncover the fundamental principles of nervous system development and potentially to understand and treat neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, ADHD, and autism.
Syed defined ‘specification of complex behaviors’ as “behaviors regulated by neural circuits that are made up of different neuron types, which are made during development” and said conference attendees will discuss “what developmental programs in the neural stem cells regulate the formation of distinct classes of neurons, how they wire together and regulate distinct behaviors.”
Read more in the UNM Newsroom
