News
Looking for Answers to Alzheimer’s Mysteries
More than 55 million people worldwide live with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. About 2% have a rare, inherited form that can appear as early as a person’s 30s — and like all forms of Alzheimer’s, it has no cure. For more than two decades, Boston University researcher Yakeel Quiroz has been working... More
A Solution to the Cocktail Party Problem—Hidden in the Brain
Imagine you’re trying to have a conversation with a friend at a loud party. To pick out what they’re saying, your brain has to focus on their voice and filter out all the other party sounds—the chatter, the music. That’s the cocktail party problem: the challenge of isolating a single... More
Two Boston University Bioengineers Win Prestigious Sloan Research Fellowships
Research of Boston University’s Brian DePasquale and Michael Economo offers hope to people who are paralyzed and sheds new light on ALS. Both researchers have won Sloan Research Fellowships — honors awarded to early-career researchers whose creativity, innovation, and accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders.
Beyond Weight Loss: BU Researchers Investigate How GLP-1 Drugs Affect the Brain
Drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Zepbound have taken the world by storm, helping millions shed pounds quickly. But as waistlines shrink, researchers are asking a deeper question: What are these drugs doing to our brains? Assistant Professor of Biology Lynne Chantranupong is leading a research team to figure out the long-term neurological effects... More
Building Mini-Brains, Advancing Big Ideas
Studying cortical organoids within a living organism enables Kate Herrema and her advisors – Professor Anna Devor (BME), Assistant Professor Timothy O’Shea (MSE, BME), and Research Assistant Professor Martin Thunemann (BME)—to model neurodevelopment. This work is also done in close collaboration with Assistant Professor Ella Zeldich (MED). “We can use [this technology] to study healthy human neurodevelopment, and... More
BU Neuroscientist’s “Riveting Debut” Book Discusses “How to Change a Memory”
BU neuroscientist Steve Ramirez just released his debut book, How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist's Quest to Alter the Past–a mix of personal storytelling and fascinating science that dives into how our memories can be reshaped. Ramirez walks readers through experiments where memories were reactivated or even altered in mice, revealing just... More
Resources for New and Early Career Faculty at CSN
The Center for Systems Neuroscience (CSN) provides an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental structure to promote research, foster collaboration, and enhance recruitment of new faculty in systems neuroscience at Boston University. Systems neuroscience has been a major strength of research at Boston University. The Boston University Center for Systems Neuroscience (CSN) is established... More
Scientist Profile – Professor Jennifer Luebke
Illuminating the structure and function of individual brain cells Jennifer Luebke, Ph.D. –Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology The Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology, led by Professor Jennifer Luebke (Center for Systems Neuroscience), employs multiple approaches to understand how specific features of individual neurons enable the area-specific functions of different brain regions. Their research... More
Scientist Profile – Professor Mark Howe
The Howe Lab studies how neural circuits motivate and direct actions to reach desired goals, and they have developed optical tools that allow them to study activity in a large structure located deep in the brain—called the striatum—which plays a critical role in such processes... More
Scientist Profile – Professor Steve Ramirez
The Ramirez Group, led by Professor Steve Ramirez, investigates how we process and retrieve memories as well as how those memories might be artificially modulated to treat mental health disorders... More