Michael Economo
Dr. Michael Economo hails from North Carolina and received his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics from Duke University. He is a graduate of Boston University, having received his Ph.D. from the BU Biomedical Engineering department. As a postdoc, Dr. Economo used optical physiology to study olfactory sensory processing with Dr. Matt Wachowiak at the University of Utah. Later, with Dr. Karel Svoboda at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus, he developed new technologies for experimental neuroscience and studied the neural circuits responsible for controlling movements. Following his stint at Janelia, Dr. Economo was recruited to join the Boston University Biomedical Engineering department as an Assistant Professor and established his research group in 2019.
Dr. Economo will be leading a discussion on Whole-Brain Imaging of Long-Range Connectivity in the Mouse Brain. Nearly everything the brain does requires contributions from diverse brain regions. Yet, the neural circuits connecting brain regions remain poorly understood as a result of their exceptionally intricate structure. As a result, most studies attempting to link neural circuits with behavior have focused on single brain regions in isolation. For these reasons, the manner in which brain areas are coordinated through long-range circuits remains a topic of intense interest. To determine the structure of long range-circuits, he and his team developed new methods for high-resolution, whole-brain imaging. Using these methods allowed them to discover new principles that govern how motor centers in the brain connect and communicate in the control of voluntary movements.