2018 MBI Education & Outreach award recipients

Congratulations to the 2018 McKnight Brain Institute Education & Outreach award recipients. This year’s awards extend over 16 laboratories, seven departments and four colleges.

MBI Career Accelerator Awards

Career Accelerator Awards award $50,000 per recipient to assist with preliminary data acquisition and subsequent R01 application.

Jeremy McIntyre, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
College of Medicine
“Ciliary Modulation of chemosensory behaviors by MCHR1”

Marek Schwendt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
“Targeting mGlu5 receptor-protein interactions in the ventral striatum to reduce cocaine relapse”


MBI Research Fellowships

The MBI Research Fellowships provide substantial funding for one-year to post-doctoral fellows or graduate students seeking a doctoral degree who are pursing neuroscience research.

Graduate Fellowships

Shelby Blaes
Doctoral Candidate in the laboratories of Drs. Barry Setlow and Jennifer Bizon
Department of Psychiatry
College of Medicine
“Optogenetic dissection of dopaminergic circuits that mediate risk taking in substance use disorders”

Julianne Price
Doctoral Candidate in Dr. Sara Jo Nixon’s laboratory
Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
“Peripheral Correlates of Neurocognitive Training in Alcohol Use Disorder:  Implications of Treatment”

Post-doctoral Fellowships (two-way split)

Lien Nguyen, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral associate in Dr. Laura Ranum’s Laboratory
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
College of Medicine
“Screening for expanded repeats in samples from Alzheimer’s disease and unknown CNS diseases”

Tao Yang, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral associate in Dr. Mohan Raizada’s laboratory
Department of Physiology & Functional Genomics
College of Medicine
“Dysfunctional Gut-Brain Communication in Hypertension”


MBI Career Enhancement Awards

The MBI Career Enhancement Awards enable junior faculty and trainees to extend their research capabilities under their current extramural funding by providing supplemental funding up to $10,000.

Damon Lamb, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry
College of Medicine
“Brain changes underlying emotional and executive alterations in TBI”

Lukasz Sznajder, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Maurice Swanson’s laboratory
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
College of Medicine
“Pre-mRNA misprocessing in Myotonic Dystrophy and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis”

Ellen Terry, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor in Dr. Roger Fillingim’s laboratory
Department of Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science
College of Dentistry
“Neural mechanisms underlying psychosocial contributions to ethnic group differences in pain”


MBI Trainee Enhancement Opportunity Awards

The Trainee Enhancement Opportunity awards (up to $25,000/applicant) are available to fellows, M.D., Ph.D. and combined doctoral degree students to enable them to gain experience that will further their neuroscience careers. The applications are limited only by the budget and the imaginations of the applicant and mentor.

Ian Frazier
Doctoral Candidate in Dr. Natalie Ebner’s laboratory
Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Mind Research Network’s fMRI Image Acquisition and Analyses course

Abbi Hernandez, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Sara Burke’s laboratory
Department of Neuroscience
College of Medicine
Building a teaching portfolio in neuroscience

Michael Pace
Doctoral Candidate in Dr. David Borchelt’s Laboratory
Department of Neuroscience
College of Medicine
Honing skills in scientific communication


MBI Leadership Awards

The Leadership awards are cash awards that recognize outstanding leadership in academic and educational pursuits by neuroscience researchers.

Toffler Leadership Awards – Leadership in neuroscience by doctoral students

Sruti Rayaprolu, Ph.D. ($1,250)
Former Ph.D. student from Dr. Jada Lewis’s laboratory
Department of Neuroscience
College of Medicine

Latoya Allen ($1,250)
Doctoral candidate in Dr. Gordon Mitchell’s laboratory
Department of Physical Therapy
College of Public Health and Health Professions

MBI Leadership Awards- Leadership in neuroscience by fellows and assistant professors

Joe McQuail, Ph.D. ($1,000)
Post-doctoral fellow in the laboratories of Drs. Jennifer Bizon and Barry Setlow
Department of Neuroscience
College of Medicine

Sara Burke, Ph.D. ($1,000)
Assistant Professor
Department of Neuroscience
College of Medicine

Paramita Chakrabarty, Ph.D. ($1,000)
Assistant Professor
Department of Neuroscience
College of Medicine

Honorable Mention
Elisa Gonzalez-Rothi, DPT, Ph.D. ($200)
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Physical Therapy
College of Public Health and Health Professions