Event Schedule

Unless noted, all events are held on the First Floor of the UVA Contemplative Commons.

Tuesday, May 19

10:00AM Event opens to guest arrival & check-in

10:30AM Contemplative Sciences & Psychedelics session

  • Psychedelic Treatment for Mental Health Conditions: What we know and what the future holds
    Stephanie Knatz Peck, PhD – University of California San Diego

  • Unwinding the Anxious Mind: Lessons from Studying the Brain
    Judson A. Brewer, MD, PhD – Brown University

  • Convergent States: Mindfulness, Imagination, and Psychedelic-Induced Change
    Cassandra Vieten, PhD – University of California San Diego

  • Psilocybin and Prolonged Grief Disorder: Role of Subjective Experiences
    Kim Penberthy, PhD – University of Virginia

1:00PM Lunch - Available for event registrants

1:45PM Special Topics Presentation: Alzheimer’s Disease

  • Amyloid-β and Tau: Functionally Coupled Co-Conspirators in Seminal Steps of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis
    George Bloom, PhD – University of Virginia

2:45PM Systems Neuroscience session

  • Introductory Remarks
    Colin P. Derdeyn, MD – Interim Dean, UVA School of Medicine

  • Studying vision in action in the mouse
    Cristopher Niell, PhD– University of Oregon

  • The neural mechanisms of social support
    Dayu Lin, PhD – New York University

  • Molecular and structural rewiring of reward brain cell types by stress and addictive substances
    Mary Kay Lobo, PhD – University of Maryland

  • Internal models of vocal dynamics in the zebra finch
    C. Daniel Meliza, PhD – University of Virginia

Wednesday, May 20

8:30AM Event opens to guest arrival & check-in

9:00AM Maternal Mental Health & Brain Development session

  • Introductory Remarks
    Stephanie J. Rowley, PhD– William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Education and Dean of the UVA School of Education and Human Development

  • Neurosteroids in Maternal Mental Health: From Bench to Bedside to Precision Medicine
    Jamie Maguire, PhD– Tufts University

  • Extracellular vesicles and immune function in perinatal mental health
    Lauren Osborne, MD – Weill Cornell Medicine

  • How Early Experience Shapes the Infant Brain: Maternal Mental Health and Caregiving Signals in Neurobiological Plasticity
    Meghan Puglia, PhD– University of Virginia

  • Sex-Differentiated Epigenetic Regulation of Neurosteroid Synthesis and GABA-A Receptor Genes in Adolescence
    Roxann Roberson-Nay, PhD – University of Virginia

11:45AM Special Topic Presentation: Pain

12:30PM Lunch – Available for event registrants

1:45PM UVA’s Brain Challengers: Big Ideas for Big Problems – Neuroscience TED-Style Talks

3:15PM Poster Session & Reception [Studios 3C and 3D, Third Floor of the Contemplative Commons]

  • Featuring 80+ posters highlighting neuroscience research from across UVA

Thursday, May 21

8:30AM Event opens to guest arrival & check-in

9:00AM Neurodegeneration session

  • Mechanisms of Synaptic Damage by Neurodegenerative Protein Aggregates
    Stephen Strittmatter, MD, PhD – Yale University

  • The price of control: seizure burden, mortality and neuropathology in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias
    Ifrah Zawar, MD – University of Virginia

  • RNA-Targeted Therapies for Neurodegenerative Disease
    Timothy Miller, MD, PhD – Washington University in St. Louis

  • Type I Interferon Signaling: A Rheostat of Brain Aging and Degeneration
    Wei Cao, PhD – University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

  • New insights into Huntington’s disease pathogenesis: implications for therapeutic development
    Scott Zeitlin, PhD – University of Virginia

11:50AM‍ ‍ Closing Remarks