2025 CNC Retreat

The 2025 UAB CNC Retreat was held September 17-18, 2025 at the Marnix E Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation Conference Center at UAB.

We would like to extend a Special Thank You to our Keynote Speaker, Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, PhD, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences; Principal Investigator at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute for joining us for this year's retreat.

In total, this year's retreat featured 15 speakers, 88 poster presenters, and 220+ attendees, making this one of the most successful CNC Retreats to date!

2025 Retreat Photos: https://uab.app.box.com/s/d19tzu08mcd46ob8w8pv96h6pjsgqy4q

Congratulations to the 2025 Trainee Platform and Poster Winners!

Platform Presentation Category:

1st Place ($500): Jose de Oliveira, Postdoc- Psychiatry
Presentation: Maternal Early Life Adversity Impairs Offspring Sociability via Dysfunction of the Midcingulate-Prelimbic Pathway
PI: Minae Niwa

2nd Place ($250): Briana Machen, Graduate Student- Neurobiology
Presentation: The encoding of interoceptive-based predictions by the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus D2+ neurons
PI: Sofia Beas

3rd Place ($100): Aidan Miller, Graduate Student- CNET/Neurology
Presentation: Monocyte derived border associated macrophages coordinate autoreactive T cell responses and drive neuroinflammation in an alpha-synuclein model of Parkinsons disease
PI: Ashley Harms

Poster Presentation Category:

1st Place ($500): Keaton Ramsey, Graduate Student- Neuroengineering
Presentation: Resolving Single Cone Receptive Field Centers in Macaque LGN Neurons
PI: Lawrence Sincich

2nd Place ($250): Jana Badrani, Graduate Student, Neuroengineering/ Psychiatry
Presentation: Changes in Brain-Associated Granulocyte Populations Regulate Maternal Immune Activation-Induced Male-Specific Behavioral Deficits
PI: Shin-ichi Kano

3rd Place ($100): Azariah Kaplelach, Graduate Student- Neurology
Presentation: Progranulin acts in astrocytic lysosomes to promote neuronal outgrowth
PI: Andrew Arrant