Mary Phillips recently gave an oral presentation of her abstract at the Gordon Research Conference on “Excitatory Synapses and Brain Function” in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. Mary received a travel award providing her the opportunity to attend the conference.  She is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Lucas Pozzo-Miller and both Mary and Dr. Pozzo-Miller presented during the Autism session.

The international event was attended by scientists from numerous countries. Dr. Pozzo-Miller and Mary were the only UAB representatives who presented at the event. Mary's talk "Atypical Hippocampal Afferent Inputs to the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Alter Social Behaviors in the Mecp2 Mouse Model of Rett Syndrome” and Dr. Pozzo-Miller’s talk “Dysfunction of Hippocampal Synapses in Rett Syndrome” were both well received.

Gordon Research Seminars provide a unique forum for graduate students, post-docs, and other scientists with comparable levels of experience and education to present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas. For more information on the Gordon Research Seminars visit: www.grc.org.