For the 2020-2021 academic year, ION seminars are held remotely at either 12 PM or 4 PM PT on Thursdays unless otherwise specified.  Seminars are hosted on Zoom and are open to the UO community and occasionally on World Wide Neuro.  Links to the weekly seminar will be advertised through the ION mailing list and those not on the list can request access by contacting Jenna Penny at seminars @ uoneuro.uoregon.edu. For more information and support for using the Zoom platform visit UOregon Zoom.

Womxn in Neuroscience presents

WiN Summer Seminar with Dr. Kaela Singleton

Emory University

Thursday, September 24th 2-3pm via Zoom

Next week we are hosting our first ever WiN Summer Seminar! This year, our inaugural speaker is Dr. Kaela Singleton, a Postdoc in the Faundez lab at Emory University. Her work broadly focuses on understanding the mechanisms that control neuron development and pathological conditions. Specifically, she is addressing the role of mitophagy in mitochondrial retention seen in Menkes disease, a progressive form of childhood neurodegeneration that is triggered by dysregulation of copper which shares pathogenic mechanisms with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her talk will discuss the hypothesis that deficits in ATP7A, a chief transporter required for copper homeostasis, activates the pink-parkin mitophagy pathway in order to trap damaged mitochondria within the soma, thus preventing mitochondria delivery to the synapse in Menkes disease. In addition to her research, Kaela was a critical organizer for BlackInNeuro week, and aims to make science more equitable through representation and mentorship.