Brain Research Foundation's Annual Neuroscience Day Lectures Focus on Autism

Feb. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- CHICAGO, IL – (February 19, 2013) -- The 2013 Neuroscience Day hosted by the Brain Research Foundation (BRF) in late January was a great success with 50 researchers competing for a financial award in two categories and a full afternoon of lectures focused on autism, which notably included two former BRF Seed Grant winners.

The research competition is separated into a graduate student category and a postdoctoral category with two winners from each. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows presented their findings on a variety of areas of study, including Alzheimer’s disease, depression, epilepsy and schizophrenia through an interactive poster presentation session. Presenters offered a brief summary of recent research conducted and were on hand to explain their work.  Judges from various Chicago research institutions assessed the work and four presenters judged as outstanding each received a cash award.

Stephanie Ebner at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Celia Fernandez at the University of Chicago were the winning graduates students. Adam Dewan, Ph.D., of Northwestern University and Andrew Robinson, Ph.D., of Northwestern University were the winning postdoctoral candidates.

The lecture segment of Neuroscience Day focused on autism and was moderated by Sangram S. Sisodia, Ph.D., from the University of Chicago. Speakers included Guoping Feng, Ph.D., from Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Joshua M. Kaplan, Ph.D., Harvard University; Edwin H. Cook, Jr., M.D.; University of Illinois at Chicago; Peter Penzes, Ph.D., Northwestern University.

“This was the BRF’s 13th Neuroscience Day and in a little over a decade it has become a recognized opportunity for the Chicago neuroscience community to connect and learn about the newest research in our field, and notably provides young researchers a unique public platform,” stated Terre Constantine, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Foundation. “The Brain Research Foundation is very appreciative of the tremendous support that we receive for this event from the research universities in our community.”

About the Brain Research Foundation

The Brain Research Foundation is a national organization that supports cutting-edge neuroscience research that will lead to novel treatments and prevention of all neurological diseases in children and adults. We deliver this commitment through both research grants that provide initial funding for innovative projects, as well as educational programs for researchers and the general public.

For more information, visit our website http://www.theBRF.org. You can like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/brainresearchfoundation and follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/thebrf