Many thanks to all who participated in this year’s Neuroscience Retreat. Graduate student and post doc presenters at the Retreat were eligible for the Thach Award competition. The 2018 winners:
Short Talks: Hailun Li (Neuroscience Program; DiAntonio lab)
“A neuromodulatory circuit regulating the glial capacity to buffer K+”
Posters: Weikang Shi (Neuroscience program; Padoa-Schioppa lab)
“Establishing Causal Links between Neural Activity in Orbitofrontal Cortex and Economic Choices”
The Tom Thach Award was established to honor Tom Thach, professor emeritus of neurobiology and an active participant in the Annual Neuroscience Retreat who passed away in 2014. (For more about Tom, click here.) The Thach Award recognizes outstanding presentations by grad students and post docs at the Annual Neuroscience Retreat. There was one winner from the talks and one winner from the posters, identified by two separate panels of faculty members who served as judges. Winners were selected based on scientific merit, presentation, and knowledge of the subject matter.
The Thach Award, $500 to each winner, is made possible by support from the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience and the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology. Thanks to our faculty judges, to Ben Seitzman (Neuro student; Retreat Committee member) for coordinating, and to the McDonnell Centers for making the awards possible.
Note also the finalists for the poster session, selected by faculty judges based on abstract review in advance of the Retreat:
Poster Finalists, 2018 Tom Thach Awards
Kristen Funk, PhD (Klein lab; WashU Medicine)
“CSFR1 signaling is required for local restimulation of antiviral CD8+ T cells during viral encephalitis”
Aaron Mickle, PhD (Gereau lab; WashU Anesthesiology)
“Wireless Closed-loop Optogenetics-Based System for Peripheral Neuromodulation”
Peter Wang (Immunology Program; Randolph/Milbrandt labs; WashU Pathology & Immunology/Genetics)
“Identification of shared ontogeny and gene expression underlying PNS macrophages and CNS microglia”
Thanks to our judges who had a difficult task, and congratulations to this year’s finalists and winners, selected from a pool of highly competitive presentations!