News

Fifth year graduate student Alev Brigande of Disney Lab received the Society for Neuroscience’s Trainee Professional Development Award (TPDA). This award is given to students who demonstrate scientific merit and excellence in research and is intended to promote the advancement of their career training as neuroscientists.

Duke Neurobiology awarded the Bill Hall Prize for Excellence in Graduate Student Research to Kaitlyn Fouke of Naumann Lab on Friday, August 28. The annual award recognizes one or two senior Neurobiology graduate students who have made impactful contributions to scientific knowledge.

The Department of Neurobiology is welcoming five new doctoral students this fall.

Rising second year graduate student Xinyu Tu (Glickfeld Lab) has been selected as a recipient of the Duke SoM Dean's International Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to international students at the end of their first year of study and acknowledges academic progress and scientific potential as well as contributions to the academic community. These scholars will receive one year of tuition, fees, and stipend to support their research in year 2. The award also highlights the PIs' accomplishments as a mentor, scientist, and important contributor to graduate training.

What if pain relief and addiction didn't have to go hand in hand? Duke researchers report a discovery that could help scientists design safer opioids. Their Nature study found that a small group of brain cells appear to play an important role in reward learning, the process that can lay the foundation for addiction. The team showed that opioid pain relief could be preserved even when drug-related preferences failed to form.

Rising third year graduate student Ellisa Lang of Russ Lab was recently selected as one of the top ten presenters in the 3 Minute Thesis competition. This competition challenges doctoral students to present their research and its impact in three minutes in language that a non-specialist audience can understand using only one slide. Lang will compete in the finals to be held this Tuesday August 4 from 3:00 - 5:00 PM in Schiciano Auditorium in the Pratt School of Engineering. 

A new study from Grandl Lab and first author Michael Sindoni has discovered that different versions of the Piezo2 protein—the body's key sensor for touch and internal mechanical signals—respond to physical forces in different ways. Piezo2 helps us feel touch, sense body position, monitor lung expansion, and regulate digestive movement. The study found that a small section of the protein, called exon 35, makes certain Piezo2 variants much more sensitive to stretching and pressure on cell membranes.

In a new paper published in iScience, a team led by Neurobiology's Eva Naumann and former Neurobiology graduate student Minel Arinel shows that rapid gut-to-brain communication is already functional in early development, using larval zebrafish as a model. The researchers developed a novel method to deliver enteric stimuli during calcium imaging, revealing that gut distension alone drives widespread neural responses. These findings underscore mechanosensation as a dominant visceral stimulus at this developmental stage.

Rising third year graduate students Brayan Ruiz Lopez (Southwell Lab) and Sharon Powley (Scott-Hewitt Lab), and rising fifth year student Shuoyi Li (Mooney Lab), have each been selected to receive a 2026 Ruth K. Broad Foundation Research Award.

Rising third-year graduate student Ben Yuan (Nuo Li Lab) initially volunteered to co-organize the Neurobiology Career Series as a way to gain networking experience. Through his work with the series, he reflects that engaging with speakers and peers offered valuable insight into the diverse—and often nonlinear—paths within neuroscience careers.