News

Stress before surgery may matter more than doctors once thought. A new Duke University School of Medicine study led by Neurobiology training faculty member Leah Acker finds that even modest stress can affect how older adults recover from surgery. 

Fifth-year graduate student Brayan Campos Salazar (Bilbo Lab) has been selected as one of this year's recipients for the Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award Program (OSNAP).

Anne E. West, MD, PhD, George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Neurobiology, has received the Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for dedication to superior mentorship and training in neuroscience research.

Neurobiology assistant professor Dmitry Velmeshev is one of four researchers nationwide to win a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Avenir Award in Genetics and Epigenetics of Substance Use. Avenir Awards provide grants to early-stage investigators who propose highly innovative studies.

Sixth-year graduate student Kayla Fernando (Hull Lab) is blending scientific research with entrepreneurial skills learned through the Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Graduate Certificate program. Her experience in the program taught her to apply business strategies and storytelling to science, leading to opportunities like a corporate development internship and inspiring her to mentor others exploring nontraditional career paths.

After 14 years of guiding Duke Neurobiology through growth, innovation, and change, Steve Lisberger is stepping down as chair. Today marks the transition to interim chair Staci Bilbo and the official end of his tenure as chair. Under his leadership, the department has expanded its research horizons, strengthened collaborations, and made significant contributions to the broader neurobiology community. We sat down with him to reflect on his tenure, the evolution of the field, and his hopes for the future.

According to Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list, Duke has 31 scientists among the over 7,000 authors on the global list, including Neurobiology training faculty member Ru-Rong Ji. This means their work is among the top 1 percent of citations by scientific field and year. Ji was first named to this list of Highly Cited Researchers in 2018 and he has been included in it every single year since. This year marks his eighth time to be listed among this very select group.

Congratulations to Neurobiology training faculty member Leah Acker who is one of two winners chosen to receive the Innovator Award in Cognitive Aging and Memory Loss from the McKnight Brain Research Foundation (MBRF) and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) .

A three-step study from the Naumann lab — lab experiments with zebrafish, computer simulation, and robotic testing — reveal how closely the brain and body work together to guide movement based on what we see.