Dr. Michal Schnaider Beeri, PhD, Director, Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at the BHI, Krieger-Klein Endowed Chair in Neurodegeneration Research and Professor of Neurology at RWJMS invites you to attend the Inaugural Symposium for the Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at the BHI. The Keynote Speaker will be David A. Bennett, MD, Director of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the Robert C. Borwell Professor of Neurological Sciences at Rush University, Chicago. 

While registration is free, it is limited to the first 140 attendees. Registration will close on March 1, and there will be no on-site registration on the day of the symposium. Breakfast and lunch will be served.

The Postdoctoral Alliance Working Group (PAWG) is the latest addition to the BHI Working Group family, aligning its efforts with other Focus Area Working Groups (FAWGs) and the Executive Advisory Council to amplify neuroscience and mental health trainee voices at Rutgers. Drs. Jaclyn Eisdorfer and Aysegul Gungor-Aydin serve as Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, supported by faculty liaison Dr. Kasia Bieszczad.

In the upcoming months, the PAWG plans to conduct a census of all BHI-affiliated trainees and curate a one-stop digital resource for job and funding opportunities, Rutgers mental health resources, on and off-campus activities, etc. Additionally, we intend to organize trainee-led seminars and activities to foster inter-campus collaboration and meaningful discussions in neuroscience and brain health research.

Our upcoming initiative includes a booth at Rutgers Day on April 27, 2024, representing BHI and recruiting new students. We are seeking volunteers to assist in disseminating information about BHI, engaging in neuroscience-related activities at the booth, and offering small prizes to attract attention. If you're interested in volunteering, please email jaclyn.eisdorfer@rutgers.edu.

The BHI is embarking on a planning and priority-setting process to develop a strategic plan that will guide the Institute’s growth and success for years to come. Our goal is to review our mission and values and envision the BHI of the future setting priorities to serve the membership and fuel further expansion. This process started with a brainstorming event during the BHI Symposium in November 2023 and continued with multiple town halls in February 2024 to capture the needs of both faculty and trainees. We collected a lot of feedback and ideas, and we are taking steps to draft the plan. We appreciate your insights and observations and will continue to solicit your input to inform how we best serve our members, engage with one another, and pursue our core areas of focus as an Institute.

Congratulations to Dr. Laleh Najafizadeh and Dr. Tracey Shors on their National Science Foundation (NSF) award. The award funds a project to apply novel data-driven analyses of sustained cortical EEG activity during the subjective feeling of time passing. The project arose from a BHI pilot grant, which provided the opportunity to develop a new line of collaborative research.

Dr. Morgan James, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, BHI Core faculty at the Rutgers Addiction Research Center, and Dr. Troy Roepke, Associate Professor, Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, received a multi-principal investigator R21 grant from The National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH-NIEHS). The grant will support their research project titled “The orexin system as a novel mediator of depression-like outcomes in female rats exposed to an endocrine disrupting compound during the peripubertal period.”  

The study, written by Sapir Golan Shekhtman, a PhD student at the Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel and led by Michal Schnaider Beeri, director of the Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at BHI, finds the impact of abdominal fat on brain health and cognition is generally more pronounced in middle-aged men at high risk of Alzheimer's disease as opposed to women.

Dr. Natalee von Keyserling, an INSPIRE fellow in Dr. Victoria Abraira’s lab, received an NIH-IRACDA postdoctoral fellowship through the Rutgers INSPIRE program. She performs research on the neurobiological basis of affective touch in Dr. Victoria Abraira's lab.

The BHI is pleased to announce the Spring 2024 trainee travel award for Rutgers neuroscience PhD, MD/PhD students, and post-docs. We will provide $500 awards to help offset the cost of attending a national or international conference that was held during the current fiscal year (i.e., by June 30, 2024). For the Spring cycle, there will be awards in each of the four BHI focus areas: Neurodegeneration and Injury, Neurodevelopment, Motivational and Affective Neuroscience, and Cognitive and Sensory Neuroscience. Submit all materials by March 15 to bhi@bhi.rutgers.edu.

The New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence (NJACE) at BHI’s CSH-RUCARES announces funding opportunities for two $150,000 seed grants. One seed grant will support interdisciplinary research that will form the basis of a future federal center or multiple principal investigator grant. The second seed grant will support an interdisciplinary training grant that will form the basis of a future large federal interdisciplinary training grant. The deadline for the Letter of Intent is February 5. The Application deadline is March 29.

The New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence (NJACE) aims to help New Jersey researchers connect with individuals with autism and their families who may be interested in participating in research. We anticipate funding up to four seed grants with a maximum of $2,000 per award. Please complete the request form and submit it to Hnorris@childrensspecialized.org to be considered for funding.

The newly established Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at BHI will serve as a hub for collaboration, innovation, and transformative research, with the mission of making meaningful strides in the prevention, diagnosis, and care of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD). If you are interested in learning more or collaborating with the center, please submit the form to provide your contact information.

The Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at the BHI is recruiting a tenured or tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor level to expand our research portfolio in the basic science of neurodegenerative diseases. We seek scholars with innovative, rigorous, and impactful basic research programs focusing on the gut-brain axis related to aging, Alzheimer’s disease, or associated dementias.

Two full-time Postdoctoral Research Associate positions are available in Dr. Kristina Jackson’s laboratory at the Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC). Candidates will have the opportunity to make contributions to ongoing grant-funded studies at Rutgers and collaborating sites while also developing their own research careers. 

The BHI and the Dept. of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, RWJMS are recruiting a tenured or tenure track faculty member at the Associate or Full Professor level to expand our research portfolio in auditory neuroscience, broadly defined to include animal- or human subjects-based research programs. The successful candidate must have a PhD, MD, or equivalent doctoral degree as well as a research program with currently active federal funding addressing key questions regarding auditory neuroscience.

The Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at BHI seeks a neuroimaging leader for a tenure-track position at the Associate or Full Professor level, a board-certified geriatric psychiatrist with clinical experience in caring for persons with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias, and a neuropsychologist with a research career devoted to the neuropsychology of Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias.

The BHI, RARC, and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Department of Emergency Medicine are recruiting a tenure-track faculty member at the Associate or Assistant Professor level with expertise in addiction, substance use, or overdose. We are particularly interested in candidates with research programs in opioid and/or alcohol addiction.

The BHI, RUCARES, and Department of Pediatrics at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) are seeking a tenure-track assistant or associate professor for a clinical research program focused on improving interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder. 

The CAHBIR is recruiting for multiple faculty positions at all levels (Assistant/Associate/ Professor). We seek investigators who use innovative MRI approaches to image human brain structure and function. Individuals who utilize additional approaches such as EEG, tDCS, and rTMS to study human brain function would also be attractive.