Dr. Huda Akil’s Keynote Advances Addiction Research at RARC Fall Symposium

The Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC) at the Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI) hosted its Fall Symposium on September 5, bringing together neuroscientists, clinicians, and early-career researchers to explore groundbreaking advancements in addiction science. Keynote speaker Dr. Huda Akil, a National Medal of Science recipient, delivered “Searching for the Neurobiological and Genetic Basis of Temperament: Relevance to Addiction.” Drawing from her extensive research, Dr. Akil illuminated the biological and genetic underpinnings of addiction, reinforcing RARC and BHI’s mission to combat the opioid crisis through innovative neuroscience. Learn more

NJACE RUCARES Conference

The Rutgers University Center for Autism Research, Education, and Services (RUCARES) at the BHI, in collaboration with the New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence (NJACE), hosted the second Annual Conference on September 16. The conference brought together leading local and national researchers and physicians in the field of autism and related areas. Keynote speakers are Dr. Dorothea Lerman, Director of the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, and Dr. Sara Jane Webb, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscientist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Learn more

BHI JFWG NIH Grant Writing Workshop

On September 3–4, the BHI Junior Faculty Working Group hosted a two-day NIH grant-writing workshop delivered by AtKisson Training Group. The workshop was designed for junior faculty seeking guidance on preparing R01-level grants for the NIH. The JFWG is committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive community for early-career researchers as they launch their independent research careers. The JFWG aims to empower junior faculty to grow, succeed, and contribute to the Rutgers neuroscience community. Learn more

Dr. Morgan Firestein Joins BHI

Dr. Morgan Firestein joined BHI as a core faculty member in September. As tenure-track assistant professor of Pediatrics in RWJMS and CHINJ, Dr. Firestein’s new lab uses both clinical and translational approaches to study factors underlying childhood neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, with the goal of developing early biomarkers of risk that can provide etiologic insight and inform future therapeutic applications. Dr. Firestein is thrilled about joining the Rutgers community to advance maternal and child health and development.

2025 Eleventh Annual BHI Symposium 

Registration for the 11th Annual Rutgers Brain Health Institute Symposium is now open! This year’s symposium will be held on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at the Busch Student Center in Piscataway. The event will kick off with introductions by Chancellor Brian Strom of Rutgers Health and Dr. Gary Aston-Jones, Director of BHI. The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Moses Chao from NYU. We will hear presentations from faculty (some new) and trainees from across Rutgers. Back by popular demand are the two-minute flash talks by poster presenters prior to the poster session, as well as the trainee “Brain Art” exhibition. We will also feature a special afternoon presentation by the Lewis-Burke Group on the ever-changing federal funding landscape. We look forward to welcoming you as we celebrate neuroscience and brain health research at Rutgers! Register by November 1 to take advantage of our early-bird rate! Learn more and register now

2025 BHI Research & Service

Awards Nomination

BHI recognizes outstanding research and service contributions by BHI-member faculty and staff through five annual awards. All current BHI-affiliated Rutgers faculty conducting neuroscience-related research and their staff are eligible for nomination by their faculty and staff colleagues under one of the nomination categories. Faculty, please nominate your faculty and staff colleagues by November 1. Each awardee will be recognized with a plaque and a monetary award at a ceremony on December 12. Submit nomination

BHI Plenary Seminar: Dr. Jeffrey S. Diamond on Night Vision in the Retina

The BHI is thrilled to welcome Dr. Jeffrey S. Diamond, Scientific Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as our distinguished plenary speaker for the Neurodegeneration and Injury Faculty Advisory Working Group (NDI-FAWG)-sponsored seminar on October 16. The seminar promises to ignite discussions on cutting-edge neuroscience, bridging synaptic mechanisms with broader implications for brain health and disease. As we gear up for Dr. Diamond’s arrival, join us in exploring his remarkable career and the insights he brings to our community. This seminar may be canceled or rescheduled due to the federal shutdown. Stay tuned. Learn more

BHI Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Natasha O’Brown Named Freeman Hrabowski Scholar by the HHMI 

Dr. Natasha O’Brown, Assistant Professor of Cell Biology & Neuroscience at Rutgers University–New Brunswick and BHI member, has been named a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Natasha O’Brown’s research studies the blood-brain barrier—the network of cells that regulates what can enter the brain—a complex process with important implications for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. Learn more

Dr. Mark Rossi Receives 2025 Rutgers Health Chancellor Award for Excellence in Basic Sciences Research

Dr. Mark A. Rossi, BHI core faculty member and Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at RWJMS and CHINJ, has been awarded the 2025 Rutgers Health Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Basic Sciences Research (Early Career Investigator) for his significant contributions to impactful basic science or translational research at Rutgers Health. The Rossi Lab aims to understand how distributed neural circuits regulate feeding and motivated behavior and how these processes are disrupted by external factors, such as diet. Learn more

Dr. Luciano D’Adamio’s NanoNewron Awarded $2.5 Million NIH STTR Grant to Advance Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment

NanoNewron, founded by Dr. Luciano D’Adamio, Professor of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and BHI core faculty member, has been awarded a $2.5M NIH STTR Phase 2 grant. The funding will advance NanoNewron’s NN-840 program, developing novel TNF-alpha inhibitor nanobodies designed to cross the blood-brain barrier to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Learn more

Dr. D’Adamio is recruiting a PhD Research Fellow supported by the New Jersey Innovation and Research Fellowship Program. Learn more

Dr. Kelvin Kwan Receives NIDCD R01 Grant to Study Epigenetic Mechanisms of Cochlear Damage and Repair

Dr. Kelvin Kwan, Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at the School of Arts and Sciences, RU-NB and BHI member, has received an R01 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for his project “Epigenetic Mechanisms of Cochlear Damage and Repair.” The research investigates CHD4, a chromatin-remodeling protein expressed in cochlear hair cells and supporting cells, in maintaining cell identity and preventing degeneration. Learn more

Dr. David Zald Awarded NIAAA R21 Grant to Investigate Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction in Chronic Alcohol Use Disorder

Dr. David Zald, Director of the Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research (CAHBIR) at the BHI and Henry Rutgers Term Professor of Psychiatry at RWJMS, has received an R21 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for his project “Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) Dysfunction in Chronic Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).” Findings from the research will lay the groundwork for larger studies on the evolution and impact of BBB alterations in AUD and help develop precision medicine tools to identify patients who may benefit from BBB-targeted interventions and track their treatment response. Learn more

Dr. Vincent McGinty Receives NIMH RF1 Grant to Uncover How the Brain Makes Complex Choices

Dr. Vincent McGinty, Assistant Professor in the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Arts & Sciences at Rutgers–Newark and a member of RARC and BHI, has received an RF1 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for his project, “Neural and Computational Mechanisms of Multi-Option Choice in Prefrontal Cortex.” The research uses a nonhuman primate model to identify how the brain evaluates and compares multiple decision options. Learn more

Dr. William Graves Awarded NIDCD R56 Grant to Advance Personalized Treatments for Acquired Dyslexia

Dr. William Graves, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers–Newark and BHI member, has received an R56 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for his project “Evidence-Based Modeling Approaches to Customizing Treatments for Acquired Dyslexias.” The research applies data-driven computational cognitive modeling of reading and its impairment to match people with aphasia and acquired dyslexia to the treatments most likely to benefit their individual patterns of reading difficulty. Learn more

BHI Trainee Spotlight

2025-2026 BHI Trainee Travel Award

We’re thrilled to announce the 2025-2026 Rutgers Brain Health Institute Trainee Travel Award winners! These exceptional Rutgers neuroscience PhD students, MD/PhD students, and postdocs were selected by BHI Focus Area Working Groups (FAWGs) to receive a $500 award to attend a national or international conference focused on neuroscience or mental health research. Over the last three years, BHI has given $30,000 in travel awards to 60 trainees from RH, RU-NB, and RU-Newark. Learn more

Dr. Sang Hoon Kim in Dr. Mi-Hyeon Jang's Lab Receives NJCCR Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

Dr. Sang Hoon Kim, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Mi-Hyeon Jang’s lab, received the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. The fellowship provides $100K per year for two years to support his research on developing effective drugs for chemotherapy-induced brain injury, which can lead to long-term cognitive impairments, commonly referred to as ‘chemobrain.’ Learn more

Dr. Nirmal Kumar Awarded APDA Postdoctoral Fellowship for Parkinson’s Disease Research

Dr. Nirmal Kumar, Postdoctoral Associate in Dr. Ping-Yue Pan’s Lab, has been awarded a two-year, $100,000 American Parkinson Disease Association Postdoctoral Fellowship for his project, “Synaptojanin-1 and VPS35 Interaction in Presynaptic Vulnerability.” Dr. Kumar’s research focuses on identifying early molecular mechanisms in PD that lead to presynaptic dysfunction, dopamine imbalance, and ultimately dopamine neuron loss. Dr. Kumar was recruited to Rutgers as part of the BHI Postdoc Recruitment Event in 2023. Learn more

Kimberly Newman in Dr. Gary Aston-Jones’ Lab Defended Her PhD Thesis

Kimberly Newman, a PhD candidate in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience in Dr. Gary Aston-Jones’ lab, successfully defended her doctoral thesis. Her research is focused on investigating the role of the neuropeptide orexin on negative affect and enhanced motivation for opioids seen during the development of dependence and withdrawal. Learn more

Claim your minute (and possibly more) of fame!! If you want to share any news (e.g., awards, grants, publications, patents, donor gifts) in future monthly newsletters, please send them to Lily Zhang (lily.zhangty@rutgers.edu) or use this Microsoft form to submit your news. We will also push these out on social media. So don’t be shy! Share your good news with us! We would love to hear from you!!

New Event Calendar Aggregator on the BHI Website

We encourage the Rutgers Neuroscience community to add their neuroscience and brain health research-related events to the Event Calendar on the BHI website. This will minimize scheduling conflicts for neuroscience and brain health events at Rutgers. To put your events on the BHI website Event calendar, BHI has obtained an event calendar aggregator software that can pull events you post on a shared Outlook or Google calendar created by BHI. If you’d like instructions on how to add your event, or if you have any questions, please contact Lily Zhang (lily.zhangty@rutgers.edu) to request access to the shared BHI Event Outlook or Google Calendar. Learn more

New Banner Ad and Sponsorship Opportunities at BHI

We’ve launched a new banner ad section on the BHI website to help faculty and trainees promote events, study recruitment, job openings, and news announcements. With monthly traffic projected to reach 10,000 visitors, and placements on the most-visited pages, your message will gain high visibility across Rutgers and beyond. Your ad will reach not only the Rutgers community but also external experts, prospective students, and potential collaborators and donors who visit the site. We will assist with designing engaging graphics and placing your announcement on high-traffic pages across the site. If you are interested in featuring your announcement, please contact Lily Zhang (lily.zhangty@rutgers.edu). Advertise with us

NEW!! We are looking for sponsors to support BHI events. Faculty, Staff and Trainees, please let us know about vendors you all work with who might be interested in sponsoring BHI events. Please reach out to kuzhikev@bhi.rutgers.edu with names and contact information of vendors who might be interested in partnering with BHI to sponsor neuroscience and brain health events at Rutgers.

BHI Feedback Hub

BHI Postdoctoral Alliance Working Group (PAWG) Trainee Information Collection Form

BHI Announcements & Opportunities

BHI Motivational and Affective Neuroscience FAWG Mock Grant Review Program

The BHI and the RARC are pleased to announce the mock grant review program at Rutgers University. The primary objective of this program is to increase the success of grant proposals submitted to NIH by Rutgers investigators from the BHI and/or the RARC. Learn more

Alzheimer’s Risk Among South Asian Populations

The study aims to understand the characteristics that may place South Asian populations at heightened risk for Alzheimer's disease and seeks to recruit individuals with ethnic or racial backgrounds from South Asian countries, aged 45-70, who have one or more parents with AD. Learn more

IFPR – Rutgers Research Collaboration

The RARC is partnering with the Institute for Prevention and Recovery (IFPR) to establish a streamlined process for collaboration among Rutgers researchers who want to partner with RWJBarnabas to analyze substance use disorder outcome data and/or implement new studies in the health system. Learn more

Rutgers Research Community Partnership (RCP)

The RCP, overseen by the RARC, is a central enrollment hub for community members to participate in Rutgers research projects, and for researchers to recruit for their studies. By signing up for the RCP, individuals agree to be contacted by approved researchers to participate in projects. Learn more

Join the ADRD Research Center Community

The Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center in 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. Learn more

Join us and make a lasting impact in neuroscience research and education. Discover current opportunities to advance your career and collaborate with leading experts at Rutgers. View all open positions HERE

If you want to share any opportunities (e.g., open positions, grants, surveys) in future monthly newsletters, please send them to Lily Zhang (lily.zhangty@rutgers.edu) or use this Microsoft form to submit your opportunities.

Save the Date

October 16

12 PM

BHI Plenary Seminar: Jeffrey S. Diamond, PhD

The BHI is thrilled to welcome Dr. Jeffrey S. Diamond, Scientific Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as our distinguished plenary speaker for the Neurodegeneration and Injury Faculty Advisory Working Group (NDI-FAWG)-sponsored seminar. Dr. Diamond will present “Specialized Synapses and Circuitry Mediating Night Vision in the Retina”. This seminar may be canceled or rescheduled due to the federal shutdown. Stay tuned. Learn more

October 24

3 - 5 PM

PNI x BHI Postdoc and Graduate Student Mixer

Join us for the first Princeton Neuroscience Institute × Rutgers Brain Health Institute Social Science Mixer. Our goal is simple: to build meaningful connections across universities. Come enjoy an afternoon of games, prizes, food, and drinks!! Maybe you'll even meet your next collaborator (or friend!) over a round of trivia. Free transportation from Rutgers to Princeton will be provided.

Register now

December 3

2025 Eleventh Annual BHI Symposium

Registration for the 11th Annual Rutgers Brain Health Institute Symposium is now open! Highlights include a keynote lecture by Moses V. Chao, PhD, talks by BHI faculty on their cutting-edge research programs, two-minute flash talks by trainees, an update on the federal funding landscape from Lewis Burke, a Brain Art Exhibition, and a trainee poster session. We look forward to welcoming you as we celebrate neuroscience and brain health research at Rutgers! Register by Nov 1 to take advantage of our early-bird rate! Register now

December 12

2025 BHI Holiday & Award Reception

Save the date for the 2025 Rutgers Brain Health Institute Holiday & Awards Reception on Friday, December 12, from 6–9 PM at the Rutgers Club. We recognize outstanding research and service contributions by BHI-member faculty and staff through five annual awards. All current BHI-affiliated Rutgers faculty conducting neuroscience-related research and their staff are eligible for nomination by their faculty and staff colleagues under one of the nomination categories. Faculty, please nominate your faculty and staff colleagues by Nov 1. Submit nomination

March 24, 2026

Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center Symposium

Save the date for the AD Center’s Annual Symposium – bringing together leading researchers, clinicians, and members of the ADRD community. Learn more

Please visit the BHI Event Calendar page to view other upcoming neuroscience and brain health research events. Learn more



If you want to share any events in future monthly newsletters, please send them to Lily Zhang (lily.zhangty@rutgers.edu) or use this Microsoft form to submit your events.

If you want to feature any news, opportunities, and events in future monthly newsletters, please send them to Lily Zhang (lily.zhangty@rutgers.edu) or use this Microsoft form to submit your news. Thank you for your cooperation and support!

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