June 2026
Honors & Awards
Rishi Nixon, Volunteer, Department of Neurobiology, was awarded a Summer Student Fellowship by the Parkinson's Foundation to work with Iris Lindberg, PhD, Professor, on a project entitled "Unfolded Protein Response (UPR)-Modulatory Neuroprotection by an Endogenous Chaperone in a Stem Cell Model of Parkinson’s."
In the News
Emily Aery Jones, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology, had her recent first author publication, “Entorhinal Cortex Represents Task-relevant Remote Locations Independently of CA1,” covered in Medical Express on April 30, 2026, in an article entitled “Still Moments Reveal How the Brain Links Distant Places During Learning.” The publication earlier appeared in Nature Neuroscience.
Grants
Robert Bloch, PhD, Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Physiology, received support totaling $168,750, of which $112,500 is direct with Mammoth Biosciences, for “Epigenetic Editing of DUX4 Locus in Mouse Xenografts.”
Emily Aery Jones, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology, and her team were awarded a UMB Targeted Pivot grant for "Inhibition of Lipophagy Drives Accumulation of PLIN1-associated Lipid Droplets in Alzheimer’s Disease," which is a collaboration with William Jackson, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Medicine; Oliver Voss, PhD, Assistant Professor, Microbiology & Immunology; Ricardo Feldman, PhD, Professor, Microbiology & Immunology; Maged Harraz, MB, BCh, MS, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry; and Alison Scott, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland School of Dentistry.
Marco Venniro, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology, and his team were awarded a UMB Targeted Pivot grant for "Molecular Circuits Facilitating Bidirectional Control of Immunity and Behavior in Chronic Diseases," which is a collaborative endeavor with Nevil Singh, PhD, Associate Professor, Microbiology & Immunology; Joao H.F. Pedra, PhD, Microbiology & Immunology; Kamal Moudgil, MD, PhD, Professor, Microbiology & Immunology; David Benavides, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Neurology; and Sarah M. Clark, PhD, Psychiatry.
Publications
Emily Aery Jones, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology, is co-author of a new publication, “Neuronal APOE4-induced Early Hippocampal Network Hyperexcitability in Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis,” which was published in Nature Aging on April 3, 2026.
Joseph Cheer, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurobiology, is one of two authors of a new chapter in the publication, “Modulation of Dopamine Release Sculpts Ethologically Relevant Motivated Actions Through the Computation of Conditioned Stimuli. In: Cannabinoid Modulation of Emotion, Memory, and Motivation,” recently published in Springer Nature Link.
Ziad Gerges, MS, Data Analyst, and Sui-Seng Tee, PhD, Assistant Professor, both with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, were among the co-authors of “The Combined Predictive Value of the Triglyceride-Glucose Index and A Body Shape Index on All-Cause Mortality: A 26-year Prospective Cohort Analysis from the Rancho Bernardo Study,” which was published in April 2026 in Cardiovascular Diabetology Endocrinology Reports. Dr. Gerges was the first author and Dr. Tee was the last author.
Iness Gildish, Fiorella Morgado Guadalupe, and Joseph Cheer, PhD, Professor, all with the Department of Neurobiology, are among the authors of a new publication, “Midbrain Endocannabinoids Actuate Dopamine-based Action Selection,” which was published in May 2026 in Cell Reports.
Gautam Kumar, MPH, PhD; Daniela Franco, MA; Jimmy Olusakin, PhD; and Mary Kay Lobo, PhD, Professor, all with the Department of Neurobiology, are among the authors of a new publication, “Nucleus Accumbens Neuron Subtype Translatome Signatures in Socially Stressed Females,” which was published in Neuropsychopharmacology on April 22, 2026.
Peiying Liu, PhD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was the first author of “Non-Invasive MRI of Choroid Plexus Vascular Function,” which was published in Imaging Neuroscience on April 17, 2026.
Ruoxi Lu, MD, Lab Member; Yiran Li, PhD, Assistant Professor; Xinglin Zeng, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow; and Ze Wang, PhD, Professor, all with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, were among the co-authors of “Brain Entropy as a Biomarker of Major Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults: Insights from Multimodal Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging,” which was published in March 2026 in Psychoradiology. Dr. Lu was the first author.
Rosy Linda Njonkou Tchoquessi, MS, Clinical Research Associate; Nikita Rednam, MPH, Clinical Research Assistant; and Vikas Kundra, MD, PhD, Professor, all with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, were among the co-authors of “Imaging of De Novo Malignancy after Solid Organ Transplant,” which was published in April 2026 in Radiology. Dr. Kundra was the last author.
Jimmy Olusakin, PhD; Atul Kashyap; Daniela Franco, MA; Gautam Kumar, MPH, PhD; Joseph Cheer, PhD, Professor; and Mary Kay Lobo, PhD, Professor, all with the Department of Neurobiology, are among the authors of a new publication, “Concurrent Maternal Stress and THC Exposure Alters Maternal Regulation and Downstream Adolescent Corticolimbic Programs,” which was published in Translational Psychiatry on April 23, 2026.
Yilun Sun, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Physiology and School of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, was last author of “HDAC Inhibition Unlocks Tumor Plasticity and Enhances Immunotherapy Response in Myc-driven Small Cell Lung Cancer,” which was published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics on May 1, 2026.
Jinghui Wang, PhD, Research Fellow; Guanda Qiao, MD, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow; Honglin Tan, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow; Miroslaw Janowski, MD, PhD, Professor; Piotr Walczak, MD, PhD, Professor; and Yajie Liang, MB, PhD, Assistant Professor, all with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, were among the co-authors of “Elastomeric Micro-Balloons for Remote Control of Cerebral Blood Flow and Real-Time In vivo Imaging of Rodent Brain Response to Hypoperfusion,” which was published in April 2026 in Advanced Materials. Epub ahead of print. Separately, Dr. Janowski was the last author of “Regulatory B Cells in the Central Nervous System: from Immune Regulation to Neuroprotection,” which was published in February 2026 in Neuroprotection.
Noushin Yahyavi-Firouz-Abadi, MD, MBA, Associate Professor, and Florence Doo, MD, Assistant Professor, both with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, were among the co-authors of “The Iodine Opportunity for Sustainable Radiology: Quantifying Supply-Chain Strategies to Cut Contrast's Carbon and Costs,” which was published in April 2026 in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Dr. Doo was the last author. Separately, Dr. Doo authored “Radiology's Triple Helix: Value, Patient Care, and the Planet,” also published in April 2026 in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.