Lab News
2022-2023
2022-2023
2021-2022
2020-2021
2019-2020
2018-2019
2016-2017
- Laura Korobkova (graduate student) passes her qualifying exam.
- Vienna Gao (undergraduate research scholar) presented at the USC BUGS (Bridge Undergraduate Science Program) Summer Research Symposium.
2022-2023
- Brian is promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure at USC Keck School of Medicine.
- Dias Lab receives NIMH R56 funding to study cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying paternal legacies of stress.
- Brian speaks at Allen Brain Institute's Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series (video link).
2021-2022
- Dias Lab participates in the Samuels Family Latino and African American High School Internship Program (LA-HIP). Over 10 weeks, Layla Vasquez/Samantha Stack/Laura Korobkova/Will Taylor mentored high-school students Amerie Samuels/Abraham Metzger/Bella Zapata/Amelia Briones on scientific projects. (pictures in the Team section).
- Brian selected as a Scialog: Molecular Basis of Cognition Fellow. An initiative to advance fundamental understanding of how memory, thought, perception and cognition work in brains at the molecular and system levels.
- Will Taylor (graduate student) receives competitive Pre-doctoral Training Award Grant from The Saban Research Institute at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
- Layla Vasquez (graduate student) receives Diversity-related Administrative Supplement to pursue a project that is complementary to our R01 that studies sub-thalamic modulation of extinction learning.
- Laura Dawson, an MSc student from Dr. Jacqueline Blundell's laboratory (Memorial University Newfoundland), joins us for 6 months to pursue studies of intergenerational legacies of stress.
2020-2021
- Brian joins the Board of Mindful Schools - a national education non-profit that leverages the expertise of educators trained in mindfulness practices to teach mindfulness to school ecosystems (teachers, administrators, students). The mission: "to empower educators to spark change from the inside out by cultivating awareness, resilience, and compassionate action.” The vision: "for all children to learn in mindful schools that nurture a new generation of leaders to create a more equitable and thriving world”.
- Thanks to Geshe Lodoe Sangpo (Tibetan Buddhist Scholar) and the dynamic sibling duo, Manan and Niyati Dhuldhoya who write and edit literature through a multi-cultural lens, we have a guide to engaging in respectful and productive conversations that is inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist debating tradition. Thanks to Dr. Arri Eisen for the invitation to write this and to Dr. Carol Worthman for changing my life by giving me a chance to be part of The Emory Tibet Science Initiative.
(adapted from the open-access manuscript in Frontiers in Communication) - There is an immediate and critical need to alter the tone and tenor of our current conversations. The Tibetan system of monastic debate has the potential to show us how to arrive at harmony from our current cacophony. To bring the various pieces together into a symphony might be easier said than done. However, with intention and attention to the various parts of the debating tradition as outlined by us, we posit that we can create this music. Together.
- Archana Venkataraman (graduate student from the Dias Lab, now a postdoc at UCSF) and colleagues publish a paper in Neuropsychopharmacology about projections from the zona incerta (ZI) to the nucleus reuniens (RE) being able to modulate behavioral dimensions of PTSD. More specifically, this paper shows that GABAergic and dopaminergic ZI-->RE projections can influence fear generalization and extinction learning.
- Will Taylor (graduate student) publishes a paper in Learning & Memory making a case for glucocorticoid receptors in cortical astrocytes playing a role in memory recall.
2019-2020
- Dias lab moved to USC Keck School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
- Sarah Hunter (Senior) is named a 2020 Bobby Jones Scholar after a university-wide competition. (The Scholarship provides a fully paid year of study at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. In general, the qualities required of these scholars include academic excellence and exemplary character, integrity, and citizenship.)
- Archana Venkataraman successfully defended her PhD dissertation and will begin a post-doc at UCSF in Summer 2020.
- Hadj Aoued, Soma Sannigrahi, Sarah Hunter and team publish work in Genes, Brain & Behavior demonstrating that intergenerational legacies of sensory experience are mediated by RNA found in sperm and can have positive consequences for offspring.
2018-2019
- Dias Lab receives an NIH R01 to study sub-thalamic influences on deficits in fear inhibition associated with PTSD.
- Dias Lab receives an NIH R21 to study astrocytic contributions to deficits in fear inhibition associated with PTSD.
- Archana Venkataraman is awarded a 2019 SFN Trainee Professional Development Award.
- Brian Dias named Associate Fellow of CIFAR Child & Brain Development Program.
- Archana Venkataraman is awarded the 2019-202 Emory Women's Club Memorial Fellowship.
- Sarah Hunter (rising Senior) is awarded a 2019-2020 Barry Goldwater Scholarship (a national scholarship that is intended to develop future scientific talent).
- Saying more about the zona incerta that was referred to as "a region of which nothing can be said" (Forel, 1877), Archana Venkataraman publishes work in PNAS demonstrating that the zona incerta modulates fear generalization . If interested in this topic, please also see publications from the teams of Dr. Huizhong Whit Tao and Dr. Thomas Sudhof.
- Hadj Aoued, Soma Sannigrahi and team publish work in Biological Psychiatry demonstrating that intergenerational legacies of stress can be broken.
- Aug 27: First paper of the Dias Lab in press at Biological Psychiatry (Hadj Aoued & Soma Sannigrahi are co-first authors)
- Archana Venkataraman receives a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research
- Archana Venkataraman receives the 2018 Leadership Award from Emory's Neuroscience Program
- Archana Venkataraman passes quals and advances to candidacy
- Hannah Linsenbaum graduates and will be working as a Research Specialist in Dr. Victor Corces' lab at Emory
- Sarah Hunter is accepted into the WUSTL ENDURE Pipeline Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Sarah will be conducting research at WUSTL over the next two summers and attending the SFN meetings
- Archana Venkataraman is awarded a Graduate Fellowship from the Office of Undergraduate Research Programs
- Archana Venkataraman receives the 2018 Outreach and Community Service Award from Emory's Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (GDBBS)
- Brian Dias selected as CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar (Announcement)(Brian's CIFAR Profile)
- Natalia Brody receives Independent Research Grant from Emory's Office of Undergraduate Education
- Dias Lab receives FAPESP-SPRINT Award from University of São Paolo in collaboration with the Halle Institute of Global Learning to collaborate with Dr. Newton Canteras - a world-renowned expert in the study of unconditioned fear responses
2016-2017
- Nandini Doshi graduates with an Honor's Thesis (Summa Cum Laude) and starts working with Biogen
- Audrey Easton graduates and is continuing to work on her film career and neuroscience
- Nandini Doshi receives Emory SURE Program Scholar Award
- Audrey Easton receives Beckman Program Scholar in Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience
- Dias Lab receives Emory University Research Council Grant to study hormonal regulation of memory-related dimensions of PTS
- Dias Lab receives Yerkes Pilot Project Grant to examine biological signatures of stress in a multi-generational context in mice and macaques