Lab News

  • Jessica's work on oxytocin administration in lions was published in iScience. Read it here. Some press in Newsweek, Smithsonian Magazine
  • Find our work on developing 10.5T imaging in macaques with the Zimmermann lab in two papers in NeuroImage: rsfMRI and dMRI
  • Megan and Sarah have published a paper in JOCN on the connectivity of the retrosplenial cortex in rats. Read it here
  • Adriana, Maya, and Sarah, along with Hala El-Nahal, Marc Sommer, Martin Bohlen, Paul May, Michele Basso, Piercesare Grimaldi, and Ezequiel Marron Fernandez de Velasco, have published an investigation of the anatomical properties of rAAV2-retro in rhesus macaques. Read it here
  • Megan and Sarah have published a News & Views highlighting cross-species imaging of cortico-striatal circuits. "Some animal models are more equal than others: Cortico-striatal circuits for translation." Read it here
  • Mark, Jan Zimmermann, and Sarah have published a review on the relationship between anatomical connectivity and diffusion-weighted imaging -derived brain connectivity. "Estimating brain connectivity with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging: Promise and Peril." Read it here
  • Sarah will co-lead the Structural Circuits Core for UMN's new P30 award from the NIH led by Mark Thomas. The Center for Neural Circuits in Addiction will advance technologies for studying the biological basis of addiction. The Heilbronner Lab will be helping to develop cutting-edge technologies for brain clearing, imaging, and registration. Press Release
  • Sarah will co-lead the Translational Neurophysiology Core for UMN's new Conte Center, a P50 award from the NIH led by David Redish and Sophia Vinogradov. The goal of the Center is to understand brain changes in psychosis. The Heilbronner Lab will be examining cross-species anatomical and physiological features of cortico-cortical and cortico-basal ganglia circuits. Press release 
  • Megan, Adriana, Mark, Maya, Hannah, MariPen, and Jessica all have posters this year at SfN! Catch them Sunday afternoon (Megan, Adriana, Mark), Monday morning (Maya and Hannah), Monday afternoon (MariPen), and Wednesday afternoon (Jessica).
  • Jessica and Sarah have published a Spotlight article in TiCS, "Cracking Down on Complexity in the Evolving Brain." Read it here 
  • Congratulations to Adriana Cushnie for being awarded a predoctoral fellowship slot on a T32 training grant!
  • Congratulations to Austin Werner on his successful UROP proposal, "Oxytocin Receptor Density within the Prefrontal Cortex  of Social and Asocial Felids."
  • The Minnesota Symposium on Addiction Neuroscience will be held September 12, 2020. Catch Megan Monko, Adriana Cushnie, Mark Grier, and Maya Wang presenting posters on their work from the lab!
  • Congratulations to Megan Monko on passing her oral preliminary exam! She is officially a Master of the Posteromedial Cortex!
  • Catch Mark Grier's poster at the 7th Minnesota Neuromodulation Symposium, "Diffusion MRI at 10.5T in nonhuman primates."
  • Sarah has co-authored a NeuroView piece in Neuron with Matt Chafee entitled "Learning how neurons fail inside networks: Nonhuman primates provide critical data for psychiatry." Read it here
  • Congratulations to lab collaborator Maya Wang on winning the Beatrice Z. Milne and Theodore Brandenburg Award for her thesis research!
  • Congratulations to Pooja Kandikonda on her successful UROP proposal entitled "Anatomical connectivity between the posteromedial cortex and the striatum."
  • We are pleased to be funded by an R01 from NIMH (118257-01) entitled "Revealing functional networks and circuits of the posteromedial cortex with anatomical connectivity."
  • We are pleased to be funded by a Pilot Grant from the Medical Discovery team on Addiction, in collaboration with the Hayden lab! This award will support Adriana Cushnie and Maya Wang's work on viral tract-tracing.
  • Congratulations to Mark Grier for being awarded a postdoctoral fellowship slot on a T32 training grant!
  • The lab is growing! Welcome to Mark Grier (Postdoc), Adriana Cushnie (Neuroscience Graduate Student), Megan Monko (Neuroscience Graduate Student), and Olivia Drake (LSSURP student).
  • We are pleased to be funded by an Academic Health Center Seed Grant! This award will support Jessica Burkhart's comparative neuroanatomy work.
  • We are pleased to be funded by a NARSAD Young Investigator Award to Sarah Heilbronner from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
  • Tanya Casta has joined the lab as a Researcher 3/Lab Manager. We are happy to have her (and her histology background) on board!
  • Sarah Heilbronner will co-chair and present as part of the Society for Neuroscience Minisymposium on Functional Diversity of Prefrontal Cortical Regions and Networks. Washington DC, Nov 14. More info here 
  • Catch Sarah Heilbronner's talk representing UMN Neuroscience at the Midwest Regional Neuroscience Conference (Midbrains). Nov. 4, 2017, at University of St. Thomas. More info here
  • The Heilbronner Lab officially launches November 1, 2017! Many thanks to our three undergraduate researchers--Amanda Hassan, Amera Hassan, and Tenzin Sonam--who have been helping to launch a new lab.