Director Spotlight

On location with Neuroscience Program Director Daniel Tranel, PhD

"Join the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Iowa and become part of the bright team of scientists trying to solve the mystery of the human brain."

Iowa Neuroscience Institute

Provides collaborative support for the neuroscience community.

IDGP Neuroscience Events

ACB Seminar Series - Grace Gottschamer promotional image

ACB Seminar Series - Grace Gottschamer

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 9:30am to 10:30am
Bowen Science Building

Grace Gottschamer, an Interdisciplinary Graduate Student from the Dunnwald Lab will present a seminar titled " Irf6 and Epidermal Homeostasis."

 ACB Seminar Series - Joy James promotional image

ACB Seminar Series - Joy James

Wednesday, October 14, 2026 9:30am to 10:30am
Bowen Science Building

Joy James, a Cell and Developmental Biology Graduate Student in Sam Stephen's Lab will present a seminar titled "Proinflammatory Cytokines Induce Golgi Remodeling In Pancreatic Ī’-cells Beyond Inos-no Signaling."

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Neuroscience alumna, McCall Sarrett, PhD promotional image

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Neuroscience alumna, McCall Sarrett, PhD

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 11:30am
Virtual

šŸŽ“ Neuroscience Alumni Spotlight: McCall Sarrett, PhD ('20)

From Herky to Duo: A Career in the Cognitive Science of Learning

What can a PhD career look like beyond the traditional academic path?

Join the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Career Development Series for a conversation with McCall Sarrett, PhD ('20, Neuroscience), a University of Iowa graduate alumna who has built a career applying cognitive science and research in industry.

McCall is currently a Learning Scientist at Duolingo, where...

2026 Neuroscience Research Day Keynote Speaker: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD promotional image

2026 Neuroscience Research Day Keynote Speaker: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD

Monday, November 2, 2026 1:00pm
Medical Education Research Facility

Keynote Speaker Announcement: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD
2026 Neuroscience Research Day – Monday, November 2, 2026

We are excited to welcome Constanza J. Cortes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, to the University of Iowa for this year's Neuroscience Research Day.

Dr. Cortes's research explores the intersection of exercise, brain aging, skeletal muscle, and Alzheimer’s disease, with a particular focus on how...

Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Program Thesis Defense Seminar: Angela Smith promotional image

Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Program Thesis Defense Seminar: Angela Smith

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 11:00am
Medical Education Research Facility

Angela Smith is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. Her research has been conducted in both Kathleen Sluka's and Stephanie Gantz's laboratories.

If you are unable to attend in person, please consider showing your support and attending via Zoom. Please email britt-hokanson@uiowa.edu for the zoom link.

Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Program Thesis Defense Seminar: Katelin Scott promotional image

Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Program Thesis Defense Seminar: Katelin Scott

Monday, November 30, 2026 10:00am
Medical Education Research Facility

Katelin Scott is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. Her research has been conducted in Aislinn Williams' laboratory.

If you are unable to attend in person, please consider showing your support and attending via Zoom. Please email britt-hokanson@uiowa.edu for the zoom link.

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Genetics alumna, Kim Bekas, PhD promotional image

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Genetics alumna, Kim Bekas, PhD

Tuesday, December 8, 2026 11:30am
Virtual

šŸ“£ Career Development Series: Finding Flexibility in a Career in Grantsmanship

Looking for a career path that keeps you connected to research while offering a different kind of flexibility after the PhD? Grantsmanship may be an option worth exploring!

The Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Office of Cancer Career Enhancement and Training is hosting the next session of its Career Development Series, featuring Kim Bekas, PhD (ā€˜22 Genetics).

Kim currently serves as a Grants & Contracts Officer IV and...

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Neuroscience alumna, Amanda Bullert, PhD promotional image

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Virtual Career Development Series - Neuroscience alumna, Amanda Bullert, PhD

Tuesday, January 12, 2027 11:30am
Virtual

Curious about where a PhD can take you beyond the traditional academic career path? Join the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Office of Cancer Career Enhancement and Training for an upcoming Career Development Series conversation featuring

University of Iowa alumna Amanda Bullert, PhD (ā€˜23 Neuroscience)!

šŸ’» ā€œCareers in Research Computing: Data, Supercomputing & Beyondā€

Amanda Bullert, PhD (ā€˜23 Neuroscience)
Senior Research Data Consultant
Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain
University of...

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Outstanding Alumni 

Alex Petrucci

Alex Petrucci

Eric Emmons

Eric Emmons

Katelyn Joyal

Katelyn Joyal

Victoria Muller Ewald

9

DISSERTATION PRIZE WINNERS AWARDED BY THE GRADUATE COLLEGE. Joseph Parvizi, Michael Koenigs, and Benton Purnell (right), Katelyn Joyal EARNED THE SPRIESTERSBACH DISSERTATION PRIZE. Matthew Sutterer, Arianna Rigon, Banu Gumusoglu, Victoria Muller E
Benton Purnell
Serena Gumusoglu
"The fact that I was able to perform at this level and do this work is representative of this program. The strength of the Neuroscience Program at the University of Iowa is what makes it such a destination program for people.ā€

Banu Gumusoglu, PhD

2020 winner, Rex Montgomery Dissertation Prize

Iowa Neuroscience Institute Events

2026 Neuroscience Research Day Keynote Speaker: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD promotional image

2026 Neuroscience Research Day Keynote Speaker: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD

Monday, November 2, 2026 1:00pm
Medical Education Research Facility

Keynote Speaker Announcement: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD
2026 Neuroscience Research Day – Monday, November 2, 2026

We are excited to welcome Constanza J. Cortes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, to the University of Iowa for this year's Neuroscience Research Day.

Dr. Cortes's research explores the intersection of exercise, brain aging, skeletal muscle, and Alzheimer’s disease, with a particular focus on how...

Hawk-IDDRC Seminar Series featuring Maja Bucan, PhD: "Sleep and activity patterns in autismā€  promotional image

Hawk-IDDRC Seminar Series featuring Maja Bucan, PhD: "Sleep and activity patterns in autismā€

Friday, October 9, 2026 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Carver Biomedical Research Building

Please join us for our first Hawk-IDDRC Seminar of the academic year, featuring: Maja Bućan, PhD.
Professor, Departments of Genetics and Psychiatry; Co-director, Autism Spectrum Program Of Excellence, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Lurie Autism Institute, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and PennMedicine
Presenting: "Sleep and activity patterns in autismā€ Friday, October 9, 2026, Noon – 1pm CST in the Kelch Conference Room (CBRB 1289)
Lunch will be available for those who...

Pain Interest Group Seminar - Andrew Schrepf, PhD promotional image

Pain Interest Group Seminar - Andrew Schrepf, PhD

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 9:00am to 10:00am
Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building

The neuroimmune interface in chronic pelvic pain

Andrew Schrepf, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Anesthesiology
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
University of Michigan

Neuroscience News

Davidson seeks treatment to sneak across blood-brain barrier (Chemistry World, June 2011)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Piggy-backing on the BBB Beverly Davidson, a neurologist at the University of Iowa, US, has been seeking a therapy for children who suffer from lysosomal storage disease, caused by the absence of a particular brain enzyme . 'We know we can't simply deliver the enzyme into the blood and have it access the brain, so we try to devise methods to overcome this problem,' she explains. Her group took...

Achievements: UI Faculty, staff making news

Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Offices and Awards Curt Sigmund, professor and head of pharmacology in the Carver College of Medicine, has been selected as the 2011 Ernest H. Starling Distinguished Lecturer by the American Physiological Society.

Millersburg man riding horse across Iowa for UI Alzheimer's research

Friday, May 27, 2011
At night, he will sleep in a bed in the back of his pick-up truck. By day, he will ride on horseback three miles per hour across the state of Iowa. This is 80-year-old cowboy Bill Taylor's summer odyssey to raise money for Alzheimer's research at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Taylor, of Millersburg, Iowa, will begin his 259-mile journey at 10 a.m. June 6 in Grandview, along the...

New blindness-preventing research 'is exciting'

Friday, May 27, 2011
New research that may lead to treatments which cure or prevent blindness is "exciting" news, according to one researcher.Dr Budd Tucker, who is currently an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine, said a new study he was involved in could hold "great promise" for future treatments through regenerating skin stem cells, which can help to repair the...

Denburg: working together may help senior citizens make better decisions (Science News, May 23)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Trading cognitive declinesWorking together may protect older people whose thinking skills are declining from getting burned on investments and other crucial decisions. A computer set-up that allowed a group of seniors to trade shares of political candidates from both parties during the 2008 primaries, much as stocks get traded, cut the financial losses of participants with brain-related problems...

Sections Of Retinas Regenerated And Visual Function Increased With Stem Cells From Skin

Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Scientists from Schepens Eye Research Institute are the first to regenerate large areas of damaged retinas and improve visual function using IPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) derived from skin. The results of their study, which is published in PLoS ONE this month, hold great promise for future treatments and cures for diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa...

William Talman, Neurology

Friday, April 22, 2011
William Talman admits he was never really good at jigsaw puzzles, but that didn’t stop him from a career in biomedical research and science advocacy. During his first year of medical school, Talman recalls, ā€œOne of my professors challenged us one day, saying ā€˜Do any of you like to solve jigsaw puzzles? If so, you will probably like neurology because you can logically put the pieces together.ā€™ā€...

UI grad student ā€˜a rockstar’ of neuroscience

Friday, April 8, 2011
A conversation is a lot more than words.And Rupa Gupta, a University of Iowa graduate student, said she wants to unravel the intricacies of interaction, such as eye contact and timing.ā€œI’m just interested in how people interact with people,ā€ said Gupta, who is working toward a Ph.D. in neuroscience.Her advisers call her a standout in her field, but the 25-year-old was hesitant to praise her...

Antipsychotic drugs may contribute to brain tissue loss in schizophrenia

Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track how brain volumes change over time, researchers at the University of Iowa have found that antipsychotic medications commonly used to treat schizophrenia appear to contribute to the loss of brain tissue that sometimes occurs in patients with this condition. The findings, which are published in the February issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry...

UI vision specialist receives Knights Templar research grant

Thursday, December 2, 2010
The Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc., awarded its $40,000 Pediatric Ophthalmology Research Grant to Steven Stasheff, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and ophthalmology and visual sciences with University of Iowa Health Care, during its meeting on Oct. 23 in Des Moines. Stasheff presented a report to the Knights Templar members on his proposed research as well as other vision...