All posts by mary zhao

Research Assistant Opportunity at the UBC Infant Studies Centre!

The UBC Infant Studies Centre (Werker Lab) is now accepting applications for Research Assistant positions in the upcoming academic year! They are currently seeking motivated undergraduates who…

  • Are interested in language acquisition, the brain, and development
  • Would enjoy working with parents and their infants (2-30 months old)
  • Can commit to 9 hours/week throughout the Winter terms
  • Have a GPA of at least 80% either overall or in their latest terms

RAs will be trained to contact families to invite them to participate in infant studies (which involve behavioural, EEG, and fNIRS methodologies), prepare materials for upcoming studies, and code videos of infant behaviour. RAs who excel are often assigned specific, ongoing projects that involve valuable hands-on research experience!

To apply, please send a brief statement of interest, resume/CV, and unofficial transcript (e.g. SSC grades summary) to Jack, Research Coordinator, at jack@psych.ubc.ca. Applications will be assessed as they are received.

 

Research Opportunity at Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff’s lab at Blusson Spinal Cord Centre!

The following positions are available at Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff’s lab at the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre:

1. Research associate, Dr. Behnia Lashkari at Tetzlaff lab is looking for a committed undergraduate student to aid him on tissue microscope image analysis in the summer. Behnia’s research focuses on myelination pathology and treatment.

2. Graduate student, Nima Alaeiikhchi is looking for a couple 2nd or 3rd year undergraduate students who are committed long-term to aid his research on effects of myelin plasticity and aging. The work will involve molecular biology techniques and mouse handling. The students must be available more than 20 hours a week in the summer, and be committed to spend at least 1 full day a week during fall/winter terms.

If you are interested, please email Behnia (behnia2@gmail.com) or Nima (nima.alaie@yahoo.com):

  • A cover letter introducing yourself and your reason for applying
  • A concise resume (1 page)
  • Your course schedule for winter and summer

 

Volunteer with the Vancouver Brain Injury Association!

Vancouver Brain Injury Association is a charity aimed at providing resources to brain injury survivors in the Vancouver area. Some of our services include support groups, workshops and in-school programs to prevent brain injuries before they even happen. We are currently looking for volunteers to join our fundraising and social media committees. Volunteers with VBIA will be responsible for event planning, working with brain injury survivors and interacting with staff & research assistants. Volunteering is a great way to eventually become an in-school volunteer or a payed position in the future! For more information, feel free to look over the document below or https://vancouverbia.org/. If you are interested, please email marisha@vbia.ca to get involved!

VBIA Volunteer Outline Summer 2019

Dr. Ines Violante – Brain state and polarity dependent modulation of brain networks by transcranial direct current stimulation

Hello everyone,

We hope you had a great weekend! Our next journal club will be Monday March 4th at 6:00 in IKB 461. The paper we will be reading is by Li et. al regarding transcranial direct current stimulation. We will also be discussing Dr. Ines Violante’s talk at the Centre for Brain Health taking place earlier on Monday at 12:00pm titled “Mapping the effects of transcranial electrical stimulation on brain function using fMRI”. Hope to see you on Monday at 6:00pm!

No Meeting This Week!

Thank you to everyone who attended our 3rd Annual UBC Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference last week! UBC Neuroscience Club will be taking a one-week hiatus and we will thus NOT be holding a meeting this evening. Our regular meetings will be resuming next Monday, February 11th from 6-7pm at IKB 461. Stay tuned for more information about what’s happening next week!

January Update

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break! UBC Neuroscience Club is excited to kick off another year of exciting Journal Clubs, student seminars, and much more. Some important updates for the beginning of this year:

  • The 2019 UBC Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference will be taking place at the end of this month on Thursday, January 31st from 4-9pm at the Rudy North Lecture Theatre (basement of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health). If you aren’t already a member of UNC and have yet to buy your tickets to the Conference, please visit this website to get your early-bird tickets: https://www.showpass.com/2018-ubc-undergraduate-neuroscience-conference/?fbclid=IwAR1ixRwdjcviUVsoZoRFhbvDpUs0UgqT5-vsM2fDCgWDAl_a9hPsBHniDlk
  • For the next month, UNC will be focusing all of our efforts on the Conference, so we will not be having any Journal Clubs or student seminars this month. Our regular meetings will resume on Monday, February 11th 2019 from 6-7pm at IKB 461. If you would be interested in helping UNC plan for the Conference, you are welcome to join us every Monday this month from 6-8pm at IKB 461. 

Thank you for all of your support and we wish you all the best for this upcoming semester!

Student Seminar – Parity, APOE4, and Alzheimer’s Disease

Next Monday, November 19th from 5:30-6:30 we will be having a student seminar by our own VP Academic, Nicole Minielly! Here is a short intro to her presentation:

Come join us for a student run seminar discussing Alzheimer’s disease, led by fourth year Behavioural Neuroscience student, Nicole Minielly. We will begin this seminar with a general overview of Alzheimer’s pathology and prevalence. Following this, we will be discussing past research examining how pregnancy and genetic predispositions increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline. We will also review ongoing and past research examining this phenomenon in rodent models.

Student Seminar – Impaired Glutamate Signalling in the Excitotoxic Phenotype of Huntington’s Disease

Come join us for a student seminar led by Eden Dubchak discussing the involvement of impaired glutamate signalling in the excitotoxic phenotype of Huntington’s Disease. Huntington’s Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that produces cognitive, motor and psychiatric symptoms. Excitotoxicity, which is the damage or death of neurons caused by excessive overstimulation by an excitatory neurotransmitter, has been identified as a major pathway by which Huntington’s Disease induces neurodegeneration. The seminar will provide a brief overview of Huntington’s Disease, the evidence for excitoxicity as a pathogenic mechanism, the possible mechanisms behind impaired glutamate signaling, and how our understanding of the excitotoxic phenotype may still be incomplete.

Student Seminar – Infants From Families With Dogs Show Enhanced Communicative Development

We hope you’ve been having a great week! We are very excited to have our first student seminar next Monday October 29th from 5:30-6:30 in IKB 185. Our very own president, Mary Zhao, will be presenting on some her research involving babies and puppies- what could be better? Here is a short intro about what to look forward to:

Come join us for a student seminar led by Mary Zhao discussing the effects of early exposure to non-human vocalizations (specifically, dog barks) on language development in infants. Understanding social-communicative intent, by following a point or gaze, is a key early milestone in infants. It underlies later joint attention and is often a predictor of subsequent language development. It is currently unclear what boosts early point and gaze understanding, but preliminary research is showing that early exposure to pet dogs supports both. During the seminar, we will be taking a deeper look into how human coevolution with dogs may have changed the way the human brain processes language.

Staci Bilbo – Associations between maternal cytokine levels during gestation and measures of child cognitive abilities and executive functioning

Next Monday October 1 from 5:30-6:30 in IKB 185 is our first Journal Club of the year! Each Journal Club we will be analyzing an academic neuroscience paper as a group, and ensuring everyone understands the context. This week, we will be discussing a paper on the effects of cytokines released by the maternal and fetal immune system on fetal brain development. This is in preparation for the author, Dr. Staci D. Bilbo (from Harvard Medical School) to present at the Centre for Brain Health at UBC this Friday!