The Neuroscience Meet Up is a casual, friendly monthly event facilitating interdisciplinary conversations between University of Missouri researchers at all levels. Join us for food, beverages and socializing. Please forward this invite to anyone interested: students, faculty or staff within your groups.

For questions about this event and to be added to the monthly calendar invite, please reach out to Smita Saxena at smitasaxena@health.missouri.edu.

Speaker Bio

The research program of Smita Saxena, PhD, is focused on mechanisms of neuronal vulnerability in the context of neurodegenerative diseases and aging. Employing state-of-the-art techniques, her lab examines fundamental principles ranging from circuits to molecular and cellular pathology that drive and propagate neuronal loss. Her lab is interested in identifying adaptive mechanisms, promoting resiliency of the nervous system during the presymptomatic phase and translating those mechanisms into potential therapy. Additionally, a major focus of her research involves the generation of human patient-derived neurons from skin fibroblasts, which in collaboration with the pharmaceutical/biotech industry are used as model systems to test future druggable compounds/repurposed drugs. Lastly, working with nanochemists and biomedical engineers, her lab has a keen interest in developing efficient brain targetable and prodrug approaches to enhance drug delivery to specialized brain regions.