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.

Due to inclement weather, the January event has been cancelled.

Speaker Bio

Dennis Perez-Lopez is a PhD candidate in the Molecular Pathogenesis and Therapeutics program at the MU School of Medicine, under the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology department.

Perez-Lopez has always been passionate about serving his community – in high school, he tutored multiple kids, and volunteered to help children with special needs. When he chose to pursue science and medicine, he realized early in his college career that there were still ways he could serve.

“When I was in undergrad, a neighbor was born with a genetic disease called deficiency of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist,” Perez-Lopez said. “Their family contacted me to learn or understand more about the disease because they didn't have a science background. I was just the closest scientist that they had.”

This sparked his interest in genetic diseases and everything related to molecular microbiology and immunology, including virology and gene therapy. He currently works in the Chris and Monique Lorson Lab studying Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) type 2E, a genetic disease that affects the peripheral nerves in the nervous system. Perez-Lopez also currently serves as an ambassador for the CMT Research Foundation and mentors several graduate and undergraduate students in his lab.