Meeting Details
Date: Friday, May 30, 2025
Time: 12:00 – 6:00 pm
Location: Drexel University New College Building (NCB) 245 N 15th St Philadelphia, PA 19102 (entrance on 15th st.)
Keynote speaker: In lieu of a keynote speaker, we will be highlighting the research of new faculty members from Temple, Drexel, Jefferson and University of Pennsylvania. Presentation blurbs can be seen at the bottom of the page.
Meeting Format: The in-person meeting will include a poster session and new faculty flash talks. Prizes and Awards from the poster and trainee talks will be announced at the end of the symposium. Trainees of all levels are encouraged to submit an abstract. Refreshments will be served!
Schedule:
- 12:00 – 12:30: Registration and Poster Set-up
- 12:30 – 3:00: Poster Presentations in Dept of Pharmacology and Physiology (8th floor NCB)
- 3:00 – 3:15: Break
- 3:15 – 4:35: Talk Session 1 in Geary Auditorium B (NCB Hall)
- 4:35 – 4:45: Break
- 4:45 – 5:40: Talk Session 2 in Geary Auditorium B (NCB Hall)
- 5:45 – 6:00: Closing Remarks and Prize Announcements
Registration & Poster Submission
POSTER SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Monday, May 19, 2025 CLOSED
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Monday, May 26, 2025
Registration fees include a one-year membership to PCSFN. Registration will be handled via paypal. Once you submit the below form, you will be redirected to paypal where you can pay with your paypal account or a credit card.
Code of Conduct:
The attendees understand that the contents of oral and recorded presentations is solely for the use of this virtual meeting and should not be recorded or re-broadcast in any form. Much of the information presented may be unpublished results, please be mindful and respectful of our presenters. All attendees agree to not reproduce or distribute the presentations and content associated with the PCSfN meeting. PCSfN is dedicated to providing a safe, productive and discrimination-free symposium for all participants. PCSfN does not tolerate discrimination or any form of harassment. Any participant that does not follow these guidelines will be removed from the meeting and will not be allowed to participate.
Poster Guidelines:
Posters can be presented by undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, technicians, or faculty. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words. The dimensions are no greater than 36’’ tall x 48’’ wide.
Poster Judges
We invite postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and administrative staff who are not presenting to serve as poster judges. You will be notified with assignments one week in advance. You can sign up within the registration form.
The Eliot Stellar Poster Research Prize
The Eliot Stellar Poster Research Prizes for Neuroscience are in honor of Dr. Stellar’s contribution to the Philadelphia Neuroscience community. We will award a cash prize for best poster presentations by undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Entrants must be the first author of the presentation and may have only one entry in the competition. Entrants may present posters from the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience or from other recent meetings.
Fees:
Early-bird Registration and Membership (before May 26, 2025):
- Registration for Undergraduate or Graduate students: $20.00
- Registration for Postdocs or Technicians: $40.00
- Registration for Public, Administration, and Faculty: $75.00
Regular Registration (after May 26, 2025):
- Registration for Undergraduate or Graduate students: $25.00
- Registration for Postdocs or Technicians: $45.00
- Registration for Public, Administration, and Faculty: $80.00
Poster Submission:
- Poster Submission: +$15.00
Meeting Registration:
Following the submission of the below form, you will be re-directed to Paypal to process your payment. Following the transaction, you will receive 1) a confirmation email for registration AND 2) a receipt from paypal. Be sure to check your spam folder. Attention University of Pennsylvania members: Some have reported in the past that they did not receive paypal receipts via email properly. Using a non-UPENN email when you register will fix this. If you use a UPENN email to register and do not receive a receipt in your email, please contact our Service Team at neuro@pcsfn.org.
If you wish to register more than 10 people, contact ellen.walker@temple.edu for an invoice.
Poster Presenters:
You can find all the titles and presenters on our abstract page.
Speakers:
Brigid Jensen, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Thomas Jefferson University
A native of the Philadelphia area, Brigid attended the University of Pittsburgh where she graduated in 2009 with majors in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry and Neuroscience. Having been influenced by interactions with individuals diagnosed with neurodegenerative conditions including dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)/Lou Gehrig’s Disease early in her life, Brigid followed through on her interest to study this class of diseases for her graduate work. Brigid completed her PhD in Neuroscience in 2015 from the University of Pennsylvania, after studying how certain drugs used to treat HIV infection negatively impact cells of the brain, with a particular emphasis on how these compounds impact oligodendrocyte myelination processes. She then transitioned to Thomas Jefferson University as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Jefferson Weinberg ALS Center, where she has led several research projects investigating molecular mechanisms underlying ALS in both neuronal and glial cell populations. In January 2023 she was promoted to Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. She is also a devoted educator and has been teaching Biochemistry and Neuroscience courses for the Jefferson PostBaccalaureate PreProfessional Program (P4) and several graduate level lectures since 2019. Brigid’s laboratory studies the underpinnings of ALS, investigating cellular and molecular pathways leading to disease onset and progression in neurons and glial cell populations. Through biochemical, in vitro, and in vivo modeling techniques as well as patient-derived samples, her laboratory focuses on identifying and understanding key targets in disease, with the ultimate goal of furthering such candidate molecules for therapeutic intervention. A particular area of research interest in the lab are the non-cell autonomous features of disease, where glial cells including astrocytes, microglia, and myelinating cells contribute to neuronal demise.
Lauren Kreeger, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Otolayngology:Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania.
Lauren earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from The University of Texas at Austin and completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. In addition to her research, Lauren has received recognition for her contributions to public outreach and science education, including the Next Generation Award from the Society for Neuroscience. Her research explores the neural mechanisms of sound processing in the auditory brainstem, with a focus on how the brain encodes frequency modulations. The lab integrates electrophysiological recordings and anatomical circuit reconstructions to reveal how neurons specialized in decoding specific features of the auditory world contribute to our perception of sound.
Amanda Fakira, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
After earning her PhD in Neuroscience from UMDNJ/Rutgers University, Dr. Fakira completed her postdoctoral work at Columbia University Medical Center, working in the laboratory of Jose Moron-Concepcion, examining morphine-induced synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Subsequently, she joined Lakshmi Devi’s laboratory at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai studying the deorphanized receptor GPR83. At CMSRU, Dr. Fakira’s laboratory is studying the neurobiology of GPR83 in pain and reward pathways and performing pharmacological studies investigating the potential of GPR83 small molecule ligands as therapeutic targets. The laboratory is funded by Sinsheimer Foundation and NIDA R01 grants.
Ju Lu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University.
Dr. Lu received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in microelectronics from Tsinghua University in China, and Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University, during which he reconstructed the first mammalian neuromuscular connectome. He was trained as a postdoc at Stanford University, working on super-resolution microscopy and deep brain imaging. As a research scientist at University of California Santa Cruz, he leveraged diverse in vivo imaging techniques to study the structural and functional dynamism of neural circuits across spatiotemporal scales, from synapses and neuronal assemblies to the whole-cortex network. He seeks to understand how neural circuits are organized and modified in response to experiences, and to translate the knowledge into medical applications. His recent research focused on how psychedelics and their analogs modulate normal behavior and rescue stress-induced neural circuit and behavioral deficits.
Jennifer Kelschenbach, PhD
Research Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Drexel University
Dr. Kelschenbach’s past and ongoing research has extensively used the EcoHIV mouse model to uncover how substance use disorders and neuroimmune mechanisms drive neuroHIV pathology. She has studied how EcoHIV infection recruits immune cells to the central nervous system, how this process contributes to cognitive decline, and how targeting this migration pathway may be therapeutic. This work has better defined the relationship between blood brain barrier integrity and immune cell trafficking to the central nervous system, and how these factors are affected by HIV and further altered by comorbid opioid use. As a member of the Meucci lab, Dr. Kelschenbach is engaged in translational research to study how HIV infection and substance use disorders dysregulate neuronal structure, function, and network activity using a variety of animal and human-based neuroHIV models. Dr. Kelschenbach’s expertise in opioid use disorder and neuroimmune interactions synergize with the Meucci lab’s longstanding interests to uncover how opioids worsen cognitive decline in people living with HIV, and to identify novel neuroprotective approaches for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.
Jacqueline Giovanniello, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neural Sciences, Temple University
The Giovanniello Lab studies the neurobiological mechanisms of goal-directed actions and habit formation. We are particularly interested in how external factors, like chronic stress, can tip the balance between actions and habits in the brain.
Ames Sutton Hickey, PhD (she/her)
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University
Dr. Sutton Hickey’s research investigates the neural circuits underlying dysregulated feeding behaviors, including obesity and eating disorders, using tools like optogenetics, chemogenetics, fiber photometry, and open-source behavioral devices. She has identified key roles for hypothalamic and amygdalar circuits in energy balance and how food deprivation alters reward processing. Her current work, supported by NIMH and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, focuses on the neural mechanisms of activity-based anorexia and the effects of different high-fat diets on behavior and metabolism.
Technical Support:
Please direct any questions to our Technical Support Team at neuro@pcsfn.org. We will be monitoring this email account semi-regularly leading up to the event, but actively monitoring it during the event.