Dr. Doris A. Trauner has served as Interim Chair of the Department of Neurosciences as well as Chair of the Health Sciences Faculty Council, Vice-Chair of the Department of Neurosciences, and Chief of Pediatric Neurology at UCSD.
Widely recognized and respected for her academic leadership, Dr. Trauner has held a joint appointment in Neurosciences and Pediatrics since 1977. Her research emphasizes the cognitive consequences of conditions that alter brain development early in life. These include both structural and metabolic disorders affecting the developing brain. Her study subjects include children with neurodevelopment, genetic, and metabolic disorders.
Dr. Alysson Muotri has been the Chairman of the annual ATPF Neuroscience Conference since it launched in 2015. Dr. Muotri earned a BSc in Biological Sciences from the State University of Campinas in 1995 and a Ph.D. in Genetics in 2001 from the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil. He moved to the Salk Institute as Pew Latin America Fellow in 2002 for postdoctoral training in the fields of neuroscience and stem cell biology. He has been a Professor at the School of Medicine, University of California in San Diego since 2008.
His research focuses on modeling neurological diseases, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders, using human induced pluripotent stem cells. His lab has developed several techniques to culture human neurons and glia for basic research and drug-screening platforms. He has received several awards, including the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, NARSAD, Emerald Foundation Young Investigator Award, Surugadai Award from Tokyo University, Rock Star of Innovation from CONNECT, NIH EUREKA Award among others.