The Canadian Association for Neuroscience is proud to announce Dr. Mark Cembrowski will be awarded the 2025 Canadian Association of Neuroscience (CAN) New Investigator Award. Dr. Cembrowski has established himself as an outstanding scientist, collaborator, and mentor, conducting leading-edge research on the cellular and molecular underpinnings of cognition and brain disorders, particularly in memory.
As a neuroscientist with formal PhD training in Applied Mathematics, Mark Cembrowski has developed a pioneering research program investigating memory and cognition across molecular, cellular, circuit, and behavioural scales. He applies multidisciplinary approaches drawing from experimental neuroscience, mathematics, and engineering to identify cell types in the brain and their role in normal brain function and disorder. Through this approach, he has made critical advances showing that specific brain cell types govern distinct aspects of learning, memory, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Cembrowski’s combined mathematical and experimental background have made him a field leader in transcriptomics, which requires challenging experimental techniques in combination with “big data” machine-learning analysis and statistics. At UBC, he has both developed and applied a variety of methodologies in this area to reveal new organizational principles in the brain. His research is also notable for extending this transcriptomics-derived cell-type framework to functionally investigate and manipulate cell types in the brain. One key exemplar of the power and insight of his approach is his discovery of “ovoid neurons” (Nature Communications, 2025): atypical hippocampal excitatory neurons that are essential for non-spatial memory but dispensable in spatial memory.
Impressively, Mark Cembrowski has also developed wholly new research programs in human brain tissue since he started at UBC. This includes building nationally unique collaborations with local neurosurgeons and neuropathologists to obtain and use living human brain tissue from patients undergoing epilepsy or brain tumor surgery. This living tissue work is opening new avenues for understanding the cellular-molecular operation of the living human brain in multiple clinical conditions and identifying and directly testing new drug interventions. Ultimately, his multispecies approach to investigation of the mechanisms of cognition and brain disorders enhances the potential for further breakthroughs in both basic and applied neuroscience.
Relative to career stage, [Mark Cembrowski] is likely the most prolific mentor UBC neuroscience has ever had. As a Principal Investigator, Mark has fostered a richly interdisciplinary lab environment and has mentored 42 trainees from multiple disciplines including neuroscience, physics, math, and engineering. Mark is an incredibly engaged mentor known for his positive lab culture and care for trainee well-being.(..) twice-recognized by the UBC Dean of Science for “having some of the highest student evaluations in the Faculty of Science”.
Drs. Lynn Raymond and Shernaz Bamji, Co-directors of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Dr. Cembrowski’s research excellence has been recognized by local, national, and global organizations, including the UBC Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Foundational Science Research, the Azrieli Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research from Brain Canada, the New Investigator Award from the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada and Brain Canada, he was named an Allen Institute Next Generation Leader and has received a Krieg Cortical Explorer award from the Cajal Club. He has also been highly successful in acquiring research funding, including highly competitive New Frontiers in Research Fund Exploration grants; NSERC Discovery grants; CIHR project grants; and a recently awarded Brain Canada Future Leader of Canadian Brain Research Momentum grant, among others.
The quality and impact of Mark Cembrowski’s research is also evident in the numerous invitations he has received to present his findings. Since 2019, he has been invited to present 47 invited talks at prominent institutions including the NIH, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, HHMI Janelia Research Campus, the Allen Institute, and The Jackson Laboratory. His research has also received public attention, with interviews featured in the National Post, Globe and Mail, Nature Methods, and Science.
Mark has made significant contributions to the broader neuroscience community. Notably, he has demonstrated a commitment to open science through the creation and maintenance of maintain web portals (e.g., hipposeq.janelia.org, and scrnaseq.janelia.org) that provide open-access datasets, as well as analysis and visualization tools. The impact of these efforts is underscored by the widespread use of these resources: in the 7 years since first launched, the websites have been visited by over 8,000 unique users from more than 80 countries and help address systemic barriers to access to technology and data.
Beyond his lab, Mark Cembrowski advances EDI initiatives through leadership roles. This includes his advisory board position at the Allen Institute, where he helped implement EDI principles in their Next Generation Leader program, as well as his role as Associate Director of the UBC Graduate Program in Neuroscience, where he developed and implemented a variety of new EDI-centric policies around admissions, awards, student wellness, and decision making.
Mark Cembrowski has distinguished himself as a leader in his field and is a highly valued and active contributor to the scientific community.
We are very proud to present him with the 2025 CAN New Investigator Award.
Five most significant scientific publications
Kinman, A.I., Merryweather, D.N., Erwin, S.R., Campbell, R.E, Sullivan, K.E., Kraus, L.,Kapustina, M, Bristow, B.N., Zhang, M.Y. , Elder, M.W., Wood, S.C., Tarik, A.A., Kim, E.,Daniels, W., Anwer, M., Guo, C., Cembrowski, M.S. Atypical hippocampal excitatory neurons express and govern object memory. Nat Commun 16, 1195 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56260-8
Sullivan, K.E., Kraus, L., Kapustina, M., Wang, L., Stach, T., Lemire, A.L., Clements, J., Cembrowski, M.S. Sharp cell-type-identity changes differentiate the retrosplenial cortex from the neocortex. Cell Reports, 6;42(3): 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112206
Erwin, S.R., Sun, W., Copeland, M., Lindo, S., Spruston, N., Cembrowski, M.S. A sparse, spatially biased subtype of mature granule cell is preferentially recruited in hippocampal associated behaviors. Cell Reports, 31(4):1-12, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107551
Cembrowski, M.S., Phillips, M.G., DiLisio, S.F., Shields, B.C., Winnubst, J., Chandrashekar, J., Bas, E., Spruston, N. Dissociable structural and functional hippocampal outputs via distinct subiculum cell classes. Cell 173(5): 1280–1292, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.07.039
Cembrowski, M.S., Bachman, J.L., Wang, L., Sugino, K., Shields, B.C., Spruston, N.§ Spatial gene-expression gradients underlie prominent heterogeneity of CA1 pyramidal neurons. Neuron 89(2): 351-368, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.12.013
