Canadian Neuroscience Seminars – Post-doc series December 5, 2024: Josh Neudorf & Paige Whyte-Fagundes

Speaker: Josh Neudorf, Simon Fraser University
Title: Structural Brain Network Configurations Unique to Older Adults Help to Spare Cognitive Function

Josh Neudorf completed his B.Sc., Master’s, and PhD degrees under the supervision of Ron Borowsky at the University of Saskatchewan, studying cognitive and computational neuroscience. His Master’s thesis focused on the brain networks supporting language and semantic memory, while his PhD thesis focused on computational network neuroscience questions about how structural connectivity (measured with diffusion MRI) constrains and supports functional connectivity (measured with functional MRI), using graph theory, complexity, and deep learning methods in healthy young adults and patients with epilepsy. Josh held a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship and now holds a Canadian Neuroanalytics Scholars Program Postdoctoral Fellowship in Randy McIntosh’s lab at the Institute for Neuroscience & Neurotechnology, Simon Fraser University, investigating the structural and functional connectivity changes in older age that help to preserve cognitive ability, the unique functional network effects of acute sleep restriction on older adults, and the brain connectivity biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Speaker: Paige Whyte-Fagundes, University California San Francisco
Title: Nano-precision STXBP1-E therapy using preclinical zebrafish models and machine learning