Canadian Neuroscience Seminars – Post-doc series May 1: Ghazaleh Eskandari-Sedighi & Alban Voppel

Speaker #1 Ghazaleh Eskandari-Sedighi, University of California Irvine

Unlocking the Secrets of Microglia in Neurodegenerative diseases: Mechanisms of resilience to AD pathologies

Ghazaleh Eskandari-Sedighi, Ph.D., is a biochemist with a strong background in the study of protein misfolding disorders affecting the nervous system. Her research is broadly centered on the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration, with a particular emphasis on how misfolded protein assemblies—such as prions, tau, and amyloid—contribute to disease progression. During her early postdoctoral training, she extensively utilized animal models, including transgenic mouse models of prion diseases, tauopathies, and amyloidosis, to investigate the molecular and cellular underpinnings of these disorders. Over time, her scientific interests evolved to incorporate neuroimmunology, with a specific focus on how pathological protein aggregates influence neuroimmune responses. Currently, Dr. Eskandari-Sedighi is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine, where she studies the role of human microglia in neurodegenerative disease. Her work leverages cutting-edge technologies, including human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived microglia and chimeric mouse models, to better understand the interplay between innate immune responses and disease pathogenesis in the brain, with the goal to decipher the protective microglial responses contributing to resilience in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. X: @GhazalehEsk Bluesky: @ghazeskandari.bsky.social LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ghazaleh-eskandari-sedighi-ab475a90

Speaker #2 Alban Elias Voppel McGill University

Simulating Thought Disorder: Fine-Tuning Llama-2 for Synthetic Speech in Schizophrenia

I earned a BA and MA in philosophy in the Netherlands before completing an MSc in neuroscience, where I picked up coding and neuroimaging skills. I then took a PhD in psychiatry (research) with Prof. Sommer in Groningen, developing NLP approaches to clinical questions in schizophrenia. After finishing the phd and a year‑long postdoc in the same lab, I moved to Montreal and am now a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health (Douglas Institute, McGill university) under Prof. Palaniyappan. My work applies NLP to patients’ speech—tracking and predicting relapse, diagnostic categories, gauging symptom severity, evaluating treatment response, and mapping neural correlates—with the goal of making language a practical biomarker in psychiatric care.

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Webinar registration link

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/3217374850132/WN_vfJEzQtHQv-5xG8V6Lx0mQ