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9.1.2026. Congratulations to Dr. Cristina Velázquez-Marrero who was recently awarded a Catalyzer Grant from the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust (PRSTRT). Her project explores how a single episode of adolescent alcohol exposure affects fear extinction memory. Dr. Velázquez-Marrero is a professor and principal investigator at the Insitute of Neurobiology, and holds a joint faculty appointment at UMass Chan Medical School. Congratulations to the Velázquez-Marrero group! 

September 1, 2026. The Institute of Neurobiology family mourns the passing of Dr. Alberto Rivera Rentas. Dr. Rivera Rentas received his Ph.D. from the University of Puerto Rico in 1996. Under the supervision of Dr. Gladys Escalona at the Institute, his doctoral research examined the effects of neurotoxins on ion channels.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Andrew Seeds has received a Catalyzer Research Grant from the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust for the project "How somatotopic circuits generate spatially aimed grooming behavior". Congratulations, Dr. Seeds!

#Neuroscience #Drosophila #NeuralCircuits #Behavior #PuertoRicoScience #INB #UPRMSCseeds

Drs. Stefanie Hampel and Andrew Seeds of the Institute of Neurobiology will both be teaching at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory summer course on Drosophila Neurobiology! Alexa Negron, a student in the Seeds lab, will also be attending.

May 28, 2026. The COBRE Center for Neuroplasticity co-sponsored a seminar by Dr. Camille Rullán Buxó, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard University. The seminar was entitled: Uncertainty and the Brain: A Computational Approach.

May 27, 2026. The Institute of Neurobiology co-sponsored a seminar by COBRE Pilot Project awardee Dr. Keven Laboy. The seminar was entitled: Dissecting Neural Circuits of Effort-Based Decision-Making Through Naturalistic Running Behavior.

May 26, 2026. The COBRE Center for Neuroplasticity co-sponsored a seminar by COBRE Phase 2 Pilot Project awardee Dr. Stefanie Hampel. The seminar was entitled: From Touch to Action: Connectome-guided Circuit Mechanisms of Movement Selection and Repetitive Behavior.

December 19, 2025. We are proud to share that a Nature paper co-authored by INB researchers Drs. Stefanie Hampel and Andrew Seeds, in collaboration with Drs. Philip Shiu and Kristin Scott lab at UC Berkeley, was nominated for the Aspirational Neuroscience Award at this year’s Society for Neuroscience meeting.