News
Feb 2025
- The journal Biological Psychiatry published a commentary on Nazim’s latest paper (Editor’s choice)
Jan 2025
- Irma is awarded UCLA’s Marion Bowen Neurobiology Postdoctoral Scholar Grant
Aug 2024
- Jaylin receives the Edith & Lew Wasserman URC-Sciences Scholarship
- Zoe's and Anand's paper on adaptation appears in Current Biology
Jul 2024
- Madison Dietz, a visiting undergrad from Duke University, joins our lab for the summer
- Michelle’s F30 NRSA application received a score of 15 on the first round
Jun 2024
- Nazim's paper on bumetanide appears in Biological Psychiatry
May 2024
- Michelle and Nazim's review on network transitions during development appears in Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
- We welcome to the lab a new UCLA undergrad volunteer, Akash Khotari.
- Photo taken at the Gordon Research Conference on Fragile X Syndrome and Related Autism Disorders in Tuscany, Italy: Carlos with Gavin Rumbaugh, Anis Contractor, Eric Klann, and Pablo Castillo.
- Irma presented at the Neurobiology departmental retreat
- Carlos received an award from the Fundación Querer in Madrid, Spain.
Apr 2024
- Trish successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis entitled “Neural circuits underlying social touch deficits in mouse models of autism"
- Carlos and Alex Huk organized a symposium to celebrate the career of Prof. Joaquin Fuster
- Carlos Sánchez won ‘best poster’ prize for the Neurology Department Science Day poster competition (post-doc category)
Jan 2024
- Zoë successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis entitled “Population dynamics of sensory adaptation in cortical circuits"
- Nazim received the Arnold Scheibel Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuroscience Award from the Brain Research Institute at UCLA, presented by BRI Director Felix Schweizer. Nazim gave a lecture entitled “Sensory circuit differences during early postnatal development in Fragile X mice.”
Oct 2023
Trish receives the Eva Kavan Prize from UCLA’s Brain Research Institute
Sep 2023
- Spectrum News did a piece on Trish's paper about social touch
- Nazim receives the UCLA’s 2023 Brain Research Institute Scheibel Postdoctoral Lecture Award
- Zoë, Anand, and Nazim receive travel awards from UCLA’s Brain Research Institute to attend the 2023 Society for Neuroscience meeting
- Trish’s paper on a new social touch assay for mice is accepted to the Journal of Neuroscience
- The lab welcomes a new undergrad research volunteer: David Song
- The lab welcomes a new undergrad research volunteer: Lauren Wall
Aug 2023
Nazim’s paper on MGE interneuron development appears in Neuron
May 2023
- Michelle attends the Neural Data Science course at Cold Spring Harbor
- Carlos was awarded the Neurology Department’s 2023 Golden Test Tube Award for mentorship in the lab.
- Nazim was awarded a prize for his poster presentation at the Neurology Science Day. Ashley and Sunny also presented posters in the undergraduate category.
Apr 2023
- The lab welcomes a new undergrad research volunteer: Jaylin Hsu
Dec 2022
- Congratulations to Sunny Mula, who was awarded the Bennett & Jeanette Duval Undergraduate Scholarship to conduct research in the lab.
Nov 2022
- During SfN '22 in San Diego there was a reunion of current and former post-docs.
- Carlos presented at a mini-symposium at SfN '22 in San Diego.
- Dinner for the current members of the Zeiger and Portera-Cailliau Labs at SfN '22 in San Diego.
Oct 2022
- The lab welcomes Dr. Carlos Sánchez-León, a new post-doc.
Sep 2022
- The lab welcomes Michelle Wu, a new graduate student from the UCLA-Caltech MSTP.
- Carlos and Will’s review on “Two-Photon Calcium Imaging of Neuronal Activity” appears in Nature Reviews Methods Primers.
Aug 2022
- Trish and Nazim were each awarded a BRI/Semel Institute Travel Award to attend the 2022 SfN meeting in San Diego. Congrats!
- Zoe attends the Workshop on the Dynamic Brain at the Allen Institute (8/21-9/4)
Jul 2022
- Spectrum news does a piece on Nazim’s preprint about interneurons in Fragile X.
- Trish receives a F31 NRSA from NICHD ("Cortico-amygdala circuit dysfunction underlying avoidance behaviors and aversive facial expressions to social touch in mouse models of autism").
- Carlos presents at the FENS meeting in Paris as part of the Symposium entitled “The emergence of function in developing cortical circuits” organized by Oscar Marín.
Jun 2022
- Undergraduate student Sunny Mula was awarded the prestigious Whitcome Fellowship for Summer 2022 to conduct research in our lab.
Jan 2022
- Carlos gives his first research seminar in Spanish.
Dec 2021
- Our review on Cortical Interneurons in Autism came out in Nature Neuroscience.
Nov 2021
- Our new R01 on interneuron development received a score of 17 (3rd percentile). It's a collaboration with Anis Contractor at Northwestern.
Sep 2021
- Trish attended the Dynamic Brain Summer Course at the Allen Institute (Aug 21-Sept 5)
Jul 2021
- Undergraduate student David Chung participates in the prestigious Amgen Scholars research program.
Jun 2021
- Will Zeiger's paper on stroke plasticity comes out in Nature Communications. UCLA Health does a piece on it.
Feb 2021
- Congratulations to David Chung, who was featured on the UCLA Undergraduate Research Center STEM Spotlight for his recent presentation at the Harvard National Collegiate Research Conference.
Nov 2020
- Congratulations to Anne Tran, who presented her poster at the 2020 ABRCMS meeting and she received an award for Best Poster in the Neuroscience category.
- Carlos co-organized the Interneuron Dysfunction in Autism meeting, together with Anis Contractor (Northwestern Univ.) and Iryna Ethell (UC Riverside)
Oct 2020
- Trish was awarded a pre-doctoral slot on the new NeuroTechnology T32 at UCLA, was also a recipient of the 2020-2021 ARCS Fellowship (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists)
Sep 2020
- Nazim, Anand, Trish and Zoë participate in the 2020 FRAXA Biotech Games. The team placed 11th (out of 39 teams)! Special thanks to Ben Liu from the Buonomano lab for helping out!
Aug 2020
- Zoë Dobler joins the lab as a Neuroscience IDP graduate student.
Jul 2020
- Will Zeiger starts his own lab as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at UCLA.
Jun 2020
- Carlos receives the 2020 UCLA Undergraduate Research Mentor Award.
May 2020
- The lab published two new papers; one is on the EZcalcium toolbox for analyzing calcium imaging data and the other is a collaboration with Bahram Jalali’s lab at UCLA.
- Caliope is awarded the UCLA Dean’s Prize at Research Poster Day 2020.
Apr 2020
- This coming fall 2020, former lab undergrad Cindy Chen will be starting the PhD program in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, while current lab undergrad Brandon Nanfito will be starting in the Neuroscience PhD program at Johns Hopkins. We are so proud of them!
Sep 2019
- Brandon Nanfito receives the 2019 Lawrence Kugler undergraduate Research Scholarship for the work he did this past summer in the lab.
- Also in the photo below is Felix Schweizer, Interim Director of UCLA's Brain Research Institute.
Jul 2019
- Anu Goel starts as Assistant Professor of Psychology at UC Riverside
- Trishala Chari joins the lab as a Neuroscience IDP graduate student
Jun 2019
- Four of the lab’s undergraduate students graduated this year from UCLA (June 2019). Couldn’t be prouder of this bunch. Gunvant Chaudhari and Michael Le will attend medical school at UCSF and UCLA, respectively. I have no doubt they will continue to be involved in research in the future. Cindy Chen will be taking a year off to work in the laboratory of Carolyn Houser at UCLA while she applies to PhD programs in Neuroscience. I have no doubt Cindy will make exciting and impactful discoveries in her PhD. Barbara Todisco is applying for various positions as she ponders whether to apply to medical school or pursue a different career that suits her many talents. Either way, she is going to make a difference in the world, no doubt about that.
May 2019
- Gunvant is awarded the UCLA Dean’s Prize at Research Poster Day 2019
- Michael Le will go to UCLA for med-school in the Fall
- Gunvant Chaudhari will go to UCSF for med-school in the Fall
Apr 2019
- Nazim received a fellowship grant from FRAXA
- Chloe Dupuis joins the lab for a 6-month internship as part of her Masters in Nanoscale Engineering at the University Lyon, France
- Three UCLA undergrads, Natalie Noble, Isa Samad, and David Chung, join the lab
Feb 2019
- Anu's preview of Dan Feldman’s paper on E/I balance in autism models comes out in Neuron
Jan 2019
- Erica’s paper on environmental enrichment comes out in The Journal of Neuroscience
Nov 2018
- SPECTRUM, the online magazine of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, does a piece on Anu’s paper
Oct 2018
- Two UCLA undergraduate students, Sandhya Murugan and Brandon Nanfito, join the lab
Sep 2018
- Anu’s paper on deficits in visual discrimination in Fragile X syndrome comes out in Nature Neuroscience. It gets a bit of press.
Jul 2018
- Cynthia's and Erica's methods paper on viral transduction of GCaMPs in the neonatal brain appears online.
Jun 2018
- Carlos attended the Gordon Conference for Fragile X and Related Autism Disorders in Lucca, Italy.
May 2018
- Erica Arroyo successfully defends her thesis.
Apr 2018
- Aditi presented her research at the Posters on The Hill event in Washington DC on April 18th, 2018. She was the first UCLA undergrad to participate in this event in the last 6 years (April 2018)
Feb 2018
- Will Zeiger receives the 2018 AAN Young Investigator Scholarship from the American Academy of Neurology to present his research on stroke at the Annual AAN Meeting on April 21, 2018
- Aditi Newadkar was selected to participate in the 22nd Annual Posters on the Hill event in Washington, D.C., on April 17-28, 2018. She is the first UCLA undergrad to do so since 2011
Jan 2018
Congratulations to Anu, who had her baby boy, Taig!
Oct 2017
- Anu gave the Arnold Scheibel Distinguished Postdoctoral Lecture at UCLA
- Anu Goel receives the STAT Wunderkind Award
Sep 2017
- Anouk Heuvelmans joins the lab for 9 months as part of her Masters thesis for the University of Amsterdam
Jun 2017
- Anu attended the Gordon Research Conference on Excitatory Synapses and Brain Functionin Les Diablerets, Switzerland
May 2017
- Lab awarded a 3-year Partnering-PI grant from the Department of Defense (DOD) for a collaboration with Dr. Anis Contractor at Northwestern
Apr 2017
- Satvir receives 1st prize for best poster in the undergrad student category at the UCLA Neurology Science Day
- Congratulations on Cynthia's successful PhD thesis defense on April 14, 2017!
Feb 2017
- Aditi was chosen to participate in the prestigious 2017 summer research program at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in Carl Petersen's lab
- Gunvant was chosen as one of the five UCLA undergraduates to take part in the Summer 2017 UCLA Amgen Scholars Program
Dec 2016
- Two undergraduates, Michael Le and Barbara Todisco join the lab
- Two undergraduates, Michael Le and Barbara Todisco join the lab
Apr 2016
- Steve Cohen is accepted to prestigious Janelia Undergraduate Scholars Program for the 2016 Summer to work with Dr. Adam Hantman
- Anu was the recipient of a FENS, IBRO-PERC and The Brain Prize stipend to attend theNew Approaches to Imaging Neurons and Neural Circuits Brain Conference in Copenhagen (April 17-20, 2016)
Mar 2016
- Two undergraduates, Sheyda Mesgarzadeh and Aditi Newadkar, join the lab
- Cynthia and Will receive 1st prize for best poster in the grad student and post-doc category at the UCLA Neurology Science Day
Nov 2015
- Steve Cohen was one of the five selected UCLA undergraduate students to participate in the Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Program for 2014-2017
- Cynthia presented her work, Emerging Tools for Acquisition and Interpretation of Whole-Brain Functional Data, at the Janelia Farm Conference that took place on November 1-4, 2015.
Oct 2015
- Three UCLA undergraduate students joined the lab: Satvir Saggi, Mona Chatrizeh, and Steve Hernandez
Jun 2015
- Cynthia was awarded a F30 individual NRSA from the NINDS
May 2015
- Grant Higerd receives Dean's Prize at UCLA's Science Poster Day
- Erica was selected to attend the "Advanced Techniques in Molecular Neuroscience" course at CSHL.
- Cynthia was selected to attend the workshop on Autism Spectrum Disorders at CSHL.
Apr 2015
- The lab receives a $120,000 grant from the Cal-Brain Seed Grant Program.
- Amaya’s paper on Layer 4 pyramidal neurons got accepted to The Journal of Neuroscience
Mar 2015
- Grant Higerd won 1st place for his poster during neurology and neurobiology science day
- Also, Carlos won the Golden Test Tube award for his excellence as a teacher and mentor!
Dec 2014
- The team has a holiday lunch in Westwood.
Carlos attended the SFARI Circuit Dynamics Workshop.
Aug 2014
- Amaya received Charles E. Sawyer travel award to present at 'Dendrites 2014' at FORTH in Crete, Greece
- Grant Higerd (undergrad in the lab) was named Aademic All-American by the American Collegiate Rowing Association, and was a finalist (one of only 3!) for the 2014 UCLA Club Sports Varsity Athlete of the Year. We are very proud.
May 2014
- Sahana Kribakaran (undergrad in the lab) was awarded a Dean’s Prize at UCLA's Science Poster Day on May 13 2014.
Mar 2014
- Carlos attends the Cosyne Symposium "Rogue States: Altered dynamics of neural circuit activity in brain disorders" organized by Cian O'Donell and Terry Sejnowsky at Snowbird Utah. We snapped this photo: Terry, Carlos, Karl, Ofer, Cian, and Tim
Feb 2014
- Lab receives new funding: a SFARI grant with Peyman Golshani as co-investigator (start date: February 2014) and a Department of Defense grant with my Anis Contractor at Northwestern as PI (start date: summer 2014). Both are to study circuit defects in Fragile X Syndrome.
Jan 2014
- Amaya had her baby boy Julen on January 5 2014.
Nov 2013
- Portera Lab reunion at SfN in San Diego: Carlos, Peyman, Tiago, Alberto, Ricardo (and Amaya) - Jessica, Mate, Erica, Tara
Oct 2013
- The Dana Foundation posted an interview with Carlos.
- Carlos was the MC of the UCLA Falling Walls Competition (October 3, 2013)
Jun 2013
- Dr. Mate Marosi, a new post-doc, started in the lab
- The proposal for the renewal of our R01 on fragile X research gets a score of 20 (6th percentile)
- Tiago's paper appears in Nature Neuroscience (June 2013).
- Read the LA Times article on it.
- Claire Huang, a student at Diamond Bar High School, joins the lab for the summer (June 2013). (She is third from the left in the photo below.)
Mar 2013
- Cynthia was awarded a Soros Fellowship for the Class of 2013.
Feb 2013
- Ricardo's paper on Aging synapses appeared today in J Neurosci (Feb 27 2013)
- Our R21 proposal on Cajal-Retzius neurons (NIMH) and the stroke R01 (NINDS) will both be funded starting April 2013
- Amaya was awarded 2 prizes at The Course in Molecular Anatomy at OIST (including 'Best Individual and Best Group Project'), Okinawa Japan. (See the photo below.)
Jan 2013
- Tiago's work on fragile X mice is featured on the SFARI website.
- Ricardo's paper on long-term imaging of synaptic changes associated with normal aging is accepted at The Journal of Neuroscience
Dec 2012
- Adrian Cheng was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 as a Rising Star in Science & Health Care for his work on developing STEM in the lab. Congratulations to him!
- Cynthia He (MSTP student) will join the lab in Summer 2013
Oct 2012
- Our R01 proposal on stroke gets score of 10 - in the 2nd percentile
Sep 2012
- Undergraduate student Sahana Kribakaran joins the lab
Jul 2012
- Amaya Miquelajauregui is awarded a grant from NARSAD
- Joyce Wondolowski finishes a brief research stint in the lab and starts a post-doc at the University of Southern California
- Erica Arroyo is awarded a T32 pre-doctoral fellowship from the Neurobehavioral Genetics Training Grant
Jun 2012
- Lauren Wierenga joins the lab for the summer as an AMGEN Scholar. Lauren is an undergraduate student from Kalamazooo College, MI
- Daniel Cantu joins the lab for his PhD thesis
- Erica Arroyo joins the lab for her PhD thesis
May 2012
- Daniel Cantu from ACCESS starts a rotation in the lab
- Cynthia He's review on "The trouble with spines in fragile X syndrome" appears in Neuroscience
Apr 2012
- David Johnston's paper is accepted in Cerebral Cortex
Mar 2012
- David Johnston defends his thesis
- Carlos is promoted to Associate Professor effective July 1 2012
Jan 2012
- Erica Arroyo from ACCESS starts a rotation in the lab
- Alberto Cruz' paper on spines in slices is published in PLoS One