The University of New Mexico (UNM) has announced that Mubarak Hussain Syed, head of the Syed Neural Diversity Lab and assistant professor of Biology, is a recipient of the 2023 Young Investigator grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. Each awardee is expected to receive up to $70,000.
Syed and his team are engaged in research that explores the genetic and molecular mechanisms governing neural diversity, ranging from stem cells to neural circuits. According to a press release by UNM, their findings aim to reveal crucial principles in the development of the nervous system. This could potentially have implications for understanding and addressing neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, ADHD, and autism.
"The grant support will help us better understand the genetic and developmental principles of brain development," said Syed. "In particular, [we aim] to investigate how steroid hormone ecdysone regulates the development of sleep-wake circuits in fruit flies. Many neurodevelopmental disorders have comorbid sleep defects, and investigating the developmental mechanism of sleep circuit development might also provide insights into understanding and treating sleep disorders."
In a subsequent statement provided by UNM's press release, Syed explained further: "We investigate the development of neural circuits and behaviors with the aim of unraveling the fundamental principles of brain development, which will eventually help us understand and treat brain disorders. To fix a machine, we need first to understand its individual components and how these components are put together to make a functional machine. We are doing this in our research program using tiny fruit fly brains."
According to information provided by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation on their Young Investigator Grants webpage, the objective of this program is to assist scientists in initiating careers in neuroscience and psychiatry. It facilitates collecting pilot data for subsequent applications for substantial federal and university grants.
