ECR in Neuroscience Seminar Series: Meike van der Heijden

April’s Early Career Research in Neuroscience Seminar Series on Thursday, April 18 on Zoom will feature a presentation by Dr. Meike van der Heijden.

Meike van der Heijden, an assistant professor from the School of Neuroscience at Virginia Tech, will talk about her work researching the development of cerebellar function in health and disease, specifically examining the cellular and physiological origins of cerebellar-dependent motor and non-motor behaviors. (Van der Heijden et al, eLife, 2023). She uses regional genetic manipulations and in vivo electrophysiology to explore which cell types contribute to the development of different cerebellum-dependent behaviors, in order to examine the contribution of circuit dysfunction in disease states. This work has exciting implications for exploring how the healthy cerebellum contributes to the postnatal development of behaviors so that we can predict, prevent and reverse neurodevelopmental disabilities caused by abnormal cerebellar development.

Title: “Cerebellar control of diverse motor and non-motor behaviors.”