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Background

The Fozdar Symposium for Undergraduate Neuroscience Research was founded in 2012 by Preeya Fozdar, a UVA Neuroscience Undergraduate Major (Class of 2012). Ms. Fozdar envisioned an opportunity for future 4th year Neuroscience majors to present their research at a symposium, which would also provide an opportunity to celebrate the end of the spring semester and everyone’s hard work. The Fozdar Neuroscience Symposium provides a unique opportunity for NESC majors to present their research to the greater neuroscience community and to receive prizes if selected. Presentations are judged on the overall quality of the presentation and scientific accomplishments.

Spring 2025 Fozdar Symposium

The Spring 2025 Fozdar Symposium was held on April 30th, in Chemistry Building 217 from 10:30am-4:30pm. The symposium started with talks from 3 PhD students: Heather Barber (Sarah Kucenas lab) Radial astroglia cooperate with microglia to clear neuronal cell bodies during zebrafish optic tectum development; Katherine Canada (Kevin Pelphrey lab) Functional Protein Clustering Predicts Differential Gene Expression in Autism; and Addison Webster (John Campbell lab) Unraveling the Neural Circuitry of Energy Balance with Molecular Connectomics

The symposium continued in the afternoon with 11 talks from Neuroscience Distinguished Majors (shown above).  We had 9 volunteer judges from the Program in Fundamental Neuroscience, Biology Department, Psychology Department, UVA Brain Institute, and the Neuroscience Graduate Program. We are proud to announce this year's Fozdar Symposium award winners!

Congratulations to our 2025 Award Winners

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1st Place: Sydney Holton
Characterizing the Morphology and Connectivity of Geniculate Relay Cell Dendrites and Synaptic Inputs in P14 Mice

2nd Place: Rachel Johnston
Development of a Tissue-Engineered Model of the Blood-Brain Barrier

3rd Place: Charlotte Burgess
Seeking Synthetic Lethal Treatment for Myc-driven Medulloblastoma

Symposium Schedule:

• 10:30am-12:00pm: We’ll start with three talks from some of our highly successful PhD students:

  • Heather Barber: Sarah Kucenas lab: Radial astroglia cooperate with microglia to clear neuronal cell bodies during zebrafish optic tectum development.

  • Katherine Canada: Kevin Pelphrey lab. Functional Protein Clustering Predicts Differential Gene Expression in Autism

  • Addison Webster: John Campbell lab: Unraveling the Neural Circuitry of Energy Balance with Molecular Connectomics

• 12:00pm-1:00pm: Catered Lunch (RSVP is now closed)

• 1:00pm-4:00pm Fozdar Symposium Talks, presented by undergraduate NESC DMP students

  • Gianna Latorre: Hungry & Stressed: Understanding Metabolic State Effects on Autonomic and Psychological Stress Responses in Humans

  • Faye Berry: Characterizing the Mesencephalic Locomotor Region: A Neural Hub Coordinating Breathing With Locomotion

  • Pritika Modhukuru: Cellular Garbage Pile-Up: Effects of Reduced Efferocytosis in Multiple Sclerosis

  • Rachel Johnston: Development of a Tissue-Engineered Model of the Blood-Brain Barrier

  • John Lee: Sarm1-Dependent Metabolic Reprogramming of Schwann Cells Following Nerve Injury

  • Campbell Coleman: Estimated Axonal Latency Predicts Differences in N170 Latency in Autistic and Neurotypical Cohorts

• 2:30-2:45 - 15 min break

  • Christopher Turner: Characterization of Cortico-Tectal Input Across Species: An Evolutionary Comparative Analysis

  • Charlotte Burgess: Seeking Synthetic Lethal Treatment for Myc-driven Medulloblastoma

  • Kate Meyer: Effect of Apoptotic Genes on Aberrant Glial Infiltration in Drosophila

  • Shrinidhi Kittur: Vasoactive intestinal peptide-expressing interneurons are impaired in SCN8A epileptic encephalopathy

  • Sydney Holton: Characterizing the Morphology and Connectivity of Geniculate Relay Cell Dendrites and Synaptic Inputs in P14 Mice

• ~4:15pm: Fozdar Symposium Award Presentations