Faculty member is one of 18 Packard Fellows for 2018

Weizhe Hong, an assistant professor of biological chemistry and neurobiology at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is one of 18 outstanding young scientists to be awarded the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering for 2018.    Hong ’s laboratory seeks to understand how animals, including humans, exhibit a broad range of complex social interaction that are crucial to their survival and well-being. Hong and colleagues use optogenetics, imaging, genomics and machine learning to study how networks of neurons in the brain control social behaviors and how those networks become disturbed in disorders such as autism spectrum disorder.Packard fellowships, which are presented by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, enable the nation ’s most promising early-career professors to pursue science and engineering research with few funding restrictions and limited reporting requirements.“By providing the freedom for brilliant young scholars to pursue new frontiers in science, this prestigious award will allow Weizhe Hong to further explore and expand our understanding of how the brain works,” said Dr. Kelsey Martin, dean of the Geffen School of Medicine. “This type of scienti fic exploration can eventually lead to the development of new treatments for a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders.”The fellowships, which were established in 1988, are among the nation ’s largest non-governmental fellowships. Nominees are put forward by 50 university pre...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news