The NIH has over 180 laboratories spanning 14 Institutes, all conducting research in the basic, translational, and clinical neurosciences. Many of these laboratories and facilities are clustered together on the collegiate NIH campus in Bethesda; over 80 can be found in the The John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center alone. On this page are investigators throughout the NIH listed by neuroscience-research areas. Expand the research areas and click on the investigator names to learn more or click to see an alphabetical listing of neuroscience investigators.
This vibrant, highly collaborative, interactive, and multidisciplinary environment offers researchers:
- Access to state-of-the-art core research facilities.
- Opportunities for trainees and researchers at every level, including pre- and postdoctoral research and clinical training programs.
- Scientific retreats; grant-writing and career development workshops.
- Dozens of topical seminars and events, as well as Special Interest Groups.
To learn more about training opportunities in neuroscience at NIH, please reach out directly to investigators. You can also visit the NIH Office of Training and Education for more information about NIH training programs in general and search current Postdoctoral Opportunities in Neuroscience.
Explore webpages for NIH Institutes currently conducting neuroscience research to learn about their individual programs: NCCIH • NEI • NHGRI • NIA • NIAAA • NIAID • NICHD • NIDA • NIDCD • NIDCR • NIDDK • NIEHS • NIMH • NINDS.
Investigators by Research Areas
Ion Channels, Transporters and Neurotransmitter Receptors
Cell Biology of Neurons, Muscle and Glia
Neurogenetics
Integrative Neuroscience
Neurological Disorders
Behavioral Neuroscience
Synapses and Circuits
Neural Development and Plasticity
Functional and Molecular Imaging
Neuroimmunology and Virology
| Investigators | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bibiana Bielekova | Desmond Brown | Irene Cortese |
| Elizabeta Gjoneska | Brandon Harvey | Robert B. Innis |
| Steven Jacobson | Dorian McGavern | Avindra Nath |
| Daniel S. Reich | ||
Neuroendocrinology
Clinical Neuroscience
The Neuroscience Seminar Series
Sponsored by the NINDS, NIMH, NIA, NIDCD, NIDA, NIEHS, NICHD, NEI, NIAAA, NIDCR, NHGRI, and NCCIH, the NIH Neuroscience Seminar Series features lectures and discussions with leading neuroscientists. The series offers seminars on aspects of molecular, cellular, developmental and cognitive neuroscience, as well as neuroscience related topics in disease, pain, and genetics. The series is additionally supported with coffee networking sessions and a Fellows' luncheon by the NIH Neuroscience Scientific Directors, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences.
Unless otherwise noted on the schedule, seminars are in-person taking place most Mondays from September through June, from Noon to 1:00 pm, and are held on the Bethesda campus in the Porter Neuroscience Bldg. (Bldg. 35A), Room 620/630. If you have questions, or need reasonable accommodations, please contact the NINDS Office of Scientific Director. Many thanks to the planning committee, led by Dr. Alex Chesler of NCCIH, for organizing the seminar series and supporting the neuroscience community.
Seminar Line-up for September to December
| Seminar Date | Title and Speaker | Host |
|---|---|---|
| 09/08/2025 Noon - 1pm | A Central Pattern Generator Circuit for Walking in Drosophila John Tuthill, Ph.D. Assoc. Professor Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics University of Washington | Sam Asinof, Ph.D., NIMH |
| 09/29/2025 Noon - 1pm | Mechanisms Regulating Fate and Maturation of Forebrain Interneurons Timothy J. Petros, Ph.D. Section on Cellular and Molecular Neurodevelopment, NICHD | n/a |
| 10/06/2025 Noon - 1pm | Imaging Neuronal Activity in vivo at high Spatiotemporal Resolution Na Ji, Ph.D. Professor University of California, Berkeley | Kevin Liu, Ph.D., NIDCR |
| 11/03/2025 Noon - 1pm | Neural Control of Foraging and Food Intake: From Circuits to Behavior Nilay Yapici, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator Co-Director of Cornell Neurotech Cornell University | Michael J. Krashes, Ph.D., NIDDK |
| 11/10/2025 Noon - 1pm | Post-transcriptional Mechanisms of Neuronal Development and Function Giordano Lippi , Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Neuroscience Scripps Research | Alex Chesler, Ph.D., NCCIH |
| 11/24/2025 Noon - 1pm | Why Don’t Oligodendrocytes Myelinate Neuronal Soma? Sarah Kucenas, Ph.D. Professor, Biology University of Virginia School of Medicine | Harold Burgess, Ph.D., NICHD |
| 12/01/2025 Noon - 1pm | Uncovering Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration by CRISPR-based Functional Genomics Martin Kampmann, Ph.D. Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics University of California, San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences | Priyanka Narayan, Ph.D, NIDDK |
| 12/08/2025 Noon - 1pm | Building our Brains: From Development to Evolution Debra Silver, Ph.D. Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Cell Biology, & Neurobiology Investigator in the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences Duke University | Timothy Petros, Ph.D., NICHD |
| 12/15/2025 Noon - 1pm | The Role of APOE and the Immune Response in Amyloid-induced Tauopathy and Tau-mediated Neurodegeneration David Holtzman, M.D. Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Distinguished Professor Scientific Director, Hope Center for Neurological Disorders Dept. of Neurology Washington University School of Medicine | Priyanka Narayan, Ph.D, NIDDK |
Seminar Line-up for January to March
| Seminar Date | Title and Speaker | Host |
|---|---|---|
| 01/05/2026 Noon - 1pm | tba Joy Yu Zuchero, Ph.D. Denali Therapeutics | Claire Le Pichon, Ph.D., NICHD |
| 01/12/2026 Noon - 1pm | Origins of the Cortical Sensorimotor-Association Axis and Human Cognition Nenad Sestan, M.D., Ph.D. Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neuroscience Professor of Comparative Medicine, of Genetics and of Psychiatry Yale School of Medicine | David Leopold, Ph.D., NIMH |
| 01/26/2026 Noon - 1pm | Hunger accelerates learning through enhancing a movement-specific dopamine signal that is modulated by spatial proximity to rewards Erin Calipari, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology Director of Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research Associate Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Vanderbilt Brain Institute Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation | Hugo Tejada, Ph.D., NIMH |
| 02/02/2026 Noon - 1pm | Neurophysiology of hibernation: The solution to environmental challenges Elena Gracheva, Ph.D. Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology and of Neuroscience Yale University | Alex Chesler, Ph.D., NCCIH |
| 02/09/2026 Noon - 1pm | Computational mechanisms that reshape the dynamics of neural activity and behavior Ann Kennedy, Ph.D. Associate Professor Scripps Research | Ariel Levine, Ph.D., NINDS |
| 02/23/2026 Noon - 1pm | Chethan Pandarinath, Ph.D. Associate Professor Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Emory University & Georgia Institute of Technology | Mark Wagner, Ph.D., NINDS |
| 03/09/2026 Noon - 1pm | Molecular mechanisms of synapse and myelin development, plasticity, and repair: insights from the inner ear and prefrontal cortex Gabriel Corfas, Ph.D. Director, Kresge Hearing Research Institute The Lynn and Ruth Townsend Professor of Communication Disorders Faculty Mentor, Neuroscience Graduate Program Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan | Wade Chien, M.D., NIDCD |
| 03/16/2026 Noon - 1pm | Mechanotransduction in Auditory Hair Cells: A Tale of Two Channels Jeff Holt, Ph.D. Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Professor of Neurology Harvard Medical School | Angela Ballesteros, Ph.D., NIDCD |
| 03/23/2026 Noon - 1pm | Sensorimotor circuits for dexterous movement Eiman Azim, Ph.D. Associate Professor William Scandling Developmental Chair The Salk Institute for Biological Studies | Ariel Levine, Ph.D., NINDS |
| 03/30/2026 Noon - 1pm | Electrical synapse proteome reveals mechanisms of assembly Adam Miller, Ph.D. Associate Professor Biology, Neuroscience University of Oregon | Katie Kindt, Ph.D., NIDCD |
Seminar Line-up for April to June
| Seminar Date | Title and Speaker | Host |
|---|---|---|
| 04/06/2026 Noon - 1pm | Translating Transcriptomics to Connectomics at Retinotectal Synapses Xin Duan, Ph.D. Associate Professor University of California, San Francisco Department of Ophthalmology | Kevin Liu, Ph.D., NIDCR |
| 04/13/2026 Noon - 1pm | Developing CRISPR Gene Therapy for FTD/ALS Claire Clelland, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Neurology University of California, San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences | Claire Le Pichon, Ph.D., NICHD |
| 04/27/2026 Noon - 1pm | Are you my mother? Olfactory gating of dopamine neurons controls infant begging behavior Lauren O'Connell, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biology Stanford University | Harry Burgess, Ph.D., NICHD |
| 05/04/2026 Noon - 1pm | Understanding the life cycle of TDP-43 in neurodegeneration Magdalini Polymenidou, Ph.D. Professor of Biomedicine Department of Quantitative Biomedicine University of Zurich | Claire Le Pichon, Ph.D., NICHD |
| 05/11/2026 Noon - 1pm | Neural circuits for social memory behaviors Steven Siegelbaum, Ph.D. Gerald D. Fischbach, MD, Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Pharmacology Chair, Department of Neuroscience Columbia's Zuckerman Institute Columbia University | Lorna Role, Ph.D., NINDS |
| 05/18/2026 Noon - 1pm | Insights into Disease Mechanisms and Emerging Therapies in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1: Illuminating Brain Function through Dysfunction Harry Orr, Ph.D. Regents Professor Director, Institute for Translational Neuroscience University of Minnesota | Mark Cookson, Ph.D., NIA |
| 06/01/2026 Noon - 1pm | The dynamic brain: Understanding the synaptic basis of behavior Yi Zuo, Ph.D. Professor of MCD Biology University of California, Santa Cruz | Yi Gu, Ph.D., NINDS |
| 06/08/2026 Noon - 1pm | Mechanisms and Roles of Neuromodulatory Transmission Pascal Kaeser, M.D. Professor of Neurobiology Harvard Medical School | Zayd Khaliq, Ph.D., NINDS |
| 06/15/2026 Noon - 1pm | A cross-species single cell atlas of the striatum defines cell type and subregion disease vulnerabilities Myriam Heiman, Ph.D. John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Neuroscience Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Veronica Alvarez, NIMH |