Margolis Lab Graduate Student Awarded Grant

 Graduate student Alex Yonk has been awarded a prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health. This competitive grant will fund Alex's research into how the POm thalamic nucleus contributes to sensorimotor integration. 

The Margolis Lab Presents Work at the Brain Health Institute Symposium

Graduate students Branden Sanabria, Shiva Salsabilian and technician Sindhuja Baskar presented work at the annual Brain Health Institute symposium which was held at Nokia Bell Labs. The day featured talks by Brain Health Institute researchers and a plenary seminary by Professor Eve Marder of Brandeis who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and past president of the Society for Neuroscience. The day concluded with a juried poster session. Attending and contributing to both small and large meetings is a great way for us to showcase our work and get valuable feedback from the community. We're now back in the lab with fresh ideas and perspectives and ready to make discoveries.

-CL

Interdisciplinary Collaborations With Researchers at Rutgers Newark

Tomorrow we'll be heading to Rutgers Newark to participate in the 30th annual Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Minisymposium and to reconnect with our collaborator, Professor James Tepper. Big advances are commonly made at the intersection of fields and techniques. Many of the labs in Newark, and in particular the Tepper Lab, are experts in basal ganglia anatomy, physiology, and neurochemistry. We recently published some of our findings on how sensory and motor cortex controls behavior and affects striatal microcircuitry that resulted from our ongoing collaboration with the Tepper Lab. We'll be presenting our newer results examining a potential structural basis for our aforementioned results. We're looking forward to hearing what other researchers think about our ongoing work and learning about the latest developments coming from our friends in Newark.

-CL

The Margolis Lab in Mexico

This fall we attended the III Neurobiology Meeting of the Mexican Society for Biochemistry. During our visit we had the wonderful opportunity to present our progress on current projects investigating sensory motor integration, as well as attend several talks. There is abundance of excellent research being conducted by neuroscientists in Mexico. The variety and ingenuity of the experiments being conducted by our colleagues across the globe has contributed to a significantly better understanding of how the nervous system works compared to years ago. For example, there is an increased interest in the role of dopamine in the brain as new molecular tools and methods revealed that our traditional model of dopamine’s role in reward and motivation doesn’t not fit. Even more interesting is the identification of novel specialized gut-brain reward circuits! Yet, despite the advancements and rigorous efforts to unravel the mysteries of our brain, we are continually left with more questions than answers, a sign perhaps that we are doing something right. 
-Branden Sanabria 

Our Website Update and Redesign

You might have noticed that the Margolis Lab website has recently been redesigned. We made these changes to make our content more accessible and frankly to make us better scientists. Some of these improvements include:

• Creation of a memorable custom domain name https://www.margolislab.com
• Expanded pages with information about lab members, because the team is one of the most important parts of any lab.
• Creation of this blog which allows us to share our thoughts and experiences to a wide audience.
• A streamlined design workflow that allows us to quickly update the website, so that we can devote most of our time to making discoveries. 

We hope you like our new lab website and if you have any suggestions or want to know more about how we did it, be sure to reach out. 

CL

The Margolis Lab Hosts Princeton Researcher

The Margolis Lab hosted Princeton researcher, Dr. Ben Engelhard, who is a postdoctoral fellow in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute under the direction of Professors Ilana Witten and David Tank. Dr. Engelhard presented some of his recent work on how ventral tegmental area dopaminergic neurons encode sensory, motor, and cognitive information.

Modern neuroscience is driven by discoveries that occur at the intersection of different techniques and research interests. At the Margolis Lab, we enthusiastically welcome communication and collaboration with other labs both regionally and around the world. If you would like to collaborate with the lab or learn more about what we do be sure to contact us.

Thoughts of a Grad Student in the Margolis Lab

Before applying to the neuroscience program here at Rutgers I completed a Master’s thesis at William Paterson University. My thesis work consisted of taking many images of microglial cells in the brain and to this end I had spent countless hours using one of my favorite tools in biology: a microscope. As a result, taking images of cells has become a passion of mine and I have no problem spending nights with my eyes glued to the lens of a microscope. Fortunately enough, as I was searching through the faculty page of the CBN department prior to applying to Rutgers I stumbled upon Dr.David Margolis and the short description of his research interest “ In vivo imaging of neural circuit plasticity.” In that moment I knew I had to try to rotate in his laboratory.
Continuing on to Dr.Margolis’s lab was a natural next step for me. His lab utilizes some of the most cutting edge tools and techniques in modern neuroscience. I still remember how this year I almost teared up the first time I saw in vivo imaging being used in front of me. Watching an animal perform a task and seeing their brain cells light up like fireworks was just an experience I won’t ever forget in my life. I have learned how to use viruses to target brain regions, cell types, and even manipulate cell activity. Using a combination of viruses we can design special strategies to explore the dynamics of neural circuits involved with sensorimotor integration. In fact the lab has recently published a paper using these techniques and is already set to publish several articles this year alone!
When I entered this rotation I believe Dr.Margolis recognized my interest and strengths immediately. He assigned me to a project that involved viral tracing of neural circuits, electrical recordings of single cells, confocal imaging, and even some computational work to create 3D constructions of the cells that I imaged. I saw this opportunity as an honor because I was able to work under one of the senior scientist in the lab, help lead a project, and learn techniques I had never learned before.
What was most notable about this lab was Dr.Margolis himself. I had spent a lot of time thinking about other rotations and which labs to commit too but I always found myself just never wanting to leave his lab. From the very start Dr.Margolis always treated me with respect. He is a very calm and relaxing person to talk to and I feel that it has signifcantly helped reduce my anxiety at times when things are not working in our experiments or when school may feel overwhelming. He is always open to new ideas and encouraged me to try new techniques we would read about and I feel that this has allowed me to truly explore my interest and find my place within his lab.
Overall, my second rotation could not have gone better and I intend to commit to his lab and produce great research.

-Branden Sanabria