PROMOTING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BETWEEN INDIA AND THE U.S.
Biology
Brandeis University
Gina Turrigiano is a full professor in the Dept. of Biology, the Volen Center for Complex Systems, and the Center for Behavioral Genomics at Brandeis.She has received numerous awards for her research including a Sloan Foundation fellowship, a MacArthur foundation “genius” award, McKnight Foundation Technological Innovation and Neurobiology of Disease awards, an NIH director’s pioneer award, and the HFSP Nakasone Award. she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her scientific interests include mechanisms of synaptic and intrinsic plasticity and the experience-dependent rewiring of neocortical microcircuitry.
Gina Turrigiano studies mechanisms of homeostatic synaptic plasticity and the role of these stabilizing mechanisms in the development and function of the cortex. Her work has been instrumental in demonstrating the existing of “self-tuning” mechanisms that allow neurons and circuits to adjust their excitability to prevent states of hyper- or hypoexcitability that underlie brain disorders such as epilepsy and autism spectrum disorders.