The Samuel Eiduson Student Lectureship was initiated in 1993 to recognize extraordinarily meritorious contributions by a neuroscience graduate student. This lectureship was named in honor of Dr. Samuel Eiduson for his many years of dedication to the Neuroscience Program and the Brain Research Institute. Dr. Eiduson served as the Chairman of the Interdepartmental Program for Neuroscience from its inception in 1972 until 1985, and was instrumental in forwarding the careers of many UCLA neuroscientists and graduates. Each year one student who has conducted especially commendable work during his/her thesis study delivers a lecture describing his/her work.

This year the Nineteenth Samuel Eiduson Student Lecture, “Searching for Genetic Influences on Brain Structure,” will be presented by Jason Stein. Jason is currently a senior student in the Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program for Neuroscience.
Jason develops methods for handling imaging and genetic data to tackle basic questions in neuroscience, about risk for disease and mechanisms of neurodegeneration. He has analyzed over a thousand brain images using a genome-wide image-wide search to find a genetic polymorphism that affect brain structure and risk for Alzheimer’s disease. His discovery of GRIN2b, a glutamate receptor gene, as a candidate risk gene for brain degeneration was hailed as a very significant discovery by the Alzheimer’s forum. He has also collaborated in studies showing that the obesity risk gene, FTO, affects brain atrophy in the elderly.
Jason has excelled during his graduate career. He has 4 first-authored publications including one in PNAS. One of his first-authored papers published in 2007 has been cited 66 times. He currently has two more publications in review at the journals Molecular Psychiatry and Journal of Neuroscience; one reviewer of his paper currently at Molecular Psychiatry said about Jason’s work, “In many important ways the current study could represent a benchmark against which future imaging GWA studies will be evaluated.” Jason excels at understanding both the underlying biology and the complicated statistical problems in neuroimaging. He has worked to develop novel computational tools that deal with high dimensional data and is currently working to expand genetics methods. He seeks out the help of experts in other fields such as neurodevelopment, and classical geneticists, and comes up with experiments to test hypotheses created by the genetic searches he has performed.
Jason is a truly remarkable student, demonstrating creativity, intelligence, and highly innovative research in his graduate student career. He was chosen by the department and Chancellor’s office as one of only 2 graduate students nominated by UCLA for the NIH Director’s Award. This is a new type of R01 where a finishing PhD student can be the PI, and can use the money to start up their own independent lab at UCLA.
Jason is a person with outstanding academic ability, and has developed his thesis work with remarkable original thinking and a strong command of genetics, statistics, and neuroscience. He is brimming with new ideas for experiments and methods, and he has the ability and the excitement to use them to benefit medical research. Quite clearly, he will be a leader in the burgeoning field of neuroimaging genetics.

Previous Samuel Eiduson Student Lecturers
Year	Student	Lecture Title
1993 1st Eiduson Student Lecturer	David Rector	“Illuminating the Brain: Neural Activation Produces Changes in Light Scattering”
1994 2nd Eiduson Student Lecturer	Michael DeRosa	“Why Do Children Seize? What Epileptic Brain Tissue Tells Us”
1995 3rd Eiduson Student Lecturer	Kerry Thompson	“Focal Status Epilepticus in the Immature Brain”
1996 4th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Li-Tao Zhong	“A Novel Type of Cell Death Receptor in Neocortical Neurons”
1997 5th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Christine Schulteis	“Aspects of Shaker Potassium Channel Biogenesis Revealed by Analysis of Mutant Subunits”
1998 6th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Paul Thompson	“Mathematical/Computational Strategies for Human Brain Mapping and Pathology Detection”
1999 7th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Albert Cha	“Using Optical Probes to Study the Behavior of Voltage-Gated Ion Channels”
2000 8th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Paul Gray	“Every Breath You Take: Looking for the Respiratory Rhythm Generator”
2001 9th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Holly Carlisle	“The Role of NMDA Receptor Associated Proteins in Hippocampal LTP”
2002 10th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Robert Agate	“Sex Chromosomes as Carriers for Genes Involved in Sex Specific Brain Development”
2003 11th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Christopher Cain	“Overcoming Fear: Behavioral Pharmacology and Physiology of Fear Extinction in Mice”
2004 12th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Spencer Smith	“The Role of Spontaneously Firing Neurons and New Tools for Exploring Them”
2005 13th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Keri Martinowich	“Epigenetic Gene Regulation in Mental Retardation Disorders”
2006 14th Eiduson Student Lecturer	John Ohab	“A Novel Neurovascular Niche for Neurogenesis after Stroke”
2007 15h Eiduson Student Lecturer	Louisa Wang	“The Circadian Regulation of Learning and Memory”
2008 16th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Woj Wojtowicz	“A Role for Molecular Diversity and Specificity in Wiring the Fly Brain”
2009 17th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Doris Payer	“Neural Correlates of Emotion and Inhibitory Control During Early Abstinence from Methamphetamine”
2010 18th Eiduson Student Lecturer	David Rousso	“Successive Actions of FoxP Transcription Factors in Spinall Cord Neurogenesis and the Establishment of Motor Circuits"
2011 19th Eiduson Student Lecturer	Jason Stein	"Searching for Genetic Influences on Brain Structure"