Student Resources | Faculty, Postdoc, & Staff Resources
Search for:
Give now button Admin Login

Posts classified under: Departments

Kyle Yoshida, Ph.D.

Kyle Yoshida, Ph.D.

Faculty Member

Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

Kyle Yoshida is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCLA, where he leads the MOHALA Lab (Mechatronics for Outreach, Haptics, Agriculture, and Living Applications). Kyle earned his SB in Bioengineering with an African Studies minor from Harvard and his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. His work, spanning robotics, haptic perception, and human-robot interfaces, has been recognized through awards at the IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology National Conference. He is the founder of Honua Scholars, a STEM-mentorship non-profit recognized as one of the Top 10 Native STEM Enterprises by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. 

Meiyan Wang, Ph.D.

Meiyan Wang, Ph.D.

Faculty Member

Assistant Professor
Department of Neurobiology
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

My laboratory develops human brain organoid models to investigate glial diversity and human specific cellular and molecular features of the nervous system. We integrate hPSC-derived brain organoids with single-cell transcriptomics, spatial genomics, and functional imaging to elucidate molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying neurological and neurodegenerative disorders.

Keith Vossel

Keith Vossel, M.D., M.Sc.

Faculty Member

Professor
Department of Neurology
David Geffen School of Medicine 
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

Dr. Keith Vossel is the Michael M. Minchin, Jr., President, J.D. French Alzheimer’s Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor of Neurology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He received a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and medical degree with highest honors from the University of Tennessee. He completed neurology residency at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he served as a chief resident. Dr. Vossel completed fellowship training in behavioral neurology and dementia research at the University of California, San Francisco and Gladstone Institutes.

Dr. Vossel investigates Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias with a focus on brain rhythm abnormalities and translational therapies. Key discoveries include the presence of silent epileptic activity, occurring during sleep and accelerating cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, effects of amyloid-β and tau deposition on brain rhythms and related cognitive impairments in Alzheimer’s disease, and novel pathological functions of tau in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Dr. Vossel led a phase 2a clinical trial showing that low doses of an antiseizure drug can improve memory and problem solving in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and detectable epileptic activity. Dr. Vossel is broadening these studies in Greater Los Angeles and incorporating them into the expanded activities of Alzheimer’s disease research.

Dr. Vossel has written Op-Eds for the Los Angeles Times and has been featured in numerous national and international media outlets including CNN, NPR, The Washington Post, Financial Times, USA Today, STAT, Boston Globe, Daily Mail, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, FOX 11 LA, CBS 2 and KCAL News, KNBC-LA and NBC Channel 4 News, KNX News Radio in LA, Doctor Radio on Sirius XM Radio, and Spectrum News 1 SoCal. Dr. Vossel has received the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Distinguished Research Scholar Award, a Part the Cloud Translational Research Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, the Bernese Epilepsy Award from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and the Outstanding Health Care Innovator Award from the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Eisenberger headshot

Naomi Eisenberger, Ph.D.

Faculty Member

Professor
Department of Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

I am a nationally recognized expert on the neural correlates underlying social rejection and connection as well as how these neural responses relate to both mental and physical health. I have been the PI or Co-I on many NIH-funded projects that have examined the neural underpinnings of specific social processes or the relationships between social processes and health outcomes. One line of my research has utilized neuroimaging techniques to investigate the neural correlates of social rejection and social connection. Through this line of research, I have shown that the experience of social rejection relies, in part, on physical pain-related neural regions and that the experience of social connection relies, in part, on reward-related neural regions. In another line of research, I have examined the effect of an experimental inflammatory challenge on feelings of depressed mood and social disconnection as well as the neural underpinnings of these changes. Here, we have shown that inflammation can increase feelings of social disconnection by increasing neural sensitivity to positive and negative social stimuli. More recently, I have been examining the neural correlates underlying prosocial behavior as well as the positive impact of prosocial behavior on both mental and physical health. I have also been examining how social connection and disconnection (loneliness) relate to fear learning and extinction, which have implications for mental health outcomes. In summary, I have the expertise, leadership, training, and motivation necessary to successfully carry out the proposed research project.

1 2 3 … 80