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Abigail Dickinson, Ph.D.

Faculty Member

Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and lead the UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) EEG Laboratory. My research seeks to understand the neural mechanisms underlying autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions across the lifespan, with the goal of identifying objective biomarkers that inform our understanding of brain development, function, and aging. My work has focused on using electrophysiological measures to investigate fundamental questions regarding brain function in autism. Early in my career, I used psychophysical paradigms and gamma-band electrophysiological measures to examine excitation–inhibition balance and inhibitory cortical processes underlying sensory perception. This work provided insight into neural mechanisms contributing to atypical sensory experiences in autism and established my interest in understanding how alterations in brain function emerge and evolve across development. Building on this foundation, I expanded my research to study early neural markers of autism during infancy. Using longitudinal EEG approaches, I identified alterations in functional connectivity, sensory processing, and brain maturation trajectories that precede clinical diagnosis and predict later developmental outcomes. I subsequently extended this work to genetically defined neurodevelopmental disorders, including Angelman syndrome and Bohring-Opitz syndrome, where electrophysiological biomarkers provided insight into syndrome-specific mechanisms of atypical brain development. Most recently, with support from a NIMH K01 Career Development Award, I have expanded my research program to include adulthood and aging. By integrating EEG, cognition, physical health assessments, wearable technologies, and epigenetic biomarkers, my current work investigates biological aging processes in autistic adults and seeks to identify factors associated with resilience and healthy aging. Across all stages of my career, a unifying goal has been to understand how brain function changes across the lifespan and how these changes contribute to variability in outcomes among individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions. My expertise in electrophysiology, biomarker development, longitudinal developmental neuroscience, and aging research uniquely positions me to contribute to the Brain Research Institute’s mission of advancing our understanding of the brain across development, health, and disease. My long-term goal is to establish a lifespan neuroscience framework that links early neurodevelopmental mechanisms to later-life health and aging outcomes, ultimately identifying biological pathways that contribute to resilience and vulnerability across the lifespan in autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions.

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.

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