Evan Balaban

Evan Balaban - McGill University, Canada

Following university studies (music, linguistics, anthropology, biology, Michigan State University), and PhD studies (The Rockefeller University, specializations in Animal Behavior, Neurobiology, and Genetics), and postdoctoral work at the CNRS Institut d'Embryologie Cellulaire et Moleculaire in Paris, I served on the faculty of Harvard University (Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology), then headed the Laboratory of Behavior and Neural Development (The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla). This was followed by faculty positions at The City University of New York (Biology) and McGill University (Behavioral Neuroscience Program), including service as a visiting professor at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore per Studi Avanzati in Trieste, Italy, and as a BBVA Research Chair in Biomedicine at the Laboratorio de Imagen, Medicina Experimental, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid. I am currently Program Director, Neural Systems Cluster, Division of Integrative Organismal Systems in the Biology Directorate of the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC.

Research stay at UC3M: DEPARTMENT OF BIOENGINEERING AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Project:

The purpose of this project is to work together with the Biomedical Imaging and Instrumentation Group (BiiG) at UC3M to develop novel biomedical imaging technology that will optimally combine temporally-dynamic, non-invasive high-spatial-resolution molecular brain imaging with high-temporal-resolution electrophysiological/physiological data collected simultaneously at different sampling rates. We are developing a proof-of-concept system using chicken embryos as animal models for studying the physiology of functional brain development. In addition to developing the novel technology, we will use it to conduct initial investigations of the biological mechanisms underlying the transition between non-functional embryonic patterns of brain activity and functional adult-like patterns of activity (such as sleep and waking) that is seen at or shortly before the time of birth.