Career Celebration for Dr. Susan Gerbi
Please join us to celebrate Dr. Susan Gerbi’s career on Friday, May 23rd! The morning session will be a lab reunion, although anyone is welcome to attend. The afternoon session is dedicated to Susan’s career at Brown with faculty and alumni anecdotes and reflections. The day will conclude with a reception in the SFH Atrium.
Career Chat for Trainees with Bill Martin, Sc.M. ’92 , Ph.D. ’95
Students and postdocs are invited to meet with Dr. Martin for an informal discussion and to ask career questions. They are invited to join afterward for a Carney Conversation.
William J. Martin ScM’92 PhD’95 (Bill)
Senior Vice President, Global Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Head
Bill Martin is the Global Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Head at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine and a member of the company’s Group Operating Committee. He leads a dedicated team focused on the discovery and development of a precision neuroscience pipeline of transformative treatments for individuals grappling with serious neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Building on Johnson & Johnson’s 60-year legacy in neuroscience, Bill’s team is driving a differentiated portfolio of new and innovative therapies.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Bill co-founded and served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackthorn Therapeutics, acquired by Neumora Therapeutics in 2020. Blackthorn, under his leadership, blended computational and clinical neuroscience, employing a precision medicine approach to develop innovative therapeutics for central nervous system (CNS) disorders.
Bill actively engages in the academic and scientific community. He also is a prolific author, with more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
Bill earned his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Swarthmore College and completed his doctorate in Experimental Psychology at Brown University. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.
A Carney Conversation with Bill Martin, Sc.M. ’92 , Ph.D. ’95
Join us for a Carney Conversation with William J. Martin, Global Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Head at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, moderated by Diane Lipscombe, Director of the Carney Institute for Brain Science. This engaging discussion will explore neuroscience, innovation, and industry leadership.
Bill Martin is the Global Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Head at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine and a member of the company’s Group Operating Committee. He leads a dedicated team focused on the discovery and development of a precision neuroscience pipeline of transformative treatments for individuals grappling with serious neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Building on Johnson & Johnson’s 60-year legacy in neuroscience, Bill’s team is driving a differentiated portfolio of new and innovative therapies.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Bill co-founded and served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackthorn Therapeutics, acquired by Neumora Therapeutics in 2020. Blackthorn, under his leadership, blended computational and clinical neuroscience, employing a precision medicine approach to develop innovative therapeutics for central nervous system (CNS) disorders.
Bill actively engages in the academic and scientific community. He also is a prolific author, with more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
Bill earned his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Swarthmore College and completed his doctorate in Experimental Psychology at Brown University. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.
Brain-Computer Interfaces: Restoring Communication and Mobility
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are revolutionizing human brain science and restoring function for people with neurologic injury. Twenty years ago, placing a tiny sensor in the cortex of a 24-year-old with paralysis, Brown faculty and alums launched the BrainGate clinical trials with the bold idea that people with spinal cord injury, stroke,or ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) could control a computer cursor simply by thinking about it. BCIs are restoring communication at the speed of speech, and, with Brown still leading, the medical promise and societal implications of this revolutionary technology are “top of mind.”
Speaker:
Dr. Leigh R. Hochberg ’90, L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Engineering and Professor of Brain Science at Brown University, Neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Medical School
Moderator:
Tejal Desai ’94, P’27, Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering and Professor of Engineering at Brown
This event is one of several Commencement Forums planned for Brown’s 2025 Commencement and Reunion Weekend.
Redefining the Diagnosis and Treatment of Brain Diseases in the 21st Century.
How we conceptualize disease informs how we treat it. Categorical definitions of clinical diagnoses have limited the generation of mechanistic insights and slowed the development of neurotherapeutics. Today, a new era of “precision neuroscience” is emerging. What is the promise of precision within neuroscience? Can we realize this promise without new conceptual frameworks for research and drug development? Through advances in brain imaging, multi-omics and advanced data analytics, neuroscience is positioned to evolve its classification system from categorical CNS conditions to biologically informed diseases, with the potential to transform the development of diagnostics and therapeutics for the next century.
This Commencement Forum is presented by William J. Martin ’92 Sc.M., ’95 Ph.D.
This event is one of several Commencement Forums planned for Brown’s 2025 Commencement and Reunion Weekend.
Join us for an exciting discussion of current papers in neurobiology! Anyone at all levels are welcome to attend. Recurring every other Monday.
Follow this link to be added to the listserv: https://forms.gle/8HNhfcWrJy8RcGLWA
Sign up to present here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CZu4iGzJG76QBc0fK59BszSHjJqaHx3r5dbxCRKmQC4/edit?usp=sharing
June Academic Grand Rounds*
Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias 2025: An update on Clinical Care and Research
Brent P. Forester MD, MSc.
Dr. Frances S. Arkin Chair of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine
Chief and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Tufts Medical Center
Director of Behavioral Health, Tufts Medicine
Wednesday, June 4, 2025 ◊ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
• PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://cme-learning.brown.edu/24-25-DPHB
Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, participants should be better able to:
• Define the prevalence and impact of the rising epidemic of dementia
• Identify an evidence-based approach to evaluation and treatment of the behavioral and
psychological symptoms of dementia
• Describe the evidence base and FDA indication supporting the efficacy and safety of the amyloid based monoclonal antibody therapies
Financial Relationship Disclosure: Dr. Forester reports the following financial disclosures: Consultant, Stock Options-Rippl Care; Member, P&T Committee-CVS Caremark; Consultant, Stock Options; Patina Health.
Seventh Annual Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit Conference for Early Career Scholars
Seventh Annual Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit Conference for Early Career Scholars
June 5-6, 2025
Brown University
Providence, RI
The 2025 Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit Conference for Early Career Scholars (June 5-6) is open to all and will showcase the research achievements of outstanding molecular life scientists who have worked to advance the role of historically underrepresented groups in science and medicine. The conference is free and in person, hosted by the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry Department at Brown University.
Conference Keynote Speakers
Keynote speakers for the conference will be Dr. JoAnn Trejo, PhD (University of California San Diego), and Dr. Derek Applewhite, PhD (Reed College).
JoAnn Trejo, PhD
Derek Applewhite, PhD
The conference program will open on the afternoon of June 5 and close Friday evening, June 6. It will feature short talks by invited early career scholars, panel events focusing on identity and professional development, and a poster session. The conference will be held in Sidney Frank Hall at Brown University.
This will be an inclusive event, drawing attendees from the Brown BioMed community (including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and campus organizations) as well as registered participants from across the US. The conference has been named in honor of Dr. Samuel Milton Nabrit, Brown’s first African-American PhD recipient and a marine biologist with a distinguished international career.
For questions about the 2025 Samuel M. Nabrit Conference for Early Career Scholars, please contact smnc@brown.edu.
BrainSTEM A collaborative electronic lab notebook for experimental neuroscience
Dr. Peter Petersen from the University of Copenhagen will do an in-person introduction and hands-on demo of BrainSTEM (BrainSTEM.org). BrainSTEM is an electronic lab notebook that features a customizable web interface, a REST API for programmable access, and a data model designed to capture a variety of neurophysiological and behavioral data. Granular access control, including one-click public sharing, fosters collaboration and promotes open science. BrainSTEM is designed for ease of adoption and use, while facilitating compliance with NIH and other data-sharing requirements. We believe that BrainSTEM has the potential to transform data sharing in neuroscience, making it more discoverable, accessible, standardized, collaborative, and democratized. Bring your laptop!
We hope that you will join us for our annual Spring Retreat on Thursday, June 12th, from 1-5PM in LMM 107 at 70 Ship Street. The full schedule will be sent out as we get closer to the retreat. Social to follow.