Translational epilepsy research in an academic setting | neuroscience, drug discovery, zebrafish, electrophysiology, cell therapy, precision medicine and more

San Francisco, CA
Joined May 2013
BarabanLab retweeted
My lab is currently recruiting a MSc or PhD student with experience in slice electrophysiology to study hippocampal circuit dysfunction in a mouse model of autism spectrum disorder (field potentials, whole cell patch, optogenetics). Please reach out if interested! #neurojobs
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BarabanLab retweeted
We are hiring! The Wang Lab is looking for a postdoctoral fellow with strong computational neuroscience/neural engineering background who is interested in working on human translational neuroscience projects on closed loop neuromodulation! Pleas email me if interested!
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A major milestone for California research — @CAGovernor Newsom has signed SB 895, the California Science and Health Research Bond Act, placing $7.5 billion in research funding before California voters on the March 2028 ballot. Reaching this point took an extraordinary effort from researchers, students, patients, and advocates from across California. To everyone who spoke up in support of investing in California research: thank you.
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Thrilled to share our study is out at @NeuroCellPress ! @Xiaoling3113 @jingliang_zhang did a fantastic job using human brain organoids to understand SCN2A disorder and advance therapeutic development. Thanks to NIH and @FamilieSCN2A for the tremendous support!
Online now: Autism-associated SCN2A deficiency disrupts cortico-striatal circuitry in human brain assembloids dlvr.​it/TVjfkw
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BarabanLab retweeted
UVA Pharmacology is looking for new faculty colleagues to join an exciting and collaborative group. Posting and information at: apply.interfolio.com/193470r two open rank tenured/tenure-track faculty positions
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BarabanLab retweeted
Jennifer Doudna won the Nobel Prize for gene editing and went on Bloomberg to say the chatbots everyone is betting on cannot innovate at all. Every promise Silicon Valley is making about AI curing disease just hit the one person qualified to check it. She has spent her whole career inside the actual frontier of curing disease. So when she talks about what AI can and cannot do in biology, she is not guessing. She is reporting from inside the lab. Her words were blunt. She is not seeing chatbots innovate. They summarize data. They write reports. They do not come up with a brand new idea nobody has ever had. Then the interviewer pushed. So you're saying AI can't innovate? Doudna did not flinch. She does not know if it can't. She just does not see it doing it right now. This lands harder when you remember who is making the opposite case. Sam Altman says AI will eliminate disease within five years. Larry Ellison says AI will cure cancer in a 48 hour window. An OpenAI executive even floated that the company should get a cut of sales on any drug discovered through ChatGPT. Doudna answered that in two words. Good luck. Even the cancer specialists Altman is selling to keep warning that cancer is not one disease but hundreds, each needing its own cure, and that compute does not skip the years of lab work. Her reason is simpler. Biology is hard. You cannot simulate your way to an understanding of the human body. The people promising cures are the ones selling the tool. The person who actually won a Nobel building them is telling you it has not happened yet. Source: Bloomberg Originals Watch the full video on their official channel.
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BarabanLab retweeted
Replying to @KoswasCrypto
Anybody can write a grant that *proposes* "significant and rigorous" science. Many fewer actually *do* significant and rigorous science. If the latter is not considered, then why bother establishing a good track record anyway?
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Salk Institute scientist Shrek Chalasani has been awarded up to $41.3 million from ARPA-H to advance a breakthrough technology he pioneered, sonogenetics, which uses ultrasound to precisely control cells within the body. This funding will help transform the Chalasani lab’s discovery into a potential noninvasive therapy for a range of conditions, including peripheral neuropathies. By enabling targeted control of mammalian cells without surgery, sonogenetics could redefine how we treat disease. Learn more: salk.edu/news-release/salk-i… #SalkInstitute #ARPAH #Sonogenetics #Neuroscience #BiomedicalInnovation
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This #FluorescenceFriday comes from the @BarabanLab at UCSF: a new paper by @joseanemarafiga et al. sheds light on how dysregulation in the C1qa gene, which has been linked to neurological disorders like #epilepsy, affects inhibitory neural circuits. (1/4) 🧵
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BarabanLab retweeted
A researchers’ propensity for risky projects is passed down to their doctoral students — and stays with trainees after they leave the laboratory go.nature.com/4qpoyCD
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More than five years later, @Cronutt1 is still seizure-free and living his best life @sixflagsDK after receiving an experimental therapy with transplanted interneuron progenitor cells developed by the @BarabanLab: youtu.be/hZpFH5J5lbo @UCSF @Claire_Simeone @UCI_EpiCenter
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Example of the cost of the government shutdown. The NIH study panel I'm serving was postponed. Ended up running with Dec 24, 29, and Jan 2 deadlines. My wife of 30+ years has drawn the line - no more NIH panels. She tolerated weekends, but holiday time was a bridge too far.
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BarabanLab retweeted
The 2020 chemistry laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier shares her best career advice to the next generation of scientists: "The general advice I give is always to listen to oneself. It’s important to listen to oneself and follow the gut feeling, follow the intuition. In research, it is really important to follow what one likes to do. I liked different topics, and it was difficult to choose. But I think what helps a lot is just to enjoy the science and to see what the science can bring. Focus on this and really trigger the trust in oneself, the sense of curiosity of what we like to do and the joy of the science. This is important because it allows you to deal with the rest. So, they have to learn all these aspects, to see that the rest is little steps that may not work perfectly, but that, at the end of the day, make the beauty of this work. We are very privileged to be able to ask questions and work on what we like to work with." Read our full interview with Charpentier: nobelprize.org/prizes/chemis…
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About 0.1 percent of the global population, some 8.8 million people, identifies as scientists, which means only a small fraction of people personally know a scientist. sciencenews.org/article/scie…
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Replying to @davidasinclair
Would be perhaps useful to point out that neural organoids are not miniature brains and that they model fetal stages of parts of the human brain during development (rather than aging or rejuvenation). At these stages, especially in cortical organoids, neural activity is largely driven by spontaneous glutamatergic release and network synchronization typical of early circuits.
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Today, we announced that open-label extension data from Harmony Biosciences’ ongoing Phase 3 trial investigating a potential treatment of Dravet syndrome is being presented at the American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting in Atlanta today. The data shows clinical meaningful reductions in seizure activity in participants with #Dravet syndrome along with a favorable safety profile. Learn more: bit.ly/48ZaNUQ #AES2025 #EpilepsyAwareness #ClinicalTrials #RareDisease #DravetSyndrome #Innovation #EmpathyAndInnovation
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The gavel has been passed! Many thanks to Dr. Howard Goodkin for a year of exemplary service and congratulations to Dr. Jack Parent, our incoming AES President for 2026! #AES2025
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Our Harmony Biosciences team is excited to be at the 2025 American Epilepsy Society (AES) Annual Meeting in Atlanta! We are looking forward to joining the #epilepsy community and connecting with leaders across healthcare, research, and advocacy. Come say “hello” if you’re there! #AES2025 #EpilepsyAwareness #ClinicalTrials #RareDisease #DravetSyndrome #Innovation #EmpathyAndInnovation
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Earlier today, we announced that we will present new open label extension data from Harmony Biosciences’ rare #epilepsy pipeline at the 2025 American Epilepsy Society (AES) Annual Meeting. Poster presentations will highlight data in an ongoing Phase 3 clinical study for the treatment of #Dravet syndrome. Learn more: bit.ly/3MhQ85u #AES2025 #EpilepsyAwareness #ClinicalTrials #RareDisease #DravetSyndrome #Innovation #EmpathyAndInnovation
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