Attila Losonczy, M.D., Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Attila Losonczy is a neuroscientist whose research focuses on understanding how neural circuits in the hippocampus support learning, memory, and spatial cognition. His laboratory combines advanced optical imaging, electrophysiology, and computational methods to dissect the synaptic and circuit mechanisms underlying memory formation and consolidation in the mammalian brain.
Dr. Losonczy earned his M.D. from University Medical School in Pecs and his Ph.D. degree from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. He conducted postdoctoral in Jeff Magee's lab. He served as a Full Professor at Columbia University. He is currently a Professor of Neuroscience at the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he leads the Losonczy Lab and the Program on Memory Longevity (PML).
His team develops and applies next-generation optical tools for circuit, cellular and subcellular imaging and all-optical physiology, aiming to uncover how experience modifies the brain across multiple spatial and temporal scales. The lab’s work bridges molecular, cellular, and systems-level approaches to build a mechanistic understanding of how memories are formed, stabilized, and degraded — and how these processes are altered during aging and neurodegenerative disease.
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Gergely Turi
Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Gergely Turi is a neuroscientist investigating the cellular and circuit mechanisms that underlie learning, memory, and emotional regulation. His research combines in vivo two-photon imaging, optogenetic circuit interrogation, and computational analysis to explore how hippocampal and cortical networks encode and stabilize memories across brain states such as wakefulness and sleep.
Dr. Turi earned his Ph.D. from the Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary, and completed postdoctoral training at Columbia University. At UT Southwestern’s Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, he serves as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and a key member of the Program in Memory Longevity (PML).
His current work focuses on integrating advanced optical imaging to uncover how experience-dependent plasticity contributes to long-term memory stability and how these processes are altered during stress, aging, and disease.
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Adrian Negrean, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Dr. Adrian Negrean is a senior neuroscientist currently at the UT Southwestern O'Donnell Brain Institute. He previously held positions at the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics with Dr. Kaspar Podgorski, completed postdoctoral training at Columbia University with Dr. Attila Losonczy, and earned his doctorate at VU University Amsterdam under the mentorship of Dr. Huib Mansvelder. His research spans from developing new optical tools to understanding the link between behavior and biophysical mechanisms of learning and memory at the level of dendrites, synapses, and neural networks.
Postdoctoral Fellows
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Eunji Kong, Ph.D.
Dr. Kong studies the spatiotemporal dynamics of hippocampal synaptic plasticity at a circuit level to uncover how the hippocampal network flexibly processes episodic memories.
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Hyun Choong Yong, Ph.D.
Dr. Yong is interested in identifying physiological and genetic markers that could predict representational drift in the hippocampus.
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Yu Xin, Ph.D.
Dr. Xin is interested in how structured information is encoded within the hippocampal formation, and how that information is finally transformed into memory.
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Todd Zheng, PhD
Todd is interested in how hippocampal circuits transform new experiences into durable memories at synaptic level. Specifically, how dendritic computations, neuromodulation, and sleep-related replay convert fragile traces into persistent engrams.
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Asako Noguchi, Ph.D.
Dr. Noguchi studies how hippocampal circuits extract and store essential information in a contextual manner by performing two-photon imaging and electrophysiological recordings at the subcellular level.
Doctoral Students
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Margaret Conde Paredes
Margaret studies gene expression and in vivo patterns of neural activity in the hippocampus by combining two-photon microscopy and spatial transcriptomics to analyze neurons post-hoc based on their transcriptomic profiles.
Co-advised by Professor Erdem Varol
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Bovey Rao
Bovey is interested in the catecholamine inputs to the hippocampus and possible perturbations in a genetic mouse model of schizophrenia.
Co-advised by Professor Joseph Gogos
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Lifan Zhang
Lifan applies his background in math and physics to decode the learning rules of the hippocampus. His research combines glutamate and voltage imaging data with quantitative analysis to understand how neural circuits learn in living animals.
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Charan Santhirasegaran
Charan investigates the evolution of neural dynamics at multiple time scales and is developing tools to efficiently explore and manipulate these dynamics in the hippocampus.
Support Staffs
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Caroline Wilson
Caroline will be responsible for maintaining basic laboratory functions such as animal husbandry and genotyping.
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Andrea Rosado
Andrea is responsible for the oversight of administrative and financial functions. These include overall lab management to ensure compliance, grants development and administration of budgets.
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Rudramani Singha
Rudra builds and maintains the computational infrastructure that powers the lab's research. He develops data analysis pipelines, visualization tools, and preprocessing workflows, while managing both local and cloud compute resources to support large-scale neural data analysis.
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Novak Chen
Novak received his B.A. in Mathematics and Geographic Information Systems from Clark University and his M.A. in Statistics from Columbia University. He builds and maintains large-scale behavioral and neural recording pipelines, integrates pose-tracking workflows, and develops statistical and machine-learning approaches to study memory, fear learning, and circuit–behavior relationships.