Emily S. Wilson, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow at Instituto de Neurociencias Alicante CSIC-UMH. She earned her PhD in anatomy and cell biology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. Wilson’s research focus is investigating the mechanisms that drive thalamocortical network development. She is currently exploring network connectivity between astrocytes and neurons rising from varying regions within the somatosensory pathway to determine the impact of region specificity on developing networks, redirecting astrocytes into neurons in vivo and in vitro and determining their connectivity in thalamocortical pathway, and investigating the onset and development of spontaneous activity in emerging thalamocortical networks using human-derived 3D models of development.

Tiffany Bartel is a PhD candidate at Cleveland State University, Cleveland Clinic Foundation. She received her bachelor's degree in biology and neuroscience from Baldwin Wallace University. Bartel’s research focus is on cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) and drug-resistant epilepsies.