Navigating Collaborating Across Disciplines with Team Science

Anne K. Churchland is an assistant professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Churchland received her PhD in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington in the physiology and biophysics department. In starting her own laboratory, Churchland began studying decision-making using rodent models, to take advantage of emerging tools for circuit dissection. Her laboratory has been a major player in bringing behavioral paradigms to rodents that have been successful in elucidating neural mechanisms in humans and primates, including perceptual decision-making and multisensory integration. She is a founding member of the International Brain Laboratory, a collaboration of 21 experimentalists and theorists that aims to generate a brain-wide theory of decision-making.

A. Bolu Ajiboye holds appointments as an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University and as a research investigator at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. His main research interest is in the development and control of brain-computer interface (BCI) neuroprosthetic technologies for restoring function after injuries such as spinal cord injury and stroke. The goal of his research is to develop BCI systems that allow for more natural interactions with one’s surrounding environment, and more natural control of assistive technologies such as artificial limbs and functional electrical stimulation-based systems.

Cristopher Bragg is an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Collaborative Center for X-linked dystonia parkinsonism. He received his undergraduate degree in psychology at Duke University and his PhD in neurobiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital. Research in the Bragg laboratory is directed toward the identification of pathogenic mechanisms underlying hereditary forms of dystonia and the development of screening tools to seek novel candidates for treating these disorders.

John Davenport is the managing director of the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science and an adjunct associate professor of neuroscience at Brown University. As a science journalist, his work has appeared in Science, Newsweek, Wired, the HHMI Bulletin, and other venues. He joined Science magazine as an associate editor for the Science of Aging Knowledge Environment, covering developments in the field of biology of aging. Davenport earned his PhD in chemistry (molecular biology) from the University of Oregon and brings together his research background and experience in communication to serve as a liaison among the more than 180 faculty members at Brown who pursue research on the brain. He catalyzes communication and scientific collaboration among diverse disciplines, particularly the intersection of the physical and life sciences, and works with teams of scientists to build and sustain interdisciplinary research and training programs.