Researcher Receives Travel Grant for SfN Conference

By Keith Gillogly

The $1,000 grant covers registration and travel expenses for attending the annual SfN conference in Chicago in October. The conference provides a forum for lectures, workshops, networking and professional development activities. Murlanova was selected for the grant from more than 350 abstract submissions.

Murlanova is a researcher in the lab of Mikhail V. Pletnikov, MD, PhD, professor and chair of physiology and biophysics. She studies the role of astrocyte mitochondrial metabolism in neuropsychiatric disease. Astrocytes are non-neuronal cells that help regulate brain energy metabolism, affecting brain functioning and cognition.

Her work has elucidated how the transcription factor NPAS3 regulates mitochondria bioenergetics—or energy flow—in astrocytes in mice. At the conference, her poster, “NPAS3-Regulated Astrocyte Mitochondria Bioenergetics Is Required for Cognition,” will detail a mechanistic link between NPAS3-dependent astrocyte bioenergetics and cognitive function. This work could help advance astrocyte-targeted treatments for cognitive dysfunctions in neuropsychiatric disease. 

“I am excited to share my work, exchange ideas and receive feedback from the great scientists attending this meeting,” Murlanova says. “I consider attending SfN 2024 a great opportunity to network and gain the knowledge and experience necessary to function as an independent investigator in the future.”

Proteintech, which produces and distributes various antibodies, reagents and other molecular products, supports two SfN travel grants each year. The other 2024 recipient is a Harvard Medical School researcher studying dysregulation of oligodendrocytes, glial cells crucial to myelin formation.

Murlanova hopes to soon publish the work that will be shared at the conference.