Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Molecular and Cellular Biology Society (LVMCBS) Meeting!
The annual LVMCBS meeting will take place at Lafayette College in Easton, PA, on 23 April 2025, between 5:30 and 9:00 PM. The LVMCBS extends an invitation to everyone with an interest in the molecular and cellular biology field to attend the meeting.
Keynote speech: “Astrocytes signal distinct visual encoding changes during brain state shifts”
Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Grayson Sipe, Assistant Professor of Biology at Penn State University. Dr. Sipe received a B.S. in Neuroscience at Lafayette College in 2010 and first conducted research under Dr. James Dearworth studying pupillary light responses in turtles. He then completed a Ph.D. in Neurobiology & Anatomy under the mentorship of Dr. Ania Majewska at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in 2016. There, he became fascinated with glia, the non-neuronal cells of the brain, and studied them using in vivo two-photon microscopy in mice. His doctoral work was funded by an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship and uncovered new roles for microglia (i.e., the brain’s immune cells) in developmental synaptic plasticity and sleep/wake states. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at MIT under the mentorship of Dr. Mriganka Sur. There, he studied the role of astrocytes (another type of glia) in visual cortex development and physiology with the support of an NIH F32 postdoctoral fellowship. He then began to explore astrocyte calcium dynamics and neuromodulator release under different brain states and received an NIH K99/R00 pathway to independence award to explore these topics within the context of alcohol use disorder. In 2023, Grayson started his own research laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University as an Assistant Professor of Biology. His research currently focuses on neuron-glial mechanisms underlying sensory coding and decision making across physiological and pathophysiological brain states using advanced imaging techniques in mice. As a keynote speaker, Grayson is excited to share his scientific journey and to encourage the next generation of scientists to persevere in their personal and professional development.