{"618871":{"#nid":"618871","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Seminar - Ming-fai Fong, Ph.D.*","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMing-\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Efai\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E Fong, Ph.D.*\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPostdoctoral Researcher\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDepartment Picower Institute for Learning\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nand Memory\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nMassachusetts Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMonday, \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMarch,\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E 11, 2019\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n10:00 a.m. \u0026ndash; 11:00 a.m.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nEmory University, Health Sciences Research Building (HSRB)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nRoom E160\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nVideoconference\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nGeorgia Tech: UAW 3115\/ Georgia Tech: TEP 208\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nhttps:\/\/bluejeans.com\/809850842\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026ldquo;Developing Plasticity-Based Technology for Treating Visual Disability\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EABSTRACT\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EDisruptions to sensory experience during infancy or early childhood can drive abnormal development of neural circuits.\u0026nbsp; Later in life, brain injury or disease can alter neural circuits that process sensory information.\u0026nbsp; These common adversities can result in profound disabilities in sensory processing and severely impact quality of life.\u0026nbsp; The central goal of my research is to develop technologies to treat these developmental or injury-induced neurological disorders and restore normal processing of afferent sensory information.\u0026nbsp; In this talk, I will review my recent investigations leveraging neural plasticity to promote recovery from a widespread neurodevelopmental form of visual disability called amblyopia.\u0026nbsp; First, I will show that temporarily silencing activity in the retinas reliably drives a generalized homeostatic potentiation of visual cortical activity in mice.\u0026nbsp; I will then present electrophysiological, anatomical, and behavioral evidence that retinal silencing fosters a stable recovery from visual impairment in amblyopic mice and cats, including in older animals that are typically recalcitrant to treatment. \u0026nbsp;Finally, I will discuss the critical role of burst-mode firing in the thalamus in visual recovery.\u0026nbsp; I will conclude by describing a framework for developing plasticity-based therapies and neural prosthetics for sensory rehabilitation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBIOGRAPHY\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMing-fai Fong received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2005 and her PhD in Neuroscience from Emory University in 2014.\u0026nbsp; She completed her undergraduate thesis on low-power locomotive robotics with Dr. Russ Tedrake and Dr. H. Sebastian Seung.\u0026nbsp; As a graduate student, she used closed-loop approaches to study homeostatic synaptic plasticity under the mentorship of Dr. Steve Potter and Dr. Peter Wenner.\u0026nbsp; Fong has also previously worked in wheelchair design, clean water initiatives, and STEM education, most recently as a visiting faculty member at Wellesley College.\u0026nbsp; Fong is currently a Research Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Mark Bear at the MIT Picower Institute for Learning and Memory where she studies visual disability and rehabilitation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHost: Machelle Pardue\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"\u201cDeveloping Plasticity-Based Technology for Treating Visual Disability\u201d"}],"uid":"27513","created_gmt":"2019-03-06 14:55:14","changed_gmt":"2019-03-06 14:55:14","author":"Walter Rich","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2019-03-11T11:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2019-03-11T12:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2019-03-11T12:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2019-03-11 15:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2019-03-11 16:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2019-03-11 16:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"1612","name":"BME"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"177814","name":"Postdoc"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWalter Rich\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}