Voneida fund awardees will advance their knowledge in neuroscience

Congratulations to Hariprakash Haragopal, Ph.D., and Miljan Terzic, Pharm.D. (’22), the 2024 recipients of awards from the Ted and Swanny Voneida Neuroscience Research and Training Fund.

The award was established in 2020 through a gift from Swanny Voneida, whose late husband, Theodore “Ted” Voneida, Ph.D., was the founding chair of NEOMED’s Department of Neurobiology in the 1970s. The award from the Voneida’s fund provides extramural training opportunities for Ph.D. candidates and postdoctoral fellows in neuroscience at NEOMED.

The two young neuroscientists selected for the 2024 awards will engage in external training opportunities for advanced neuroscience technologies. 

Dr. Haragopal will participate in the “Imaging Structure and Function in the Nervous System” course from Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory. The course incorporates both theoretical and practical training in advanced microscopy. Dr. Haragopal is a postdoctoral scientist in the laboratory of Bradley Winters, Ph.D., assistant professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology. 

Dr. Terzic will participate in the workshop “Spatial Transcriptomics Workshop: From Sample Preparation to Data Analysis” offered by Bio-Trac. Spatial transcriptomics enables neuroscientists to study gene expression in single cells within neural structures. Dr. Terzic is a Ph.D. student in the Basic and Translational Biomedicine program, mentored by Samuel Crish, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is also a University Hospitals-NEOMED Student Scholar.

The 2024 Voneida Fund Committee includes Jeffrey Wenstrup, Ph.D., professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology (chair), Bohdan Chopko, M.D. (‘93), Ph.D., professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Sheila Fleming, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

-- Submitted by Jeffrey Wenstrup, Ph.D.