Jihwan Myung is a principal investigator at the Laboratory of Braintime at Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital. He was born in Seoul, Korea and studied economics, physics, physiology, and life sciences in Seoul, Pohang, Seattle, and Kyoto. He investigates how various scales of time are kept in the brain, specifically in a small network clock called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). In his publications in 2015, he showed that the SCN network has an asymmetric coupling structure that can modulate the degree of the variance among component clocks, and use this variance to represent information of seasonal day length in addition to time of the day. These works proposed an answer to one of the oldest problems in chronobiology, known as photoperiodic encoding, and provided a new possibility that the network principle governing the seasonal timing is also responsible for the slow adaptation we experience during jet lag.
On-line profile available at Taipei Medical University Academic Hub & Google Scholar.
After studying axonal transport using microfluidics during her PhD, Hélène Vitet has come back to the very first topic that triggered her research career--circadian rhythms. As a postdoc in the braintime lab, she is deciphering the time and space appearance of circadian rhythm within mouse embryos. Helene is passionate about pushing the boundaries of science to get a better understanding of brain functioning.
On-line profiles available at LinkedIn & ResearchGate.
Vuong earned his Medical Doctor degree at Vietnam National University and then obtained a Master's degree in Cognitive Science at Taipei Medical University. Having delved into non-invasive neuroimaging techniques such as EEG and fMRI, with a primary focus on the visual cortex, human learning, and decision-making, he now embarks on a fascinating journey into Chronobiology. With a diverse background, he aims to study circadian rhythms at the intersection of biology, medicine, cognition, and computational modeling. His current project involves combining reinforcement learning with circadian clock and homeostatic dynamics to study circadian mood.
On-line profile available at GitHub.
Veronica earned her Bachelor's degree in biological engineering at MIT and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in the Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at Taipei Medical University. Her undergraduate research experience in neuroimmunology and brain cancer prompted an interest in the field of neuroscience and how different regions in the brain interact. Her current project focuses on using a computational model to identify the presence and strength of attractive/repulsive interactions between key circadian oscillators in the brain and how those interactions change in various light conditions.
"Neil" Chinyang Cheng is an undergraduate student who is enthusiastic about the brain and consciousness. After learning about the mathematical concepts of neuroscience, his interest in the field has been sparked. Starting as an assistant in the lab, he is ready to explore the unknown frontier of the complex brain.
Cindy is currently pursuing her Medical degree at Taipei Medical University. With prior lab training in a TMU cancer pathology lab and Alzheimer's disease research at Johns Hopkins, she discovered her passion for neuroscience. Fascinated by circadian rhythms’ profound influence on various physiological systems, she aims to unravel the mysteries of the correlation between circadian rhythms, the choroid plexus, and the intricate dynamics of CSF, including their potential roles in diseases such as Alzheimer's. Looking ahead, Cindy aspires to establish connections with circadian labs worldwide. Her ultimate goal is to make meaningful contributions to the field of neurology as both a neurologist and researcher.
Amalia studied biology for her bachelor's degree at Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia, working with animal models and serving as a laboratory assistant in various research groups. She then received her master's degree at the Graduate Institute Mind Brain and Consciousness (GIMBC). Now, she's exploring circadian rhythm and mood disorder in mice, and she is particularly interested in how jet lag and other abnormal conditions affect mood.
On-line profiles available at LinkedIn.