MOLECULAR

Goal: identification of cell types and associated key molecules

Molecular techniques used: 

• Single-cell RNA-seq

• Big data analysis (transcriptomics)

• In situ hybridization

• Immunohistochemistry

CELLULAR

Goal: validate and causally interpret cell types and molecules

Cellular techniques used:

• Patch-clamp electrophysiology

• Cell-type-specific gene knockouts (CRISPR)

CIRCUIT

Goal: map molecules and cell types onto circuits and develop circuit-specific access 

Circuit techniques used:

• Virus-mediated anterograde and retrograde circuit mapping

• Circuit-specific silencing and activation

BEHAVIOURAL

Goal: interpret behavior with molecular, cell-type, and circuit specificity

Behavioural techniques used:

• Combine mouse behaviour with molecular-, cellular-, and/or circuit-specific interventions

• 1P, 2P, and 3P calcium imaging during behaviour

March 27, 2023: Ming Zhang is awarded an SBME Synergy Award, Kate Dunne is awarded an NSERC USRA, and Kaitlin Sullivan is awarded the Laura G. Jasch Memorial award.

December 15, 2023 Sarah Erwin, MSc, successfully defends her master’s thesis!! Brianna Bristow is awarded the Dorothy May Ladner Memorial Fellowship from the UBC Faculty of Medicine.

October 16, 2023: Shalini Iyer is interviewed on Global News for her leadership and advocacy in the Support Our Science movement.

August 17, 2023: Adi Swaro wins the Outstanding Second-Year Student Leadership in Neuroscience Award, and receives second-place for his student presentation at the 2023 SBME Synergy Research Day.

July 17, 2023: Brianna Bristow and Regan Campbell are awarded DMCBH General Awards, and Catie Futhey is awarded the Schizophrenia Endowment Award.

June 23, 2023: Shalini Iyer is awarded a Postgraduate Scholarship - Doctoral award and a UBC 4-Year Fellowship.

April 25, 2023: The lab, in collaboration with clinical and engineering colleagues, is awarded a New Frontiers in Research Fund grant to study the mechanisms of epilepsy in the human brain.

April 24, 2023: Aditya Swaro and Cate Futhey receive SBME Synergy Awards for their summer research.

April 1, 2023: Brianna Bristow and Margarita Kapustina are each awarded Canada Graduate Scholarships - Masters from CIHR. Margarita is also awarded an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award. Kaitlin Sullivan is awarded the Department of Statistics Award in Data Science.

March 10, 2023: Derek Merryweather receives both the Faculty-nominated and Student-nominated Best Presentation Award at the CPS Departmental Retreat, and Larissa Kraus scores 2nd place for her poster.

March 9, 2023: Lab alumnus Jennifer Tsai receives both the University of Waterloo and Ontario province co-op student of the year awards for her research in the lab.

March 6, 2023: Research from Kaitlin, Larissa, and Margarita on the organization of the retrosplenial cortex is published in Cell Reports.

February 1, 2023: The Cembrowski lab is a co-investigator on a funded CIHR Project Grant to study brain signatures of schizophrenia, along with Veronica Hirsch-Reinshagen (PI), Fidel Vila-Rodriguez (co-I), and William Horner (Co-I).

November 5, 2022: Our research on cell types in the central amygdala is published in iScience.

November 4, 2022: The Cembrowski lab is featured in Nature Methods, with an interview with Mark on the patch-seq technique.

October 1, 2022: The lab is awarded a Major Research Grant from the Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation of Canada to study the cell-type-specific basis of autism spectrum disorder.

September 1, 2022: Lots of awards for lab members! Larissa Kraus has her Walter Benjamin Programme Postdoctoral Fellow award extended, Kaitlin Sullivan receives a Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral award, Adrienne Kinman receives a Postgraduate Scholarship - Doctoral award, and Shalini Iyer is awarded a BC Graduate Scholarship,

July 15, 2022: The lab is awarded a CIHR Project Grant to study representation of novelty in the brain.

June 22, 2022: The lab is awarded a Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health Kickstart Grant, to develop and apply new RNA-seq technology in colloboration with Nozomu Yachie (biomedical engineering) and Geoffrey Schiebinger (math).

June 2, 2022: Willis Cao is awarded the Physiology Prize for the best thesis in the Cellular and Physiological Sciences Honours undergraduate program.

March 21, 2022: Angela Zhang is awarded a Science Undergraduate Research Experience Award, as well as a UBC Faculty of Medicine Summer Student Research Program Award.

April 9, 2022: Sarah Erwin and Regan Campbell are each awarded Canada Graduate Scholarships - Masters from CIHR. Raja Choudhary is awarded an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award.

Feb. 7, 2022: Sarah Erwin is featured in a Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences bio.

Aug. 16, 2021: Work from Sarah, Brianna, Rennie, and Kaitlin on the cell-type-specific organization of the claustrum is published in eLife.

Aug. 3, 2021: Mark receives an Excellence in Foundational Science Research Distinguished Achievement Award from the UBC Faculty of Medicine.

July 29, 2021: Sarah Erwin receives the Cordula and Gunter Paetzold Fellowship from UBC, and is featured in an interview with the UBC Life Sciences Institute.

July 23, 2021: Sarah Erwin, Axel Guskjolen, and Kaitlin Sullivan all win Djavad Mowaghian Centre for Brain Health General Awards, and Adrienne Kinman receives the Benjamin Feldman and Family Endowment Fund for Transformational Activity in Mental Health. Details here.

April 30, 2021: Nadine Plett from the lab receives a UBC Faculty of Medicine Summer Student Research Program Award.

April 1, 2021: Madeline Elder and Rennie Kendrick from the lab are both offered Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships (Masters).

March 10, 2021: Kaitlin Sullivan receives first place for her talk at the School for Biomedical Engineering Research Day, and as well receives the “Publication of the Year” award from UBC Neuroscience.

March 3, 2021: Larissa Kraus receives a grant from Advanced Cell Diagnostics to apply multiplexed FISH techniques in the human brain.

Jan. 25, 2021: Maddie Elder receives first place for her talk at the Canadian Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics.

Jan. 1, 2021: Axel Guskjolen joins the lab as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow. The Cembrowski lab celebrates its two-year anniversary.

Dec. 18, 2020: Research with Tim Murphy has awarded funding in the Dawn Shaw Alzheimer's Disease Research Competition.

Nov. 27, 2020: Research from our lab funded by Brain Canada is highlighted in the Globe and Mail (left).

Nov. 23, 2020: A review from lab members Kaitlin Sullivan and Rennie Kendrick on using single-cell transcriptomic technology to understand memory is published in the Journal of Neurochemistry.

Nov. 11, 2020: Kaitlin Sullivan is awarded a Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform Scholar Award.

Nov. 9, 2020: Mark is named a Azrieli Future Leader in Canadian Brain Research from Brain Canada and the Azrieli Foundation.

Oct. 14, 2020: Adrienne Kinman receives an award from the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health for her research.

Sept. 22, 2020: Mark is awarded the Krieg Cortical Explorer award from the Cajal Club..

Sept. 8, 2020: Mark receives a Scholar award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.

Sept. 1, 2020: Work from O’Leary*, Sullivan*, et al. on heterogeneity within basolateral amygdala neurons is published in eLife and receives a “Striking Image” highlight.

Sept. 1, 2020: Larissa Kraus, Rennie Kendrick, Aahana Kanyal, and Brianna Bristow all officially start in the lab this month. Mark is an affiliate faculty member of UBC’s Institute for Applied Mathematics.

July 12, 2020: Rennie Kendrick is featured by the University of Oregon.

July 8, 2020: Larissa Kraus (upper left) receives a Walter Benjamin Programme Fellowship from the German Research Foundation.

July 5, 2020: Kaitlin Sullivan (upper right) is awarded a Scholar Award from the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform Research.

April 28, 2020: Work from Sarah Erwin in the lab (lower left), examining heterogeneity in dentate gyrus granule cells (lower right), is published in Cell Reports.

April 15, 2020: Lots of awards for lab members! Madeline Elder (upper left) receives an Undergraduate Student Research Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to study cellular mechanisms of memory. Rennie Kendrick (upper right) has been selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar. She will use big-data experimental and computational approaches to understand fear memory mechanisms in the brain. Adrienne Kinman and Kaitlin Sullivan (left and right, lower row) have both been awarded Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s) awards for their previous and ongoing research accomplishments..

Dec. 4, 2019 As Co-PI along with lead PI Cheryl Wellington, our research on fear memory extinction and cognitive flexibility after traumatic brain injury has been recommended for funding by the United States of America Department of Defense.

Oct. 21, 2019: Kaitlin Sullivan is the recipient of the Royal Canadian Legion Master’s Scholarship in Veteran Health Research, and receives her award at the 10th Annual Military and Veteran Health Research Forum. Thank you to the Legion and the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research for supporting her research.

Oct. 17, 2019: Our research on subtype-specific decompositions of mature dentate gyrus granule cells is posted to bioRxiv. A Twitter thread giving an overview of our results is here.

Feb. 18, 2019: Our review on heterogeneity within hippocampal cell types has been published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience with a cover illustration.

Jan. 1, 2019: Our laboratory has officially opened at the University of British Columbia, with Tim O’Leary starting as a Research Associate.

Dec. 18, 2018: See a presentation of our research at the Allen Institute Showcase 2018.

Dec. 17, 2018: Our recent eLife paper was highlighted in Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

Mark S. Cembrowski, MS, PhD Short CV (October 2021) | mark.cembrowski@ubc.ca

Primary affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

Other affiliations:

• Investigator, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, UBC

• Associate Member, School of Biomedical Engineering, UBC

• Associate Member, Institute of Applied Mathematics, UBC

• Associate Member, Department of Mathematics, UBC

• Visiting Scientist, Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

• Next Generation Leader, Allen Institute

• Scholar, Michael Smith Health Research BC

• Associate Director, Graduate Program in Neuroscience, UBC

Larissa Kraus, PhD CV | Google Scholar | larissa.kraus@ubc.ca

Walter Benjamin Programme Postdoctoral Fellow

Larissa’s research focuses on identifying subpopulations of cells in healthy and diseased human brain tissue. In this way, she hopes to identify novel mechanisms to treat neurological diseases, such as epilepsy. Before joining the Cembrowski lab and moving to Vancouver, Larissa completed her PhD in Berlin, Germany (2020).

Kaitlin Sullivan CV | Google Scholar

PhD Candidate | 2019 Royal Canadian Legion Master’s Scholar | 2020 Canada Graduate Scholar - Master’s | 2020 Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform Scholar | 2022 Canada Graduate Scholar - Doctoral | 2022 UBC Four-Year Fellow

Kaitlin's research is focused on identifying neuronal subpopulations that participate in various stages of fear memory. Originally from Vancouver, Kaitlin completed her undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science at McGill University in 2016. During this time, she also completed an honours thesis project in the lab of Dr. Derek Bowie, where she investigated the expression of voltage gated sodium channels in the cerebellum. 

Adrienne Kinman CV | akinman@student.ubc.ca

PhD Candidate | Benjamin Feldman and Family Endowment Fund for Transformational Activity in Mental Health Awardee | 2020 Canada Graduate Scholar - Master’s | 2022 Postgraduate Scholar - Doctoral | 2022 UBC Four-Year Fellow

Adrienne’s research focuses on the characterization of cell types involved in fear memory during behaviour, and how the activity of these cells can change under pharmacologic interventions. Previously, Adrienne completed a BA in psychology at McGill University, and then worked at the Mouse Imaging Centre at The Hospital for Sick Children where she assessed neuroanatomical and behavioural responses to drug treatments for autism spectrum disorder.

Mathias Delhaye CV

PhD Candidate (co-supervised with Ann Marie Craig)

Mathias' research focuses on assessing synaptic composition in hippocampal subregions in relation to epilepsy. For this purpose, he will adapt the Expansion Microscopy to apply it on human samples. Originally from France, Mathias studied at the École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay and is currently registered at the Sorbonne University Master of Neuroscience.

Daemon L. Cline CV | Google Scholar | dlcline@student.ubc.ca

PhD Candidate | NSERC Canada Graduate Scholar- Doctoral | UBC Four-Year Fellow

Daemon's current research focuses on the neuroendocrinology of energy metabolism by studying hormones produced in the periphery that act on energy-regulating centres of the brain. Daemon completed his BSc in Biochemistry at UNBC with a thesis centred on disturbance ecology of streams in Northern BC. He then earned a MSc of Biochemistry at UNBC in the lab of Dr Sarah Gray, where he studied energy-regulating hormones.  

Derek Merryweather CV | dmerrywe@student.ubc.ca

PhD Candidate

Derek is interested in the intrinsic properties, circuit architecture, and functional output of the subiculum, as it relates to memory and cognition. He received is BS in human physiology from the University of Oregon, after which he worked as a technician for the GENIE Project at the Janelia Research Campus, and he completed his masters at NYU in Dr. Adam Carter's lab.

Shalini Iyer CV | siyer13@student.ubc.ca

PhD Candidate | 2023 Postgraduate Scholar - Doctoral | 2023 UBC Four-Year Fellow | 2022 BC Research Scholar

Shalini is currently completing her MSc in Neuroscience at York University, investigating the role of a bioactive lipid signalling molecule on hippocampal development and the link to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the Cembrowski lab, Shalini is interested in investigating developmental abnormalities of specific cell types within the deep subiculum and neocortex using the valproate model of ASD

Regan Campbell CV | recampb@student.ubc.ca

PhD Student | 2022 CIHR Canada Graduate Scholar - Master’s

Regan is combining computational modeling and in-vivo multi-photon calcium imaging to identify how neuronal morphology shapes cellular computations, and how these computations operate in-vivo to give rise to cell-type specific functions in the subiculum. She previously completed her H.BSc in Neuroscience and Applied Statistics at the University of Toronto. During this time, she completed her honours thesis in Dr. Rutsuko Ito’s lab, where she investigated the role of the hippocampus in temporal memory and motivational conflict.

Brianna Bristow CV | brianna.bristow@ubc.ca

PhD Student | 2024 Dorothy May Ladner Memorial Fellow | 2023 CIHR Canada Graduate Scholar - Master’s

Brianna’s research focuses on characterizing a novel cell type exemplifying a unique transcriptomic profile in the cortex. Previously, Brianna completed her BSc in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia. Here, she completed her thesis work in the Ciernia Lab, where she developed functional assays to measure microglial activation in vitro and optimized media conditions to best model the brain microenvironment.

Catie Futhey CV | cfuthey@student.ubc.ca

MD-PhD Student (co-supervised with Veronica Hirsch-Reinshagen) | 2024 CIHR Canada Graduate Scholar - Master’s | 2023 UBC Four-Year Fellow

Catie is a first year MD-PhD student at UBC interested in neuro-immune crosstalk in the brain. She will be working on a joint project with Dr. Veronica Hirsch-Reinshagen studying the neuroinflammatory and synaptic changes observed in Alzheimer’s Disease and schizophrenia. Catie completed her BSc in Neuroscience at McGill University where her research with Dr. Jack Antel investigated the role of Vitamin D in Multiple Sclerosis pathophysiology.

Ryan Ripsman (starting September 2024) CV

MD-PhD Student

Ryan is an incoming MD/PhD student at UBC. He is interested in the interactions between brain tumours and the neuronal microenvironment. Ryan completed his undergraduate degree in physics and his master's degree in laboratory medicine and pathobiology at the University of Toronto. For his master's research he worked on integrating multi-omic liquid biopsy technology into a precision oncology program at SickKids Hospital.

Margarita Kapustina CV | margokap@student.ubc.ca

MSc Student | 2023 CIHR Canada Graduate Scholar - Master’s

Margarita's research focuses on identifying functionally distinct neuronal subpopulations in layer 6b of the mouse and human neocortex. She completed a BSc in biology at UBC, conducting her undergraduate research thesis and NSERC USRA in our lab, identifying layer 6b neuronal subtypes through big data analyses and in situ techniques.

Sarah Erwin CV | sarah.erwin@ubc.ca

Technician IV | 2021 Cordula and Gunter Paetzold Fellow | 2022 CIHR Canada Graduate Scholar - Master’s

Sarah is combining molecular, circuit, and behavioural techniques to study the precise cell-type logic of memory and anxiety in the hippocampus. Prior to joining the Cembrowski lab, Sarah worked as a technician at HHMI Janelia Research Campus, as well as a research assistant in a monogastric animal nutrition lab at Michigan State University.

Angela Zhang

Work-learn MD student

Angela is a first-year MD student at UBC. She is interested in exploring neurobiology and microscopy. At the Cembrowski lab, she uses highly multiplexed fluorescent in situ hybridization to study the effects of traumatic brain injury.

Ali Tarik aatarik@student.ubc.ca

Physiology, Pharmacology and Neurobiology Co-op Student

Ali is a third year Physiology, Pharmacology and Neurobiology student at UBC. He is interested in exploring experimental neuroscience and the physiological structures that impact memory in the brain. His work as a Directed Studies student involves analyzing the electrophysiological, morphological, and connectivity rules of layer 6b neurons.

Aditya Swaro CV | adiswaro@student.ubc.ca

Neuroscience Undergraduate Directed Studies Student | SBME Synergy Awardee

Aditya is a third-year Neuroscience undergraduate student at UBC. He is interested in exploring neuron degeneration through computational approaches. At the Cembrowski Lab, he develops computational tools for interpreting traumatic brain injury spatial transcriptomics data, and web portals to host these data and tools.

Ming Zhang CV (starting summer 2024)

SBME Synergy Awardee | Neuroscience Undergraduate C0-op Student | SURE Awardee

Ming is a third-year Neuroscience undergraduate student at UBC. She is interested in exploring the impacts of chronic anxiety on memory formation in the brain. In the Cembrowski lab, she is applying computational and experimental approaches to understanding how long-range projections covary with local neuronal morphology.

Kate Dunne CV | kd172273@student.ubc.ca

NSERC USRA Awardee | Honours Cellular, Anatomical and Physiological Sciences Directed Studies Undergraduate Student

Kate is a 4th year Cellular, Anatomical, and Physiological Sciences major also pursuing a minor in Animal Biology at UBC. She is interested in improving our spatial understanding of cell types within the brain. As a directed studies student, Kate is applying immunohistochemical techniques to understand Alzheimer’s disease progression in the mouse brain.

Lucie Wang

Honours Cellular, Anatomical and Physiological Sciences Undergraduate Student

Lucie is a third year Honours Cellular, Anatomical, and Physiological Sciences student. She is interested in mapping out brain circuits in the subiculum of the hippocampus, using immunostaining and microscopy.

Riya Gandhi (starting summer 2024)

Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Physiology Co-op Undergraduate Student

Riya is a third-year Integrated Sciences student studying Neuroscience, Pharmacology and Physiology. She is interested in exploring the neural substrates underlying fear memory and anxiety.

Kapustina, M.*, Zhang, A.A.*, Tsai, J.Y.J., Bristow B.N., Kraus, L., Sullivan, K.E., Erwin, S.R., Wang, L., Stach, T.R., Clements, J., Lemire, A.L., Cembrowski, M.S. The cell-type-specific spatial organization of the anterior thalamic nuclei of the mouse brain. Cell Reports 2024.

Guskjolen, A., Cembrowski, M.S. Engram neurons: Encoding, consolidation, retrieval, and forgetting of memory. Molecular Psychiatry 2023.

Sullivan, K.E., Kraus, L., Kapustina, M., Wang, L., Stach, T., Clements, J., Lemire, A., Cembrowski, M.S. Sharp cell-type-identity changes differentiate the retrosplenial cortex from the neocortex. Cell Reports 2023.

O’Leary, T.P.*, Kendrick, R.M.*, Bristow, B.N., Sullivan, K.E., Wang, L., Clements, J., Lemire, A., Cembrowski, M.S. Neuronal cell types, projections, and spatial organization of the central amygdala. iScience 2022.

Erwin, S.E.*, Bristow, B.N.*, Kendrick, R.M., Sullivan, K.E., Marriot, B., Wang, L., Clements, J., Lemire, A., Jackson, J., Cembrowski, M.S. Spatially patterned excitatory neuron subtypes and projections of the claustrum. eLife 10:e68967. 2021.

Sullivan, K.E.*, Kendrick, R.K.*, Cembrowski, M.S. Elucidating memory in the brain via single‐cell transcriptomics. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 2021.

O’Leary, T.P.*, Sullivan, K.E.*, Wang, L., Clements, J., Lemire, A., Cembrowski, M.S. Extensive and spatially variable within-cell-type heterogeneity across the basolateral amygdala. eLife 9:e59003. 2020.

• eLife “Striking Image”

Erwin, S.R.*, Sun, W.*, Copeland, M., Lindo, S., Spruston, N., Cembrowski, M.S. A sparse, spatially biased subtype of mature granule cell dominates activity in hippocampal-associated behaviors. Cell Reports 31(4):1-2. 2020..

Cembrowski, M.S. Single-cell transcriptomics as a framework and roadmap for understanding the brain. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 326:1-7. 2019.

Cembrowski, M.S., Spruston, N. Integrating results across methodologies is essential for producing robust neuronal taxonomies. Neuron 94(1): 747-751, 2017.

Cembrowski, M.S., Wang., L., Sugino, K., Shields, B.C., Spruston, N. Hipposeq: a comprehensive RNA-seq database of gene expression in hippocampal principal neurons. eLife 5, 10.7554/eLife.14997, 2016.

Bloss, E.B., Cembrowski, M.S., Karsh, B., Colonell, J., Fetter, R., Spruston, N. Structured patterns of dendritic inhibition support branch-specific forms of integration in CA1 pyramidal cells. Neuron 89(5): 1016-1030, 2016.

Cembrowski, M.S., Bachman, J.L., Wang, L., Sugino, K., Shields, B.C., Spruston, N. Spatial gene-expression gradients underlie prominent heterogeneity of CA1 pyramidal neurons. Neuron 89(2): 351-368, 2016.

• ·Featured article of the issue. Previewed by Tushev, G. and Schuman, E.M. Rethinking Functional Segregation: Gradients of Gene Expression in Area CA1. Neuron 89(2):242-243, 2016.

• ·Of Outstanding Interest. Mallory, C.S. and Giocomo, L.M. Heterogeneity within hippocampal place coding. Review, Current Opinion in Neurobiology 49:158-167, 2018.

• ·Highlighted reference (1 of 6). Soltesz, I. and Losonczy, A. CA1 pyramidal cell diversity enabling parallel information processing in the hippocampus. Review, Nature Neuroscience 21(18): 484-493, 2018.

• Of Special Interest. Valero, M. and de la Prida, L,M. The hippocampus in depth: a sublayer-specific perspective of entorhinal–hippocampal function. Review, Current Opinion in Neurobiology 52:107-114, 2018.

• Of Special Interest. Suvrathan, A. Beyond STDP – Towards Diverse and Functionally Relevant Plasticity Rules. Review, Current Opinion in Neurobiology 54:12-19, 2019.

Kim, Y.*, Hsu, C.-L.*, Cembrowski, M.S., Mensh, B.D., Spruston, N. Dendritic sodium spikes are required for long-term potentiation at distal synapses on hippocampal pyramidal neurons. eLife 4, doi:10.7554/eLife.06414, 2015. *: authors contributed equally

• ·Recommendation on Faculty of 1000.

Choi, H., Lei, Zhang, L., Cembrowski, M.S., Sabottke, C.F., Markowitz, A.L., Butts, D.A., Kath, W.L., Singer, J.H., Riecke, H. Intrinsic bursting of AII amacrine cells underlies oscillations in the rd1 mouse retina. Journal of Neurophysiology 112(6): 1491-1504, 2014.

Ke, J., Wang, Y., Borghuis, B.G., Cembrowski, M.S., Riecke, H., Kath, W.L., Demb, J.B., Singer, J.H. Adaptation to background light enables contrast coding at rod bipolar cell synapses. Neuron 81(2): 388-401, 2014.

• ·Recommendation on Faculty of 1000.

Cembrowski, M.S., Logan, S., Tian, M., Jia, L., Li, W., Kath, W.L., Riecke, H., Singer, J.H. The mechanisms of repetitive spike generation in an axonless retinal interneuron. Cell Reports 1(2): 155-166, 2012.

Jarsky, T.*, Cembrowski, M.S.*, Logan, S., Kath, W.L., Riecke, H., Demb, J., Singer, J.H. A synaptic mechanism for retinal adaptation to luminance and contrast. The Journal of Neuroscience 31(30): 11003-110515, 2011. *: authors contributed equally

Mark S. Cembrowski received his BSc in Mathematics from the University of British Columbia (2007), where he conducted research examining complex oscillatory behaviour of a sixth-order nonlinear partial differential equation. He later received his MS (2008) and PhD (2011) in Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University, where he combined computational modeling and patch-clamp electrophysiology to study retinal processing as a joint student between William Kath, Hermann Riecke, and Joshua Singer.

As a postdoc, Mark worked in the laboratory of Nelson Spruston at the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research combined computational modeling, big data analysis, transcriptomics, electrophysiology, viral circuit mapping, and animal behaviour to study the role of cell types in memory.

Currently, Mark is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences at the University of British Columbia, and an Investigator with the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. He is also a Next Generation Leader with the Allen Institute and a Visiting Scientist with the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

In his spare time, Mark practises and teaches yoga, handstands, and calisthenics.

Mark's short CV (current as of October 2021) is here.

Cembrowski Lab featured in SelectScience (video, article)

Mark interviewed in Science

Mark interviewed in Nature Methods

Mark presents research at the Allen Institute Showcase Symposium