Neurobiology Department
Neurobiology Department
The Department of Neurobiology is a vibrant collection of faculty and research labs dedicated to investigating development and nervous system function in health and disease. Research areas include the molecular, cellular and circuit analysis of neuronal communication and behavior, the role of gene regulation and epigenetics in development and nervous system function, and mechanisms of disease.
We are committed to graduate and postdoctoral training, emphasizing research excellence and professional development. We also also boast a strong tradition of leadership in health sciences education and scholarship. The department is an integral part of campus-wide neuroscience and developmental biology communities.
Welcome Dr. Christopher Zimmerman
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Christopher Zimmerman as a new member of the faculty starting at Assistant Professor in January 2026!
Dr. Zimmerman’s research focuses on the neuroscience of body–brain communication, interoception, and learning. A major goal of his work is to understand how feedback signals generated by our internal organs remodel neural circuitry and dynamics in the brain to support learning. For example, he recently discovered that food poisoning signals from the gut can selectively reactivate and strengthen the brain’s representation of flavors from a recent meal, which helps us learn to avoid foods that have made us sick (Nature 2025). His lab at the University of Utah will bring together new tools and perspectives — from systems and computational neuroscience, machine learning, physiology, genomics, and biochemistry — to address fundamental questions about body–brain interactions in learning and memory. See the Zimmerman lab website for more information: https://zimmerman-lab.org.
Rising Stars in Neuroscience
Rising Stars in Neuroscience Symposium 2026
We are excited to announce the 6th annual symposium dates with details on our mission, features, and postdoctoral award of $5000!
Graduate students APPLY HERE
Student Spotlight
The Neurobiology Department is proud to highlight Jordan Grammer, a Ph.D. student in the Zelikowsky Lab at the University of Utah. Jordan’s research focuses on the neurobiology of social behavior, specifically how social isolation shapes social anxiety-related neural circuits.
Most recently, Jordan was first author on a publication in Cell Reports Methods titled “An integrative assay for measuring social aversion and motivation in freely behaving mice” (2025). This innovative work introduces a new behavioral assay that allows scientists to study the balance between social avoidance and approach in naturalistic settings, providing the field with a powerful new tool to dissect the neural mechanisms of social behavior.
Jordan’s contributions have been recognized nationally through several competitive awards and fellowships. She is a Neuroscience Scholars Program Fellow with the Society for Neuroscience (2024), a recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2022), and is currently funded by the University of Utah Graduate Research Fellowship (2025). She has also earned travel awards from the University of Utah and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through The Jackson Laboratory to present her work at international conferences, including the Gordon Research Conference on Amygdala Function and the Society for Neuroscience annual meetings.
“What excites me most about neuroscience is the opportunity to create tools and approaches that help us ask better questions about how the brain shapes behavior. I’m grateful to be part of a department that values both discovery and collaboration.”
Faculty Highlight: Christopher Gregg
Christopher Gregg is a Professor of Neurobiology and Benning Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah. His lab integrates comparative genomics, single-cell multi-omics, genome editing, and computational behavioral analyses to uncover how gene regulatory mechanisms link metabolism, brain function, and naturalistic behavior. The Gregg Lab aims to identify conserved cis-regulatory elements that control adaptive capacities across species and reveal novel genetic targets for disease resilience and precision medicine. He is the co-founder of Storyline Health Inc., Primordial AI, and Uncharted Health. His translational work applies behavioral artificial intelligence and comparative genomics to create scalable precision medicine technologies.
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