Gregor Stoddard Lectureship 2024

Gregor Stoddard Lectureship at Pediatric Grand Rounds

Friday

May 10, 2024 12:30–1:30 p.m.

Mt. Oxford 2nd Floor Conference Center Children’s Hospital Colorado Virtual Option Link: https://bit.ly/PedsGR24

“Nature, Nurture and the Neuroscience of Motherhood” Bianca Jones Marlin, PhD

About The Gregor Stoddard Lectureship is funded by a generous gift from Janie and Rick Stoddard of Denver. The Stoddards have endowed multiple lectureships and professorships at the Children’s hospital, and both the Section of Neonatology and the Department of Pediatrics have benefited from the wonderful speakers that have visited our campus over the years. Through these gifts and the resulting exchange of knowledge the Stoddards have improved the ability of pediatric care givers to provide world class care to children both here in Colorado and beyond.

Bianca Jones Marlin, PhD

HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Cell Research Department of Psychology Department of Neuroscience Principal Investigator at Columbia University Zuckerman Institute Bianca Jones Marlin, PhD, is a neuroscientist and the Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Cell Research in the Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience at Columbia University and the Zuckerman Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. Her research investigates how organisms unlock innate behaviors at appropriate times, and how learned information is passed to subsequent generations via transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Dr. Marlin’s experimental approach combines neural imaging, behavior and molecular genetics to uncover the mechanisms by which learning and emotion are biologically transmitted from neurons of the parent to neurons of their offspring. The resulting insights into how learned behavior in the parent can become innate behavior in the offspring promise to make a profound impact on societal brain health, mental well-being, and parenting.

Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Marlin completed her postdoctoral work under the mentorship of Nobel Laureate, Richard Axel, MD, where she investigated how trauma experienced by parents affects the brain structure and sensory experience of their future offspring. Marlin received her PhD from New York University working in the lab of Robert Froemke, PhD, where she examined how the brain adapts to care for a newborn – specifically the role of the neuropeptide oxytocin in maternal behavior. She has dual bachelor degrees in biology and adolescent education from St. John’s University.

Marlin’s work has been recognized with several awards and honors, including: Popular Science Magazine’s Brilliant 10, the STAT Wunderkind Award, the Allen Institute’s Next Generation Leaders Council, the Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience, and Discover Magazine’s Top 100 Stories. Her research and perspectives have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Discover Magazine and Forbes, among others.