Faculty Focus: Melissa Warden

Melissa Warden hopes to better understand behavior and psychiatric conditions by probing the brains of rodents – using pond scum and pulses of light. The newest addition to the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Warden will be aided in her efforts with a $1.5 million award from the New York Stem Cell Foundation. The assistant professor and Miriam M. Salpeter Fellow has been named by the nonprofit as one of seven “most promising scientists” engaged in novel neuroscience and translational stem cell research. Warden will start her Cornell lab in November, after working as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Karl Deisseroth, a pioneer in optogenetics at Stanford University. She will use the technique to conduct research into the neural circuitry underlying normal and pathological patterns of action selection, motivation and learning in rats and mice, with potential therapeutic applications for humans with depression and psychiatric diseases. Read more about her research in this Chronicle story. The self-confessed foodie is looking forward to exploring the Ithaca culinary scene as well as its gorges. Last book read? “The Great Scandinavian Baking Book” by Beatrice Ojakangas.