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About the Speakers

Audrey Brumback, MD, PhD

Audrey Brumback, MD, PhD

Dr. Audrey Brumback is currently a neuroscientist and pediatric neurologist at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. She grew up in Norman, Oklahoma with her parents Roger and Mary and brothers Darryl and Owen. Her first hands-on research experience was through the Sir Alexander Fleming Scholars summer internship program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City under the mentorship of Drs. Michael Dresser and John Harley. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry through the Dean’s Scholars program at the University of Texas at Austin in 1999 under the guidance of Dr. Alan Cline. It was her senior research project with Dr. George Pollak that turned her on to the beauty and power of neurophysiology. She completed her MD and PhD at the University of Colorado Medical Scientist Training Program under the mentorship of Dr. Kevin Staley, where she studied the basic science mechanisms underlying the depolarizing effect of GABA in the neonatal brain. She finished residency at UCSF in 2013 through the Neuroscience Pathway in Child Neurology. During her last year of residency and continuing since then, she has spent the majority of her time in the laboratory of Dr. Vikaas Sohal in the Center for Integrative Neuroscience examining the cellular and circuit mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder.

In addition to her research, Dr. Brumback treats patients in the Sensory, Neurodevelopment & Autism Program and general child neurology clinic at the UCSF Pediatric Brain Center, and is the child neurologist for “Katie’s Clinic” for Rett Syndrome and Related Disorders at UCSF. As she transitions to being an independent investigator, she will focus her energy on studying the mechanisms of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders at the level of cells, circuits, and behavior. Dr. Brumback received the Child Neurology Foundation PERF Research Grant in 2015 and the CNS Philip R. Dodge Young Investigator Award in 2017.