Yuliya Voskobiynyk, PhD

Yuliya Voskobiynyk is a NOMIS-Gladstone Fellow at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, working with the research groups of Jeanne Paz, PhD, and Lennart Mucke, MD.

Voskobiynyk was born and raised in Tlumach, Ukraine. She received her BS in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her undergraduate studies at Rush University Medical Center focused on dendritic ion channels that control the neuronal propensity to fire action potentials.

During her doctoral work in the laboratory of Erik Roberson, MD, PhD, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, she discovered that the microtubule-associated protein tau enables neuronal and network hyperexcitability by stabilizing BIN1, an Alzheimer’s disease risk factor, and by regulating calcium channels at the membrane. For her early postdoctoral work, she joined the laboratory of Jeanne Paz, PhD, at Gladstone Institutes, where she focused on mapping and manipulating epileptic circuits in neurodevelopmental disorders, including SLC6A1- and SCN2A-related epilepsies.

In recognition of her scientific achievements and potential, Voskobiynyk has received an Action Potential Award from the FamilieSCN2A Foundation, a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Scholar Award, and an NIH Kirschstein-NRSA F32 Fellowship Award.

As a NOMIS-Gladstone Fellow, Voskobiynyk will explore how the electrical activity of brain immune cells called microglia affects the communication of these cells with neighboring neurons and the function of wider neural networks. She will also investigate whether microglial dysfunctions caused by Alzheimer’s disease–promoting genetic variants can alter brain states by disrupting GABA signaling and neuronal activities in thalamocortical circuits.

Voskobiynyk’s research will deepen our understanding of how microglial function and dysfunction affect neuronal circuits that control brain states. It will also shed light on the voltage-dependent microglial control of synaptic functions in major neurological disorders such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.