The Idea Organ

Dr Muotri is a Professor at the Departments of Pediatrics and Cellular & Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego and an Associate Director of CARTA, in addition to being the Director of the Stem Cell Program and of the Archealization Center at UC San Diego. Dr Muotri earned a BSc in Biological Sciences from the State University of Campinas in 1995 and a Ph.D. in Genetics in 2001 from the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil. He moved to the Salk Institute as Pew Latin America Fellow in 2002 for postdoctoral training in the fields of neuroscience and stem cell biology. His research focuses on brain evolution and modelling neurological diseases using human-induced pluripotent stem cells and brain organoids. He has received several awards, including the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, NARSAD, Emerald Foundation Young Investigator Award, Surugadai Award, Rock Star of Innovation, NIH EUREKA Award, and two Telly Awards for Excellence in Science Communication among several others.

Genevieve Konopka, Ph.D., became Chair of the Department of Neurobiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, effective July 1, 2025.

Dr. Konopka was Professor and Vice Chair of Neuroscience, the Jon Heighten Scholar in Autism Research, and the Townsend Distinguished Chair in Research on Autism Spectrum Disorders at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Konopka received dual B.S. degrees in Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biology from MIT and completed her Ph.D. in Neurobiology at Harvard University. She also completed fellowships in developmental biology with Dr. Stephen Duncan at Medical College of Wisconsin and in neurogenetics with Dr. Dan Geschwind at UCLA.

She has been the recipient of numerous awards including a NARSAD Young Investigator Award, an NIH Pathway to Independence Award, a Basil O’Connor Scholar Award from the March of Dimes, a Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, and an Understanding Human Cognition Scholar Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. The research in the Konopka lab focuses on understanding the molecular pathways important for human brain evolution that are at risk in cognitive disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Her lab uses a combination of human neurons, animal models, and primate comparative genomics to uncover human-specific, disease-relevant patterns of gene expression. Recent work in her lab integrates gene expression with signatures of neuronal activity in the human brain. The Konopka lab is also part of the international Human Cell Atlas effort to map gene expression in every cell of the human body.

Dean Falk is an American evolutionary anthropologist who is the Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology and a Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University. Since receiving her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1976, she has taught anatomy and anthropology courses at various universities. Her research on the fossil record has taken her to museums in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Much of her research focuses on the evolution of the human brain (paleoneurology) and the associated emergence of language, music, art, and science. She also participates in collaborative research concerning Hans Asperger’s career as a pediatrician when he lived in Nazi-era Vienna. Falk has published numerous scientific and popular books and articles, and has lectured extensively about evolution to both academic and public audiences. More information may be found on her website: www.deanfalk.com.

Pascal Gagneux is CARTA's Executive Co-Director, a Professor of Pathology and Anthropology, and the Department Chair of Anthropology at UC San Diego. He is interested in the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for generating and maintaining primate molecular diversity. The Gagneux laboratory studies cell-surface molecules in closely related primates species. His focus is on glycans, the oligosaccharides attached to glycolipids and glycoproteins of the surfaces of every cell and also secreted into the extra-cellular matrix. Gagneux's laboratory is exploring the roles of molecular diversity in protecting populations from pathogens as well as potential consequences for reproductive compatibility. Dr. Gagneux’s interest is in how glycan evolution is shaped by constraints from endogenous biochemistry and exogenous, pathogen-mediated natural selection, but could also have consequences for sexual selection. Dr. Gagneux has studied the behavioral ecology of wild chimpanzees in the Taï Forest, Ivory Coast, population genetics of West African chimpanzees, and differences in sialic acid biology between humans and great apes with special consideration of their differing pathogen regimes. In 2011, while Associate Director of CARTA, Dr. Gagneux helped to establish a graduate specialization in Anthropogeny at UC San Diego. This wholly unique graduate specialization is offered through eight participating graduate programs in the social and natural sciences at UC San Diego.

Bruce L. Miller, MD, is the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor of Neurology and director of the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center, an NIH-sponsored Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. A world-renowned behavioral neurologist, Dr. Miller specializes in the diagnosis and management of neurodegenerative diseases, with a particular focus on frontotemporal dementia (FTD). His groundbreaking research has advanced the understanding of brain-behavior relationships, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic approaches for dementia.

Dr. Miller’s work integrates genomics, neuroimaging, and precision medicine with artificial intelligence (AI) to deepen our understanding of neurodegenerative disorders. He has established several major research initiatives, including the Tau Consortium and Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia. He also oversees the ReDLat initiative, which studies Alzheimer’s disease and FTD across the Americas. As the founding director of the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) at UCSF, Dr. Miller established a program to train global leaders in brain health, with a mission to reduce the worldwide impact of dementia through prevention and intervention strategies.

As a clinician, Dr. Miller emphasizes compassionate, innovative care for patients and their families. He has pioneered programs to enhance care coordination and support patients after diagnosis, including a healthy aging program and an artist-in-residence initiative that highlights the role of creativity in the aging process. His work has helped distinguish Alzheimer’s disease from other dementias, particularly FTD, through his descriptions of changes in behavior, language, and emotion.

Dr. Miller founded the UCSF Behavioral Neurology Fellowship and hosts scholars from around the world to advance brain health research. He authored nearly 2,000 publications and many books, including The Human Frontal Lobes, Finding the Right Words (co-written with Atlantic Fellow Cynthia Weinstein, PhD), and Mysteries of the Social Brain (co-written with Virginia Sturm, PhD).

He has received numerous honors, including the Potamkin Award from the American Academy of Neurology and election to the National Academy of Medicine. He has appeared on Good Morning America, a Diane Sawyer special about Bruce Willis, 60 Minutes, PBS NewsHour, and has been featured in The New York Times and Fortune Magazine.

Joseph Paradiso directs the Responsive Environments group at MIT, which explores how sensor networks augment and mediate human experience, interaction, and perception. 

After two years developing precision drift chambers at the Lab for High Energy Physics at ETH in Zurich, he joined the Draper Laboratory, where his research encompassed spacecraft control systems, image processing algorithms, underwater sonar, and precision alignment sensors for large high-energy physics detectors. He joined the Media Lab in 1994, where his current research interests include wireless sensing systems, wearable and body sensor networks, sensor systems for built and natural environments, energy harvesting and power management for embedded sensors, ubiquitous/pervasive computing and the Internet of Things, human-computer interfaces, space-based systems, and interactive music/media. He has written over 350 publications and frequently lectures in these areas. In his spare time, he enjoys designing/building electronic music synthesizers, composing electronic soundscapes, and seeking out edgy and unusual music while traveling the world.

After receiving a BS in electrical engineering and physics summa cum laude from Tufts University while working on precision inertial guidance systems at Draper Lab, Paradiso became a K.T. Compton fellow at the Lab for Nuclear Science at MIT, receiving his PhD in physics there for research conducted with Prof. S.C.C. Ting’s group at CERN in Geneva. 

James K. Rilling is a Professor of Psychology at Emory University, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Rilling uses brain imaging, genetics and endocrine assays to investigate the biological bases of human social cognition and behavior, with a current focus on caregiving in fathers, grandmothers and dementia caregivers. Much of his research is examining the role of oxytocin signaling in human social cognition and behavior. His latest book is Father Nature: The Science of Paternal Potential (The MIT Press, 2024)

Katerina Semendeferi is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Laboratory for Human Comparative Neuroanatomy at UC San Diego. She is CARTA Co-Director and elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Semendeferi’s studies of the fronto-limbic circuitry showed that the relative size of the frontal cortex is remarkably similar across apes and humans and that evolutionary changes are found in some, but not all, regions of the human frontal lobe and amygdala. Her laboratory explores links between the phylogenetically reorganized brain regions and vulnerabilities observed in atypical human neurodevelopment (Autism and Williams Syndrome). Semendeferi has been involved with multiple lines of research in human evolution, including the fossil record, and pioneered the application of noninvasive imaging tools to the study of the brain of the apes. She maintains an interest in bringing together multiple fields of inquiry including efforts to bridge classical quantitative neuroanatomy with the field of induced pluripotent stem cells and brain organoids.