- Speaker
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Holly A. Ingraham, Ph.D.Herzstein Endowed Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco
The 2026 lecture series in neuroscience and autism science, titled “Brain and Body: Communication and Connection,” will explore how the brain and body influence each other’s functions through continuous information exchange. Talks will emphasize interoceptive and visceral sensory pathways as well as the molecular, cellular and circuit mechanisms that mediate these bidirectional interactions. From gut mucosa and adipose tissue to bone and immune pathways, speakers will provide insights into how the brain-body communication supports adaptive function and contributes to health and disease.
2026 Lecture Series Themes
Biology – Folding the Future: The Structural Biology Revolution
Mathematics and Computer Science – Randomness
Neuroscience and Autism Science – Brain and Body: Communication and Connection
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Despite recent biomedical breakthroughs, progress in women’s health has been slow. A key barrier to understanding disorders that disproportionately affect women is our limited knowledge of how estrogen works beyond traditional reproductive tissue, particularly in the brain.
In this Presidential Lecture, Holly Ingraham will present new studies that show how sex-specific, hormone-responsive neural circuits control brain–body physiology. She will further provide a framework for closing knowledge and therapeutic gaps in women’s health.
About the Speaker
Ingraham is the Herzstein Endowed Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on sex differences and hormone-responsive nodes in the brain that regulate female physiology. Through question-driven basic science, Ingraham seeks to uncover how females adapt to hormonal fluctuations throughout their lives. She is a founder of a biotech venture focused on alleviating age-related frailty and skeletal decline. Ingraham is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.