Michael Kelberman, Ph.D.

Michael Kelberman is a postdoctoral fellow in Zoe Donaldson’s lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. He received his bachelor of science in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Emory University.

As a graduate student in David Weinshenker’s lab, he used electrophysiology, combined optogenetic-fMRI, and behavioral assays in rodent models to investigate how age- and dementia-related pathology affects noradrenergic locus coeruleus function. His postdoctoral research uses monogamous prairie voles to investigate how pair bonds and their underlying neural systems evolve across the lifespan. His future laboratory will combine machine learning-based pose estimation, RNA sequencing, calcium imaging and fiber photometry in prairie voles to understand how social bonds and their supporting neural systems can be leveraged to promote cognitive resilience during aging.

His work has been recognized by the Emory Neuroscience Program Scientific Achievement Award and has been supported by the Emory Neuroscience Training Grant, an NRSA F31, the Emory Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the NEW Brain Aging Center.