Co-Director
Loren Frank, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Physiology and a member of the UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Frank received his Ph.D. in systems and computational neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. He then carried out postdoctoral research in statistics and neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University from 2000–2003, at which time he joined the faculty at UCSF. His laboratory uses a combination of techniques, including multi-electrode recording, real-time feedback, behavioral manipulations and optogenetic circuit manipulation to study the neural bases of learning, memory and decision making. In particular, his work focuses on the hippocampus and related structures, brain areas critical for forming and retrieving memories for the events of daily life. His long-term goal is to understand these processes well enough to develop approaches to treating memory-related problems such as learning disabilities and Alzheimer’s disease. He has received numerous awards for his scientific discoveries and his mentoring, including fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan, McKnight, and Merck foundations as well as the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, the Indiana University Gill Young Investigator Award, the UCSF Faculty Mentoring Award, and the College Mentors for Kids Inspire Award.