Dr. Mattis graduated with a combined BS/MS from Yale University, where she was awarded the top undergraduate prize for excellence in biology and the prestigious Churchill Fellowship, for the latter completing a Master of Philosophy in Physiology, Development, and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK. She then earned MD and PhD degrees at Stanford University, working in the lab of Karl Deisseroth, a pioneer in optogenetics. During her PhD, Dr. Mattis had two publications in Nature Methods describing important methodological advances in the field of optogenetics, and a Journal of Neuroscience manuscript reporting the use of these techniques to explore the neuronal circuitry underlying hippocampal network dynamics with a focus on the long-range inhibitory projection from the hippocampus to the medial septum. Dr. Mattis then moved to the University of Pennsylvania for residency and fellowship training in neurology and epilepsy. There, she joined the laboratory of Ethan Goldberg, MD, PhD, to gain further expertise in two photon calcium imaging and experimental models of epilepsy. In parallel with rigorous clinical training, she broke exciting new scientific ground with her investigation of cortico-hippocampal circuit dysfunction in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome, leading to a first author publication in eLife, Young Investigator Awards from the American Epilepsy Society and the Grass Foundation, NINDS R25 and K08 grants, and a CURE Epilepsy Foundation Taking Flight Award.
Dr. Mattis is a fantastic lecturer and will speak about her exciting work on hippocampal circuit dysfunction in the Dravet syndrome mouse epilepsy model.