New Position for Valentina Khalil in the Kitazawa Lab

Valentina’s research focuses on understanding how experiences lead to lasting changes in the brain, spanning neural circuits, synaptic plasticity and gene-regulatory mechanisms involved in memory formation. During her earlier research at Aarhus University, she investigated how the brain processes both innate and learned threats, contributing to the identification of a neural pathway involved in rapidly translating threatening sensory information into behavioural responses.

In the Kitazawa Lab, Valentina has increasingly focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying memory and neuroplasticity. She has played a leading role in recent work using single-cell and multiomic approaches to investigate how molecular states change over time and how gene-regulatory mechanisms shape memory formation. As Assistant Professor, she will continue developing this research direction, with a particular focus on how gene-regulatory changes interact with synaptic and circuit-level processes, while strengthening collaborations and building an increasingly independent research profile within the field of memory and neuroplasticity.