Dr. Denise Cai - a podcast by Nancy Padilla

Denise is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai whose interest in the brain ironically took hold as she was interviewing for law schools. When she realized she was more interested in how the brain makes decisions rather than the judicial implications of those decisions, she hopped on the Neuroscience train and never looked back. For her Ph.D. thesis at UCSD, she looked at the interplay between sleep, memory, and creativity in both humans and in a rodent model. Then as a postdoc at UCLA, Denise decided to take a closer look at the links formed between memories of events occurring close together in time, which carries tremendous clinical implications for understanding aging and memory-related disorders. This translational approach to studying memory, as well as her ongoing passion for collaboration with other scientists has carried over into her current work in her own lab. Denise’s enthusiasm for working as part of a team and passion for innovation--despite some of the challenges she has faced regarding gender bias--are on full display in her interview with Nancy. 

Further episodes of Stories of WiN

Further podcasts by Nancy Padilla

Website of Nancy Padilla