Aswini Gnanasekaran, a postdoctoral scientist in Dr.Usachev’s lab, has been awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association’s Midwest Affiliate for her project titled “The Role of Mitochondrial Fission and Fusion (MFF) in Glutamate-Induced Ca²⁺Deregulation and Toxicity in Neurons”. The goal of this project is to dissect the mechanisms that link phosphorylation-dependent mitochondrial elongation with protection from the glutamate-induced Ca²⁺ dysregulation and neuronal death.