Cheryl Brandenburg is a postdoctoral associate in the laboratory of Roy V. Sillitoe at Baylor College of Medicine. She received her undergraduate and master of science degrees from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. She earned her doctorate in neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the Hussman Institute for Autism, where she worked with Gene Blatt to study human postmortem autism brain tissue and perform electrophysiological analyses in animal models. Her research centered on subcortical circuit alterations underlying autism-related behaviors. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Alexandros Poulopoulos at the University of Maryland Medicine Institute for Neuroscience Discovery (UM-MIND), Brandenburg developed molecular tools to manipulate genes driving formation of cerebellar circuits across development and visualize Purkinje cell topography in a 3-dimensional space. Currently, with Sillitoe, she has uncovered a role for the cerebellum in gating vocal communication in rodent models. She is mapping cerebellar contributions to motor and non-motor behaviors and investigating how targeted neuromodulation can restore social communication.

Brandenburg’s future work will integrate circuit manipulation strategies with quantitative behavioral readouts to understand and treat communication difficulties in neurodevelopmental conditions.