A Joyful Reunion for SPINES Alumni (Summer Program in Neuroscience, Excellence and Success)

MBL SPINES Co-Director Gerald “Gerry” Downes (left) shares a warm embrace with alumnus Senegal Mabry ’22 during the first SPINES Reunion to be held during the Society for Neuroscience conference in November. Credit: Timmy Le (SPINES '21)

By MBL Communications and Timmy Le November 22, 2023

The smiles say it all at the first MBL SPINES Alumni Reunion to be held concurrent with the enormous Society for Neuroscience conference, which took place in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.

Faculty and alumni of SPINES (Summer Program in Neuroscience, Excellence and Success) gathered on November 11 at Busboys and Poets, a restaurant and cultural hub, and joyously reconnected with their classmates and other SPINES colleagues.

"It was a terrific reunion," said Linda Hyman, MBL's Burroughs-Wellcome Director of Education, who spoke at the event.

For more than 20 years at MBL, SPINES has trained students from backgrounds underrepresented in neuroscience to be leaders in the field, honing a variety of important professional skills such as communicating science, winning grants, quantitative analysis and preparing to be a top-notch principal investigator.

A few more photos of the event are below.

SPINES alumni — *Alumni from MBL SPINES take part in a “SPINES family photo” at their 2023 Reunion event at Busboys and Poets on November 11 in Washington, D.C.*

SPINES alums — The SPINES reunion event at the 2023 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting would not have been possible without the dedicated leadership and hard work of the planning committee consisting of (left to right): Arnulfo “Tuna” Tunon-Ortiz ’21, Sabrina Zequeira ’21, Julianna Brutman ’21, and Timmy Le ’21. Not pictured: Bill Pate ’03.
Credit: Alberto Corona ‘21