Amanda Buchberger, a fourth year chemistry graduate student in the laboratory of Lingjun Li, professor of pharmaceutical sciences and chemistry, is among an elite group of graduate students worldwide selected to participate in the Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting this summer.

Once a year, the next generation of leading scientists, join Nobel Laureates from all over the world to foster the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and experience of scientists of different generations, cultures, and disciplines. Of the several thousand students who applied, Buchberger is among the 400 chosen to participate. Buchberger will have the opportunity to submit her research to be considered for presentation, participate in master classes led by Nobel Laureates, and facilitate discussions about important topics in the scientific community. The 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting will take place June 25-30, 2017 in Lindau, Germany.

Research in Professor Li’s laboratory focuses on developing and implementing an array of novel mass spectrometry based strategies to answer questions about the most complex and elusive set of signaling molecules, the neuropeptides, and gain new insights into the role of peptide hormones and neurotransmitters in the plasticity of neural circuits and behavior. While significant effort has been directed to analytical technique and method development, it is the biomedical importance of understanding the neuropeptidergic system that drives the Li Lab research to continuously refine and improve the analytical capabilities to address challenging neuroscience problems. Specifically, they are interested in understanding the roles that neuropeptides play in food intake, neural network development and response to environmental stresses.