CV
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy, Neuroscience, 2023 Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Canada
- Supervisor: Dr. Evelyn Lambe
- Thesis: Multimodal investigation of Chrna5 nicotinic receptors: cellular and synaptic mechanisms of cholinergic modulation in the prefrontal cortex
- Bachelor of Science, Biology, 2017 Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
- CGPA: 7.0 /8, Graduated top of the class
- Honors thesis supervisor: Dr. Deepak Nair
Thesis: Synaptic nano-organization in hippocampal neurons during homeostatic scaling
Work experience
- 10/23- Curent: Schmidt Science Fellow
- Supervisors Dr. Yun Li, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) & Dr. Jesse Gillis, Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto
- Project: Deciphering cell type-specific developmental trajectories in autism: Comparative analysis and experimental validation in human brain organoids
- 02/2023 – 09/23: Postdoctoral Fellow
- Supervisor: Dr. Evelyn Lambe, Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Canada
- Project: Investigated neurophysiological changes caused by NMDA receptor patient mutations to identify mechanisms causing epilepsy and targeted treatments
Awards and Fellowships
- 2025: Restracomp Fellowship, SickKids (declined)
- 2025: Canadian Institutes for Health Research Fellowship
- 2025: Mclaughlin Centre Accelerator Grant (co-applicant)
- 2024: Trainee Professional Development Award, Society for Neuroscience
- 2023-25: Schmidt Science Fellow
- 2022: Doctoral Completion Award, University of Toronto
- 2020 - 22: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
- 2019 - 20: Mary H Beatty Fellowship, University of Toronto
- 2018: Faculty of Medicine merit scholarship for international students
- 2018: International Brain Research Organization travel award
- 2017: Gold medal in Bachelor of Science (Biology), Indian Institute of Science
- 2016 Khorana Program for Scholars
- 2013 – 17: Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) fellowship
- Undergraduate scholarship awarded by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India
Publications
Venkatesan S, Werner JM, Li Y, Gillis J (2025) “Cell type agnostic transcriptomic signatures enable uniform comparisons of human neurodevelopment”. bioRxiv (In review at PLOS Biology, PBIOLOGY-D-25-02208R1)
Venkatesan S, Nazarkina D, Sullivan M, Tan YF, Qu S, Ramsey AJ, Lambe EK, (2024) “Context matters: integrative NMDA receptor dysfunction reveals effective seizure treatment in mice with a human patient GluN1 variant”. bioRxiv (In revision at iScience, ISCIENCE-D-25-06942)
Sullivan MT, Tidball P , Yan Y, Intson K, Chen W, Xu Y, Venkatesan S, Horsfall W, Georgiou J, Finnie PSB, Lambe EK, Traynelis SF, Salahpour A, Yuan H, Collingridge GL, Ramsey AJ (2024) “Grin1Y647S/+ Mice: A Preclinical Model of GRIN1-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder”. bioRxiv (In review at Annals of Neurology ANA-24-1539)
Power SK, Venkatesan S, Qu S, McLaurin J, Lambe EK (2024) “Enhanced prefrontal nicotinic signaling as evidence of active compensation in Alzheimer’s disease models”. bioRxiv (Accepted at Translational Neurodegeneration TNEU-D-23-00529R1)
Venkatesan S, Binko MA, Mielnik CA, Ramsey, AJ, & Lambe, EK. (2023). “Deficits in integrative NMDA receptors caused by Grin1 disruption can be rescued in adulthood”. Neuropsychopharmacology, 1-10.
Venkatesan S, Chen T, Liu Y, Turner EE, Tripathy S, Lambe EK (2023) “Chrna5 and Lynx Prototoxins Identify Acetylcholine Super-Responder Subplate Neurons”. iScience, 105992.
Power SK, Venkatesan S, Lambe EK (2023) “Xanomeline restores endogenous nicotinic acetylcholine receptor signaling in mouse prefrontal cortex”. Neuropsychopharmacology, 1-12.
Venkatesan S, Lambe EK (2020) “Chrna5 is essential for a rapid and protected response to optogenetic release of endogenous acetylcholine in prefrontal cortex”. Journal of Neuroscience, 40 (38): 7255–7268.
Venkatesan S, Jeoung H-S, Chen T, Power SK, Liu Y, Lambe EK (2020) “Endogenous Acetylcholine and Its Modulation of Cortical Microcircuits to Enhance Cognition”. Behavioral Pharmacology of the Cholinergic System, 47–69. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Venkatesan S, Subramaniam S, Rajeev P, Chopra Y, Jose M, Nair D (2020) “Differential scaling of synaptic molecules within functional zones of an excitatory synapse during homeostatic plasticity”. eNeuro, 7(2).
Nguyen R, Venkatesan S [equal contribution], Binko M, Bang JY, Cajanding JD, Briggs C, Sargin D, Imayoshi I, Lambe EK, Kim JC (2020) “Cholecystokinin-Expressing Interneurons of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Mediate Working Memory Retrieval”. Journal of Neuroscience, 40 (11): 2314–2331. Featured Article.
Sparks D, Tian M, Sargin D, Venkatesan S, Intson K, Lambe, EK (2018) “Opposing cholinergic and serotonergic modulation of layer 6 in prefrontal cortex”. Frontiers in Neural Circuits 11, 107
International training programs
- 06/2022: Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School, Romania
- Selected among 14 international candidates to participate in this intensive 3-week program where I developed expertise building sophisticated microscopes, imaging techniques, and behavioral tracking with in vivo electrophysiology.
- 08/2019: Summer course in Developmental and Perinatal Biology, Karolinska Institute, Sweden
- 07/2017: Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity, National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, India
- Intensive two-week summer school on computational neuroscience.