Kay Tye facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kay Tye
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | c. 1981 (age 43–44) United States
|
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of California, San Francisco |
| Known for | Optogenetics |
| Awards | Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience, Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions |
|
Kay Tye is a brilliant American brain scientist, also known as a neuroscientist. She is a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a famous research center. Her work focuses on understanding how our brains control feelings, desires, and how we interact with others. She uses a special technique called optogenetics to study these brain connections.
Early Life and Learning
Kay Tye grew up in Ithaca, New York. Both of her parents worked at Cornell University. Her parents, Henry Tye and Bik Kwoon Tye, came from Hong Kong. When she was a child, Kay even helped out in her mother's lab.
She studied cognitive science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1999 to 2003. After college, she took some time to learn breakdancing and travel around Australia. Then, she went to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to study neuroscience.
In her studies, she worked with neurobiologist Patricia Janak. Kay's research showed that a part of the brain called the amygdala became more active when rats learned to connect something with a reward. This part of the brain is important for processing emotions. Her amazing work was published in the science journal Nature. She earned her PhD in 2008.
Career and Brain Research
After getting her PhD, Kay Tye continued her research at UCSF and then at Stanford University until 2011. At Stanford, she learned about optogenetics from Karl Deisseroth. This is a cool technique that uses light to turn specific brain cells (neurons) on or off.
In 2012, Tye became a professor at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Her main goal was to figure out how the same part of the brain, the amygdala, can control very different reactions to good or bad things happening around us.
Using optogenetics, she could control how neurons send signals in the brain. Her team wanted to see if there were different groups of neurons in the amygdala. They wondered if some groups connected to the brain's "fear" circuits and others to "reward" circuits.
Through her research, Kay Tye and her team found different groups of neurons. These groups had different jobs, shapes, and even different genetics. They confirmed that these differences were linked to how the brain processes information that leads to either positive or negative feelings. Her work has helped us understand social behaviors, like seeking rewards or feeling worried. It has also given us clues about brain-related conditions.
Kay Tye has received many awards for her important work. These include the NIH Director's New Innovator Award in 2013 and the NARSAD Young Investigator Award in 2014. In 2014, MIT Technology Review named her one of the top innovators under 35. This was for her use of optogenetics to find brain circuits involved in worry and social interactions.
In November 2019, Kay Tye gave a TED Talk at the National Academy of Sciences. It was called "What Investigating Neural Pathways Can Reveal About Mental Health."
Awards and Honors
Kay Tye has been recognized with many awards for her contributions to neuroscience:
- Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Young Investigator Award (2016)
- Daniel X. Freedman Award (2016)
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) (2016)
- New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson Investigator (2015–2019)
- McKnight Scholar Award (2015–2018)
- Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award (2015)
- NIMH (2014–2018)
- Sloan Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2014–2015)
- NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2014–2015)
- TR35, Technology Review's Top 35 Innovators Under 35 (2014)
- ACNP Associate Member (2014)
- NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2013–2018)
- Klingenstein Foundation Award (2013–2015)
- Whitehead Career Development Professorship (2013–2015)
- Whitehall Foundation Award (2012–2014)
- Kavli Foundation Frontiers Fellow
- Jeptha H. and Emily V. Wade Award (2012)
- Stanford University Post-Doctoral Award (2010)
- NRSA Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (2009–2012)
- European Brain and Behavior Society Post-Doctoral Fellow Award (2009)
- Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award (2009)
- Donald B. Lindsley Prize (2009)
- NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2005–2008)
