From the mountains of Patagonia in Argentina, Dr. Mora O. Ogando came to UC Berkeley to pursue her postdoctoral research at the Neuroscience lab in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. She has been fascinated by the field of neuroscience and carried forward her intellectual curiosity as she pursued her doctorate in Argentina.
Now, she wants to fuse both these fields at the Adesnik Lab which aims to decipher how cortical microcircuits process sensory information to drive behavior. “We work in a lab that essentially tries to understand how perception is generated in the local networks in the brain,” Ogando said. “I can look at the activity of the neurons that respond to a specific stimulus.”
Her work consists of specifically using sophisticated tools to experiment on mice where they trick the mouse into experiencing a visual stimulus that is actually not there. “You can attach electrodes to cells and [with] a lot of freedom to move around, especially because the brain is already disconnected from all the other parts,” she explained.
“What we do is we can read activity and then we can write activity directly back in the brain,” she further said. The pioneering team at the lab documents patterns to map the neural pathways in the brain.
Ogando chose UC Berkeley because of its legacy of innovation in research as a public university, but when she arrived, she became equally enthralled by the international community. “I really feel that there's this diversity of people that, you know, none of us are really kind of at home, but everyone kind of puts a little bit of effort to make everyone feel at home.”
As a recipient of the 2024 MCB Lisa Eshun-Wilson Community Awards for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice (DEIBJ), she hopes to empower scholars on journeys different from hers. “I'm really a strong defender of education and how we can provide opportunities that people would normally not have,” she said, noting how UC Berkeley is known for providing opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds.
The Argentinian scholar came to Berkeley in September 2019 right before the coronavirus pandemic hit. She said it was one of the most challenging phases of her career where the beginning of her postdoc research was hampered by a global epidemic of such a scale. However, the support of her advisors and colleagues compelled her to continue her academic journey.
“I think the biggest challenge in science is really kind of psychological, if you want. We are kind of constantly used to failure; we are just failing at everything like all the time,” Ogando noted as she reflected on the years affected by the pandemic. At the same time, she recognizes that this human ability of accepting failure in life and in science is also why she loves what she does.
“To really kind of be focused on the horizon, essentially, and not be discouraged by everyday failures. I think being good at what you do is to enjoy what you do.”