--- **June 5, 2026** — 📄 **New bioRxiv Preprint!** Mazzio, C.T., Flashman, S., Mahmood, A., Baas-Thomas, N., Lin, J.Y., & Komar, K. (2026). Stimulus-Specific and Generalized Taste Aversion Behaviors and Their Relationship to Cortical Dynamics. *bioRxiv* 2026.06.02.729621. [[Link](https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.06.02.729621)]--- **April 29, 2026** — 📄 **New eLife Publication!** Baas-Thomas, N., Mahmood, A., Wang, Y., Maigler, K.C., Mukherjee, N., & Katz, D.B. (2026). The ingestive response reflects neural dynamics in gustatory cortex. *eLife*. [[Link](https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/110977)]--- **April 22, 2026** — 🎉 **New Publication!** Another one! Mukadam, N., Mahmood, A., Cronin-Golomb, A., DeGutis, J. (2026). Subjective Cognitive Concerns and Global Metacognitive Bias in Prodromal Parkinson's and Parkinson's Disease without Cognitive Impairment. *Neuropsychology*. Epub ahead of print. [[Link](https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0001083)] [[Press Release](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1125174)] --- **February 11, 2026** — 🚀 **Two More Publications!** 2026 is off to a blazing start — two more papers out: - Mahmood, Abuzar, et al. "Sensory and Palatability Coding of Taste Stimuli in Cortex Involves Dynamic and Asymmetric Cortico-Amygdalar Interactions." *Journal of Neurophysiology*, Jan. 2026, p. jn.00503.2025. [[Link](https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00503.2025)] - Mahmood, A. (2026). pytau: A Python package for streamlined changepoint model analysis in neuroscience. *Journal of Open Source Software*, 11(117), 8509. [[Link](https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.08509)] --- ### 2025 --- **December 2, 2025** — 📄 **New Preprints on bioRxiv** Two new preprints are up — check them out! - Mahmood A, Steindler JR, Katz DB (2025) "Sensory and palatability coding of taste stimuli in cortex involves dynamic and asymmetric cortico-amygdalar interactions" [[Link](https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.01.662567)] - Baas-Thomas N, Mahmood A, Mukherjee N, Maigler KC, Wang Y, Katz DB (2025) "The Ingestive Response Reflects Neural Dynamics in Gustatory Cortex" [[Link](https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.01.679845)] --- **October 14, 2025** — 🎙️ **Collaboration Spotlighted at AChemS Career Networking Seminar** Our collaborative work got some well-deserved attention! Thomas Gray (Brandeis University) presented research from our collaboration on retronasal odor processing in gustatory cortex at the AChemS Career Networking Seminar Series. The talk, "Neural and behavioral correlates of flavor perception," dove into how retronasal odor is processed in gustatory cortex, its influence on taste responses, and how flavor experiences shape odor preferences. --- **October 9, 2025** — 🏆 **Poster of Distinction at MCRI Annual Retreat!** Thrilled to have received the Poster of Distinction award at the MCRI Annual Retreat 2025!--- **October 9, 2025** — 💻 **NSF Compute Grant Awarded** Excited to receive the ACCESS-CI Compute Grant MED250058 (CoPI) from NSF — more computational power for bigger science! --- **October 9, 2025** — 🎤 **Invited Talks** Had a great time sharing our work at three venues: - Mathematical Biology Seminar, Brandeis University - Insights Team Meeting, Appcast Inc. - Systems Neuroscience Journal Club, Harvard Medical School --- **October 9, 2025** — 🧑‍🏫 **Guest Lecturer** Taught a session on LLMs and AI Agent pipelines for the Advanced Data Analysis course at Brandeis University — always fun to bring cutting-edge tools into the classroom! --- **May 1, 2025** — 🎓 **Congratulations, Vincent!** Vincent absolutely crushed his thesis defense and earned High Honors — what an achievement! He's heading off to do a post-bac in Angela Langdon's lab at the NIMH. The future is bright for this one! [[NIMH Lab Link](https://www.nimh.nih.gov/research/research-conducted-at-nimh/principal-investigators/angela-langdon-phd)]--- ### 2024 --- **2024** — 🏅 **Polak Young Investigator Award** Honored to receive the Polak Young Investigator Award from the Association for Chemoreception Sciences and to deliver the award lecture at the ACHEMS Annual Meeting! And doubly honored to have been presented the award by none other that Dr. Alfredo Fontanini!--- **2024** — 🎤 **Invited Presentations** Presented at two exciting venues: - Swartz Foundation Annual Meeting - Brandeis Neuro Postdoc Symposium --- **2024** — 🧠 **Computational Neuroscience Fellowship** Awarded the Computational Neuroscience Fellowship from the Swartz Foundation (2023–present) — grateful for the support to push the boundaries of computational approaches in neuroscience! --- ### 2023 --- **2023** — 🎓 **Ph.D. Complete!** Officially a Doctor of Neuroscience! Completed my Ph.D. at Brandeis University with the thesis "Multi-region Coordination for Taste Processing in the Rodent Brain." [[PDF](/files/Mahmood_Dissertation_Brandeis_2_10_23.pdf)] Advisor: Donald B. Katz --- **2023** — 🔬 **Postdoctoral Positions** Excited to continue the science in two postdoctoral roles: - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Tufts Medical Center - Postdoctoral Fellow, Brandeis University --- **2023** — 🎙️ **Invited Talk — PyMCon Web Series** Gave a talk at the PyMCon Web Series: "The Only Constant is Change: Bespoke Changepoint Modelling in PyMC" [[Link](https://discourse.pymc.io/t/new-pymcon-talk-the-only-constant-is-change-bespoke-changepoint-modelling-in-pymc-by-abuzar-mahmood/13251)] --- **2023** — 💻 **NSF Compute Grant Awarded** Awarded ACCESS-CI Compute Grant BIO230103 as PI from NSF — fueling large-scale neural data analysis! --- **2023** — 🏆 **Trainee Professional Development Award** Received the Trainee Professional Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience. --- **2023** — 📄 **Publication** Mahmood, A., Steindler, J., Germaine, H., Katz, D.B., "Coupled Dynamics of Stimulus-Evoked Gustatory Cortical and Basolateral Amygdalar Activity," *Journal of Neuroscience*, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 386–404 [[Link](https://www.jneurosci.org/content/43/3/386.long)]