Neuroscientist Sergey Stavisky wins prestigious Pew Biomedical Scholar Award

A UC Davis Health neuroscientist who studies how the brain encodes speech and language has been named a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Sergey Stavisky, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, will join 20 other early-career scientists from around the country in the prestigious Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. Each will receive four years of funding to explore leading-edge research uncovering insights into human health and disease.

"I'm honored to have received the Pew Biomedical Scholar Award," Stavisky said. "This recognizes the potential of my group's new line of research investigating how the human brain produces language."

Restoring communication

Stavisky is a neuroscientist and neural engineer. His work involves studying how the brain encodes speech and language, with the goal of designing devices that restore communication. He is the co-director of the UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab, alongside neurosurgeon David Brandman. The lab's most recent research focuses on the use of brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, to restore speech to people who have lost the ability to speak due to neurological disease or injury.

BCIs give scientists a direct window into how the brain works. By studying brain activity, researchers like Stavisky can better understand how the brain processes thoughts and language. This is essential to developing new solutions, devices and therapies for conditions like language disorders.

"Language is a unique human ability that is especially understudied at the resolution of individual neurons, but I hope that what we learn will provide a roadmap for building language neuroprostheses to help people with language loss due to stroke," Stavisky explained.

Stavisky earned his bachelor's degree in neuroscience from Brown University and his Ph.D. in neurosciences from Stanford University. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Stanford Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory.

"Sergey Stavisky's work reflects the very best of what we hope to do in academic neurosurgery - pursue rigorous science that can meaningfully improve patients' lives," said Kia Shahlaie, chair of the UC Davis Department of Neurological Surgery. "His research is helping us better understand how the human brain produces speech and language, while also moving us closer to new technologies that may one day restore communication for patients who have lost it. We are incredibly proud to see his innovation and leadership recognized by the Pew Scholars Program."

Four years of funding and innovation

Pew Biomedical Scholars will have opportunities to meet annually with fellow Pew-funded scientists to forge connections and cultivate community across a wide variety of disciplines. This year's class of early-career, junior faculty were chosen from 211 applicants nominated by leading academic institutions and researchers throughout the U.S. They join a group of more than 1,000 scientists who have received awards from Pew since 1985.

"For more than 40 years, Pew has proudly supported researchers pioneering approaches to help advance human health and medicine," said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Pew's senior vice president for Philadelphia and scientific advancement. "This incoming class of biomedical scholars bridges new technologies with creative approaches to biomedical research, and we're thrilled to support their innovative work."