Ubadah Sabbagh, a doctoral candidate in Dr. Mike Fox's research Lab conducting research at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, was named to Forbes Magazine’s 2020 list of the 30 young innovators in science with potential to make it big.

Ubadah Sabbagh, a fifth-year student in Virginia Tech’s translational biology, medicine, and health program, performs National Institutes of Health-funded research mapping the architecture of underexplored circuits of the visual brain. He’s also a writer and voice for underrepresented groups in science.

“This is yet another prestigious form of recognition bestowed on Ubadah, which recognizes his unique combination of talents that extend far beyond his laboratory and critical-thinking skills and have allowed him to contribute to science communication, policy, and outreach both locally and nationally,” said Michael Fox, director of our School of Neuroscience and also professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Sabbagh’s mentor. “It’s rare to have honed all of these skills and it’s what sets Ubadah apart.”

Sabbagh’s research with Fox produced a deeper understanding of how one part of the brain that processes visual information, the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN), is constructed. The region is also associated with biological clocks, eye muscle movements, and mood. His research mapped the layered structure of the region, which indicated multiple types of information are processed there – a finding confirmed by a computer program coded by Sabbagh. Further testing confirmed the main layers of that part of the thalamus receive direct visual signals from retinal neurons in the eye.

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