Migraine headache is one of the most debilitating disorders in the world and treatments are insufficient. The Sowers laboratory studies the neurocircuitry underlying migraine and post-traumatic headache. Our preclinical laboratory focuses heavily on the sensory abnormalities associated with migraine and post-traumatic headache, including photophobia, spontaneous pain and touch hypersensitivity. Our lab’s research uses functional MRI, optogenetic and DREADD approaches to better understand the circuits contributing to those sensory abnormalities. We recently identified the deep cerebellar nuclei as possible sensory integration centers underlying sensory abnormalities in migraine. We are a VA associated lab and part of the VA Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss with a special emphasis on Veteran related problems in headache. Post-traumatic headache is similar to migraine and affects about 50% of Veterans who saw combat in war zones. Our hope is to one day identify brain regions that can be manipulated in humans to treat headache. Our promotion of a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach to tackle these important questions in headache medicine offers trainees room to grow and become wonderful independent scientists.
Dr. Sowers was recently featured in Medicine Iowa, a publication of University of Iowa Healthcare featuring stories of research and education at Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. View the article here: https://medicineiowa.org/fall-2025/levi-sowers-shedding-light-migraine-and-post-traumatic-headache
Iowa Neuroscience Institute Events
Neuroscience and Pharmacology Seminar - Annet Kirabo, DVM, MSc, PhD, FAHA
Neuro-Endocrine-Immune Crosstalk Driving Salt-Sensitive Hypertension
Annet Kirabo, DVM, MSc, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor
Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology
Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Biology Seminar: "Watching the Cochlea In Action In Vivo"
Neuroscience Postdoc Retreat
Carver College of Medicine Events
REDCap Data Handling
This is the sixth and final step in the REDCap training series. In this training we won't use REDCap at all. Instead, we will cover ways to view and manage your exported REDCap data in Microsoft Excel and Sublime Text such as:
Populating data from one Excel sheet to another with vlookup()
Seeing specific data with column sorting and filtering
Ensuring data is cohesive by creating tables
Looking at how data relates to other data by creating pivot tables
Transforming unusable data to a usable format...
Ramon and Victoria Lim Medical Science Lectureship - Wei Yang, PhD
The Ramon and Victoria Lim Medical Science Lectureship Fund was created in 2004 with a generous gift from Drs. Ramon and Victoria Lim. The fund supports the visits to Iowa City of eminent scientists working in neuroscience and internal medicine.
2026 Lecture:
Wei Yang, PhD
NIH Distinguished Investigator
Section Chief: Mechanism of DNA Repair, Replication, and Recombination
Section, Laboratory of Molecular Biology
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
"From RAG to...
Molecular Medicine Interdisciplinary Program Thesis Defense Seminar: Alexander Glebov-McCloud
Alexander Glebov-McCloud is a PhD candidate in the Biomedical Science (Molecular Medicine) Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. His research has been conducted in Stefan Strack's laboratory.
If you are not able to attend in person, please consider showing your support by attending via Zoom. Please email britt-hokanson@uiowa.edu for the Zoom link.
Hardin Open Workshops - EndNote Desktop (Zoom)
EndNote is a reference management tool that helps you to easily gather together your references in one place, organize them, and then insert them into papers and format them in a style of your choosing. This session will walk you through the basics of using EndNote to collect and format your citations. The class will be hands-on, and there will be time for questions at the end.
PLEASE NOTE
Enrollment in HOW is open to all University of Iowa affiliates and residents of the state of Iowa. Advance...
2026 Molecular Medicine Retreat Keynote Speaker: Dr. Denisa Wagner
Join Us for the 2026 Molecular Medicine Program Keynote Speaker
The Molecular Medicine Program at Iowa is pleased to welcome our 2026 keynote speaker, Denisa D. Wagner, PhD—Edwin Cohn Professor of Pediatrics in the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Wagner will present her talk: “Neutrophil in the center of thromboinflammation and inflammatory disease dissemination”
📍 Bowen Science Building...