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 and colleagues Dr. Russo and Dr. Hultman were highlighted in Medicine Iowa for their combined specialties in migraine research using a precision approach to connect individual patients with treatments. Read the article here: https://medicineiowa.org/spring-2026/headache-resilience
Dr. Sowers was 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
2026 Neuroscience Research Day Keynote Speaker: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD
Keynote Speaker Announcement: Constanza J. Cortes, PhD
2026 Neuroscience Research Day – Monday, November 2, 2026
We are excited to welcome Constanza J. Cortes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, to the University of Iowa for this year's Neuroscience Research Day.
Dr. Cortes's research explores the intersection of exercise, brain aging, skeletal muscle, and Alzheimer’s disease, with a particular focus on how...
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...
Biochemistry Seminar: "Dynamic Assembly of RNA Processing Machines"
"Dynamic Assembly of RNA Processing Machines"
Presented by
Aaron Hoskins, Ph.D.
Wasson Professor in Biochemistry
University of Wisconsin-Madison
BMB Research Workshop
The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology holds research workshops featuring internal speakers on Tuesdays, 12:30-1:20pm. For Fall 2026, these will occur in 1117 MERF. Presentation titles are not publicly available due to the use of unpublished research. Individuals interested in attending workshops or being added to the email list should contact the office at biochem@uiowa.edu.
Aug. 25: CANCELED
Sept. 1: CANCELED
Sept. 8: RESERVED
Sept. 15: Steve Guzman, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Biomedical...
Joseph Walder Memorial Lecture with Dr. Taekjip Ha, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Ha will be our speaker for the inaugural Joseph Walder Memorial Lecture.
"Genome Maintenance at Higher Resolution"
Taekjip Ha, Ph.D.
George D. Yancopoulos Professor of Pediatrics in honor of Frederick W. Alt
Harvard Medical School
Boston Children’s Hospital
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
BMB Research Workshop
The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology holds research workshops featuring internal speakers on Tuesdays, 12:30-1:20pm. For Fall 2026, these will occur in 1117 MERF. Presentation titles are not publicly available due to the use of unpublished research. Individuals interested in attending workshops or being added to the email list should contact the office at biochem@uiowa.edu.
Aug. 25: CANCELED
Sept. 1: CANCELED
Sept. 8: RESERVED
Sept. 15: Steve Guzman, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Biomedical...