10. Brielle Ferguson
Brielle Ferguson is an Assistant Professor of Genetics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She is also the co-founder of BlackInNeuro.
During Ferguson’s graduate work, she became fascinated with the thalamus for its importance in supporting so many fundamental cognitive processes. She was also curious about how the activity in the thalamocortical circuits could become hijacked to result in other pathological conditions.
Through her studies, she has identified a particular cell in the brain that plays a key role and could lead to a better understanding of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, as well as new therapies. Ferguson made the Forbes 30 under 30 List in 2021 for her groundbreaking discovery.
