Dr. Audrey C. Brumback, MD,PhD
Child Neurologist. Principal Investigator. Coolest Mentor Ever.
Audrey Brumback is a pediatric neurologist and Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Brumback earned a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at The University of Texas at Austin through the Dean’s Scholars Honors Program. She obtained her MD and PhD degrees in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Colorado under the mentorship of Dr. Kevin Staley. In her PhD work, she discovered a thermodynamic mechanism that determines the directionality of current through the GABA(A) receptor in neonatal neurons.
Dr. Brumback trained in the Neuroscience Pathway in the Child Neurology residency at the University of California, San Francisco followed by postdoctoral training with Dr. Vikaas Sohal. In her postdoctoral work, she discovered that different genetic and environmental causes of autism lead to a similar change in prefrontal neuronal physiology in mice and that the affected neurons are required for typical social behavior. This exciting discovery is helping to lay the groundwork for advances in therapeutic brain stimulation that can treat neuropsychiatric symptoms regardless of the underlying etiology.
Dr. Brumback joined the faculty at Dell Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics in 2017. She is also a member of the Department of Neuroscience, the Center for Learning and Memory, and the Institute for Neuroscience at UT Austin.
Current work in her laboratory is focused on functionally mapping the subcortical circuits involved in autism. She is particularly interested in understanding the prefrontal thalamocortical network at the level of cells, circuits, and behavior.
Dr. Brumback is board certified in neurology with special qualifications in child neurology. As a result of Dr. Brumback’s training, she is a nationally recognized expert in the clinical assessment and management of autism. As a physician, her goal is to help people with autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions thrive.
Dr. Brumback’s work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) via NIMH and NINDS. She has also received funding from the Child Neurology Foundation and the SETBP1 Society. Dr. Brumback was honored with the Philip R. Dodge Young Investigator Award from the Child Neurology Society.