Michele Insanally, PhD
Assistant Professor
Departments of Otolaryngology, Neurobiology and Bioengineering
Dr. Michele Insanally is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Her research investigates how the brain constructs neuronal representations during adaptive auditory behaviors, how these behaviors are gated during learning, and how the population dynamics underlying these behaviors is disrupted in hearing disorders. Dr. Insanally’s scientific approach combines neural recordings, behavior, optogenetics, circuit mapping, and computational models to uncover the mechanisms that allow the auditory system to flexibly gate the behavioral relevance of sounds in dynamic environments. A deeper understanding of how neural dynamics emerge and evolve during learning will open novel avenues for the treatment of hearing deficits caused by disease or injury and inform targeted therapies for central auditory processing disorders.
Prior to joining the faculty at Pitt, Dr. Insanally completed her postdoctoral work with Dr. Robert Froemke at New York University School of Medicine where she investigated the neural basis of auditory perception. Dr. Insanally received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley working in the lab of Dr. Shaowen Bao, where she examined how early life experience affects the brain—specifically critical period plasticity in the developing rodent auditory cortex. She holds a bachelor’s degree in the Biological Sciences from Columbia University, graduating with distinction in her major.
Dr. Insanally’s research has garnered several awards and honors, including the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, Geraldine Dietz Fox Young Investigator Award from ARO, Brain and Behavior Foundation Young Investigator Award, NYU Provost Postdoctoral Fellowship for Academic Diversity, Elizabeth Roboz Einstein Fellowship in Neurosciences, and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.