I was originally from Budapest, Hungary, and moved to New York City in 2015 to pursue my undergraduate degree. I graduated from CCNY, where my research focused on the development of cone photoreceptors in chicken embryos. Moving West to Cal Tech, I began my graduate studies at Carlos Lois' lab to explore the neuronal mechanisms underlying memory conservation in motor circuits. For this work, I received the Chen Innovator Grant to understand how adult birdsong is maintained following perturbation. In the Ingraham lab, I wish to understand how estrogen regulates glial and neuronal cells in aging and injury repair. Outside of work, my two passions are hiking and reading.
1. Babey ME, Krause WC, Chen K, Herber CB, Torok Z, et al. 2024. A maternal brain hormone that builds bone. Nature
2. Torok Z, Luebbert L, Feldman J, Duffy A, Nevue AA, et al. 2023. Recovery of a learned behavior despite partial restoration of neuronal dynamics after chronic inactivation of inhibitory neurons. bioRxiv
3. Wang B*, Torok Z*, Duffy A, Bell DG, Wongso S, et al. 2024. Unsupervised restoration of a complex learned behavior after large-scale neuronal perturbation. Nat Neurosci 27: 1176-86 (Co-First Authors)
2024 UCSF-MSK T32 Fellowship, UCSF
2020 Chen Innovator Award, Chen Institute of Neuroscience
2017 Olivia McKenna Excellence in Neuroscience Award, CCNY
2015 – 2017 City College Fellow, CCNY
2015 – 2017 Honors Research, CCNY