Biography:Saak Victor Ovsepian

Saak Victor Ovsepian is a senior neuroscience and neuroimaging specialist at the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging (Helmholtz Zentrum Munich) and an Adjunct Professor of neurotherapeutics at Dublin City University. Ovsepian studied medicine, biology, and philosophy at Omsk State University and State University of Yerevan. He earned his M.Sc. degree in 1999 in human neurophysiology from the State University of Yerevan and L. Orbeli Brain Institute (Armenian Academy of Sciences). In 2003 he completed his PhD training in comparative and evolutionary physiology at the Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry. Ovsepian worked in several areas of neurobiology and neurotherapeutic research, with the main focus on molecular biology and synaptic physiology, neuromodulation, and neurodegenerative disease. Between 2008-2013 Ovsepian was the founding director of the National Neuroimaging and Drug Screening Laboratories at the International Centre for Neurotherapeutics. From 2013 to 2015 he was the head of the neurophysiology research laboratories at the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. Ovsepian has co-authored over 60 research papers, book chapters, and reviews on synaptic evolution, brain physiology, development of biotherapeutics, and neuroimaging. His current research focus is on developing and application of advanced optoacoustic and optical imaging for structural and functional brain research in animal models and in humans. Ovsepian is also the owner and founding director of the Victor Hovsepyan house-museum in Heshtia, Republic of Georgia.

Selected publications

• Ovsepian, Saak V; O'Leary, Valerie B; Zaborszky, Laszlo; Ntziachristos, Vasilis; Dolly, J. Oliver (2018). "Synaptic vesicle cycle and amyloid β: Biting the hand that feeds". Alzheimer's & Dementia 14 (4): 502–513. doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2018.01.011. PMID 29494806. 
• Ovsepian, Saak V (2017). "The birth of the synapse". Brain Structure and Function 222 (8): 3369–3374. doi:10.1007/s00429-017-1459-2. PMID 28612096. 
• Ovsepian, Saak V; Olefir, Ivan; Westmeyer, Gil; Razansky, Daniel; Ntziachristos, Vasilis (2017). "Pushing the Boundaries of Neuroimaging with Optoacoustics". Neuron 96 (5): 966–988. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2017.10.022. PMID 29216459. 
• Ovsepian, Saak V; o'Leary, Valerie B; Ntziachristos, Vasilis; Dolly, J. Oliver (2016). "Circumventing Brain Barriers: Nanovehicles for Retroaxonal Therapeutic Delivery". Trends in Molecular Medicine 22 (11): 983–993. doi:10.1016/j.molmed.2016.09.004. PMID 27720365. 
• Ovsepian, Saak V; o'Leary, Valerie B; Zaborszky, Laszlo (2015). "Cholinergic Mechanisms in the Cerebral Cortex". The Neuroscientist 22 (3): 238–251. doi:10.1177/1073858415588264. PMID 26002948. 
• Ovsepian, S. V; Dolly, J. O (2011). "Dendritic SNAREs add a new twist to the old neuron theory". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (48): 19113–19120. doi:10.1073/pnas.1017235108. PMID 22080607.