Image of professor sitting in her lab surrounded by equipment.

Gittis Awarded Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished Professorship of Life Sciences

By Heidi Opdyke Email Heidi Opdyke

Heidi Opdyke

Aryn Gittis, a professor of biological sciences and a member of Carnegie Mellon's Neuroscience Institute, is working to help shape future treatments for Parkinson's disease. For her efforts, she has been named the Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished Professorship of Life Sciences, effective today  (July 1, 2025).

"Aryn Gittis' research into the organization and function of neural circuits that control voluntary movement has led her to develop new methods to address Parkinson's disease," said Gordon Rule, interim head of the Department of Biological Sciences. "She is an exceptional choice to be the next scientist to hold the Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished Professorship of Life Sciences."

Gittis joined the Department of Biological Sciences in 2012, and her lab uses optogenetics, electrophysiology, histology, and behavior to study the function of neural circuits involved in the regulation of movement, learning, motivation and reward. She investigates how those circuits can be retrained after injury or damage.

"We're living in an exciting time for neuroscience research," said Gittis, who also serves as director for Carnegie Mellon's Program in Systems Neuroscience. "Research tools for studying the dynamics of neural circuits in real time have transformed the types of questions we can ask, and I'm now doing things in my lab I never would have thought possible when I started my Ph.D."

Her latest research explores ways to tap into the brain's plasticity to help ameliorate the effects of dopamine depletion — a key characteristic of Parkinson's disease — and improve movement function for longer periods of time using electrical impulses.

Deep brain stimulation, in which wires implanted in the brain deliver a constant, nonspecific electrical charge, has been approved and used to help relieve symptoms of Parkinson's disease for some time. However, it only addresses the symptoms, which reappear immediately when the charge is turned off.

Gittis' lab aims to find exactly what neuronal pathways are required for locomotor recovery, how electrical pulses can be "tuned" to affect just these subpopulations, and how these subpopulations can be stimulated to essentially repair themselves, offering longer-lasting relief from symptoms, even without ongoing stimulation.

Preliminary work shows promise: Working with a dopamine-depleted mouse model, Gittis and her team have identified specific subpopulations of neurons in the basal ganglia necessary for the relief of symptoms. When stimulated with a pulse of carefully tuned electricity — rather than a constant flow — the cells' activity is changed in a way that results in hours of improved mobility with no further stimulation.

Her research aims to determine whether these activity changes can be made more permanent to start healing and rewiring neural circuits. She is collaborating with a neurosurgeon to begin a clinical trial based on her work later this year.

In 2024, the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience Awarded Gittis a Neurobiology of Brain Disorders (NBD) Award. The NBD Awards support innovative research by U.S. scientists studying neurological and psychiatric diseases. The awards encourage collaboration between basic and clinical neuroscience to translate laboratory discoveries about the brain and nervous system into diagnoses and therapies to improve human health.

Additional awards include a grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, a National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia & Depression Young Investigator Grant in 2013 and the Janett Rosenberg Trubatch Career Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience in 2018. She was a finalist for the Science and PINS Prize for Neuromodulation in 2018.

Gittis is a native of western Pennsylvania and was thrilled to move back to the region when she joined Carnegie Mellon and began her lab.

"Pittsburgh is part of my identity," she said. "I'm proud of the work that my team, and I have done at Carnegie Mellon so far. We're at a point where we are starting to translate the results of our work into actionable items for doctors. That's the dream of many people who work in foundational research."

Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon, Gittis was a postdoctoral researcher at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, which was supported by an initial mentored research experience award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. For her research, she was a 2012 Finalist for the Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology.

She is a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a member of the scientific advisory council for the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, and a reviewing editor for Science Advances and eLife. Previously she served as co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Tourette Syndrome Association and has served on National Institutes of Health review committees.

Gittis earned her doctorate in neuroscience in 2008 from the University of California, San Diego. She received her undergraduate degree from Brandeis University in 2001 and served as a Fulbright scholar in France from 2001-2002.

Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz established the Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished Professorship of Life Sciences in 2000 to support a faculty member in the Mellon College of Science. Dr. Schwertz earned a bachelor of science degree in 1937, a master of science degree in 1938 and a doctorate in 1941, all in physics, from the Mellon College of Science. He was a strong advocate for education and research in the life sciences, which he demonstrated through his philanthropy and his lifelong commitment to CMU.