Kay Tye

Kay M. Tye (born c. 1981) is an American neuroscientist and professor and Wylie Vale Chair in the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Her research has focused on using optogenetics to identify connections in the brain that are involved in innate emotion, motivation and social behaviors.

Early life and education Tye was raised in Ithaca, New York, where both of her parents worked at Cornell University. Her parents Henry Tye and Bik Kwoon Tye had emigrated from Hong Kong. As a child, Tye worked in her mother's laboratory organizing pipette tips. She completed a Bachelor of Science with a major in cognitive science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1999 to 2003. After graduating, she spent time learning breakdancing and backpacked around Australia for a year before returning to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), to begin her graduate studies in neuroscience. and won the Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience and the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. Tye received her PhD in 2008.

Career and research From 2008 to 2009, Tye worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the UCSF Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center and then at Stanford University from 2009 to 2011. Her work has contributed to the understanding of social behaviors such as reward-seeking and anxiety, and provided insights into the basis of psychiatric diseases.

Her work has also looked at alcoholism and brain circuitry, where Tye led a team of researchers to identify how the brain is altered in mice that predicted increased levels of compulsive drinking. The work is suggested to lead to understanding as to why some people become addicted to alcohol, while others do not. In 2014, she was named one of MIT Technology Review TR35 top innovators under the age 35 for her use of optogenetics in identifying neural circuits involved in anxiety and social interaction.

In November 2019, Tye gave a TED Talk at the National Academy of Sciences titled "What Investigating Neural Pathways Can Reveal About Mental Health".

Publications

Siciliano, C.A., Noamany, H., Chang, C.J., Brown, A.R., Chen, X., Leible, D., Lee, J.J., Wang, J., Vernon, A.N., Vander Weele, C.M., Kimchi, E.Y., Heiman, M., Tye, K.M. A cortical-brainstem circuit predicts and governs compulsive alcohol drinking. (2019) Science. 366(6468):1008-1012. DOI: 10.1126/science.aay1186 Neural mechanisms of social homeostasis. Matthews GA & Tye KM. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019 Mar 15. DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14016 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (2021) Blavatnik National Award Laureate for Young Scientists (2021) NIMH MERIT Award (2021-2031) Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Young Investigator Award (2016) Daniel X. Freedman Award (2016) Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) (2016) New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson Investigator (2015–2019) McKnight Scholar Award (2015–2018) Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award (2015) NIMH (2014–2018) Sloan Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2014–2015) NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2014–2015) TR35, Technology Review's Top 35 Innovators Under 35 (2014) ACNP Associate Member (2014) NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2013–2018) Klingenstein Foundation Award (2013–2015) Whitehead Career Development Professorship (2013–2015) Whitehall Foundation Award (2012–2014) Kavli Foundation Frontiers Fellow Jeptha H. and Emily V. Wade Award (2012) Stanford University Post-Doctoral Award (2010) NRSA Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (2009–2012) European Brain and Behavior Society Post-Doctoral Fellow Award (2009) Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award (2009) Donald B. Lindsley Prize (2009) NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2005–2008)