Dr. Cagla Eroglu is a Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology and Neurobiology at Duke University, and she is an HHMI Investigator. Dr. Eroglu’s lab seeks to understand how cells called astrocytes guide the assembly and function of the circuits underlying cognition. Dr. Eroglu’s team is developing new techniques to visualize astrocytes and study astrocyte-neuron interactions. The team has revealed that a chemical code shared by astrocytes and neurons regulates the wiring of these key circuits. Eroglu’s work has implications for understanding autism and other disorders rooted in brain connectivity. Dr. Eroglu earned her PhD from the University of Heidelberg and European Molecular Biology Laboratories in Germany and completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University’s neurobiology department. She joined the Duke faculty in 2008 and became an HHMI Investigator in 2021. She was promoted to full professor in 2022 and is the vice chair of research for the department of cell biology.