University of UtahTuesdays, Eccles (EIHG) Auditorium, 4:00-5:00 P.M.
September 18: Ege Kavalali, Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
Department of Neuroscience, Center for Basic Neuroscience
"Multiple Vesicle Recycling Pathways in Central Synapses and Their Impact on Neurotransmission"
Faculty host: Erik Jorgensen, Biology
Student host: Eric Bend
Biosketch: Dr. Kavalali studied Electrical Engineering as an undergraduate at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey, received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University, and completed postdoctoral studies at Stanford University. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic function and synapse assembly in the central nervous system, specifically, the physiological properties of central presynaptic terminals. His laboratory uses electrical and optical recording techniques to investigate the mechanisms that govern synaptic vesicle recycling. He also studies the role of neuronal activity in regulation of spatial organization and maturation of individual synaptic terminals.
October 16: Carolyn Houser, Ph.D., David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
Department of Neurobiology
"Vulnerability and Plasticity of the GABA System in Epilepsy"
Faculty hosts: Ed Dudek, Physiology and Karen Wilcox, Pharmacology & Toxicology
Student host: Sean Flynn
Biosketch: Dr. Houser received a BS in Occupational Therapy from the University of Kansas, an MS in Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, a PhD in Microanatomy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed postdoctoral studies in Neuroscience at the Beckman Research Institute in City of Hope, California. Her laboratory studies the neurochemical anatomy and morphological plasticity of the mammalian central nervous system. Research is focused on the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system. Interrelationships between the GABA neurons and their receptors are being studied in the normal brain, during development and in experimental conditions in which the GABA system is altered. The brain region of major interest in these studies is the hippocampus. She is also studying the morphological and neurochemical changes that occur in epilepsy. Such changes are being studied in human tissue and in animal models of seizures.
November 20: Jerry Silver, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University
Department of Neurosciences
"Functional Regeneration Beyond the Glial Scar"
Faculty host: Maureen Condic, Neurobiology & Anatomy; Shannon Odelberg, Internal Medicine
Student host: Katherine Zukor
Biosketch: Dr. Silver received an undergraduate degree in Biology from Cleveland State University and a PhD from the Department of Anatomy at Case. He completed his post-doctoral training in Richard Sidman's laboratory in the Departments of Neuroscience and Neuropathology at the Children's Hospital Medical Center of Harvard University. Current research in Dr. Silver's laboratory focuses on the role of extrinsic factors in guiding developing and regenerating axons along their proper pathways within the brain and spinal cord of mammals. Using a microtransplantation technique, they have shown that neurons from adult mammals can regenerate axons quite efficiently through intact and lesioned central nervous system (CNS) white matter, despite the fact that such environments contain several proteins that are inhibitory to neurite outgrowth in other contexts. These regenerating axons, however, halt their growth when they reach the glial scar. This suggests that in vivo the glial scar is the most prominent extrinsic obstacle to regeneration. Indeed, they have been able to promote robust functional regeneration of axons into the CNS by combining chondroitinase application, a treatment that reduces the inhibitory nature of the glial scar, with implantation of an autologous peripheral nervous system "bridge". Other labs around the world are now showing that the use of chondroitinase combined with various cell bridging techniques and an enhancement of the neurons' intrinsic growth response can restore function in other regeneration models and in other species of mammals. It is highly conceivable that such therapeutic strategies may be useful in restoring both sensory and motor function in paralyzed humans.
December 18: Marianne Bronner-Fraser, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Division of Biology
"Gene Regulatory Interactions in Neural Crest Formation"
Faculty host: Tatjana Piotrowski, Neurobiology & Anatomy
Student host: Renee Bend
Biosketch: Dr. Bronner-Fraser received a bachelors degree in Biophysics from Brown University and a PhD in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. She served as a faculty member of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics, and then the Department of Developmental & Cell Biology at University of California, Irvine before moving on to the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. Her laboratory is concerned with analyzing the cellular and molecular events underlying the formation, cell lineage decisions and migration of neural crest cells. Neural crest cells are generated when epidermis and neural plate are juxtaposed. This is a classical type of embryonic induction. Their current goal is to characterize the inductive interactions that lead to formation of the neural crest and to examine how regional differences arise in the neural crest populations along the rostrocaudal axis. With respect to neural crest migrations, her lab is examining the mechanisms controlling cell movement by manipulating the environment. Tools used are reagents that block specific cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions as well as retroviral vectors to ectopically express molecules of interest. They have found that inhibitory cues inherent to the somites and notochord prevent neural crest cells from migrating into them. In addition, cell-matrix interactions mediated by integrins and extracellular matrix molecules are required for normal neural crest cell migration. Another one of their goals is to identify interactions that are important for cell migration that subsequently leads to segmentation of the peripheral nervous system.
January 15: Gordon Fishell, Ph.D., New York University School of Medicine
Department of Cell Biology, Skirball Institute and Department of Cell Biology
"Making Up Your Mind: The Developmental Origins of Cortical Interneurons"
Faculty host: Chi-Bin Chien, Neurobiology & Anatomy
Student host: John Gaynes
Biosketch: Dr. Fishell received an undergraduate degree and a PhD from the University of Toronto. He completed post-doctoral training at Columbia University and Rockefeller University. His laboratory studies the mechanisms of neural patterning in the mammalian forebrain. In mammals, the dorsal pallial telencephalon gives rise to the laminar, cortical regions of brain, whereas the ventral aspect develops into the nuclear components of the basal ganglia. They are interested in investigating how this dorsal-ventral (D-V) pattern is established. It is thought to involve two complementary processes: the expression of regional phenotypes and a concomitant change in cell proliferation. To understand how these two processes are coordinated and regulated, they have identified genes that are candidates for regulating each and are using gain-of-function and loss-of-function approaches to study their roles. Candidates include Dlx2, Emx1, sonic hedgehog, FGF8, Notch, Delta, JkRBP and Numb. Methods used include in vivo transplantation, targeted gene expression manipulations that employ viral vectors and a novel high resolution ultrasound-guided injection system, as well as a forebrain explant culture system.
February 19: Mriganka Sur, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
"Plasticity and dynamics of neuron and astrocyte networks in visual cortex"
Faculty host: Alessandra Angelucci, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Student host: Shushruth
Biosketch: Dr. Sur received an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and MS and PhD degrees from Vanderbilt University. After postdoctoral research at SUNY Stony Brook, he was appointed to the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine and later joined the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. His laboratory has discovered fundamental principles by which neurons of the cerebral cortex are wired during development and change dynamically in adulthood as they process information. His laboratory studies, specifically, how thalamic nuclei & different cortical areas are specified during development, how rewiring occurs to allow for plasticity during cortical development, and the dynamics of networks within the visual cortex. Methods used include electrophysiology, molecular biology, two photon imaging, and network modeling.
DATE CHANGE: March 28 (2600 HSEB): Paul Glimcher, Ph.D., New York University
Center for Neural Science
"The Neural Basis of Decision-Making"
Faculty host: Bradley Greger, Bioengineering
Student host: Priyanka Pandit
Biosketch: Dr. Glimcher received a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. His laboratory is developing new ways of studying the physiological basis of the mind. Historically, scientists have sought to categorize neural activity as sensory or motor in order to understand how the nervous system connects sensation with action. Research on human and animal subjects in the Glimcher lab, however, has begun to identify and examine physiologically classes of signals in a number of brain areas that influence response generation but do not appear to fit neatly into these categories. Alternative theories of response generation do exist which require signals of this type: economically-based theories of behavior. The work of the laboratory, therefore, seeks to reconcile economically-based models of behavior with neurobiological theories of response generation. Their long-term goal is to use economic theories of choice as a basis for developing a biologically testable paradigm, rooted in decision theory and games theory, that can replace traditional dualist notions of mind and body.
April 15: Constance Cepko, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School
Department of Genetics; Howard Hughes Medical Institute
"Cell Fate Determination in the Vertebrate Retina"
Faculty host: Sabine Fuhrmann, Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
Student host: Peter Westenskow
Biosketch: Dr. Cepko received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Phillip Sharp on the assembly of the adenovirus capsid. She remained at MIT as a Jane Coffin Childs fellow in the laboratory of Richard Mulligan, where she helped develop the technology of retrovirus-mediated gene transduction. Her current research is focused on the development and degeneration of the central nervous system. She uses the retina as a model system since it is more tractable than other parts of the brain. Studies have focused on the mechanisms of cell fate determination in the developing retina and on why photoreceptor cells die in many forms of human retinal degeneration. Methods used include genomics technology and other molecular approaches.
Past seminars
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