Undergraduate Department News - 2009 Neuroscience - Research Awards
The Department of Neuroscience is proud to announce the recipients of this year's research awards. Pictured below (from left to right) are Samuel Stoyak with the Excellence in Research Award, Daniel Mandell with the James E. Bradler, Jr. Award, and Steven Cassady with the Excellence in Research Award.
The James E. Bradler, Jr. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research —named in honor of Jim Bradler, a former graduate student in the Department of Neuroscience. Jim’s undergraduate research experience changed his life and set him on the path to become a scientist. Jim died unexpectedly in 1990, and this award was created by the (then) Departmental Chair, Edward M. Stricker, to memorialize Jim’s life experience and to celebrate the transformational impact of research.
The Research Excellence Award—created by the Department in 2008 to recognize students who have excelled in the laboratory as evidenced by an unusually high level of productivity, profound commitment to completion of a research project, and great potential for a career in research.
Grant Awarded to Dr. Rinaman - March 20, 2009
We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Linda Rinaman has been awarded a new grant, Early Life Experience Shapes Visceral Circuits. The five year project will examine the interactions between infants and their mother (or primary caregiver) which are critical for normal growth and
development, and perturbations can disrupt physiological and behavioral functions in the offspring. The
proposed research will use anatomical and physiological methods in rats to test the hypothesis that the
influence of early life events on later responses to stress and emotional events is linked to developmental
plasticity of circuits that provide visceral sensory feedback to the brain and generate emotional expression.
Grant Awarded to Dr. Card - April 1, 2009
We are pleased to announce that Professor, J. Patrick Card, has been awarded a four-year grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, effective April 1, 2009, and entitled, “ C1, Rostroventrolateral Medulla and the Central Integration of Cardiovascular Regulation”. Dr. Card is collaborating with Pitt colleague, Dr. Alan Sved, Professor and Chairman of the department and Dr. Mohan Raizada, University of Florida. The project looks at a distributed network of neurons in the central nervous system known to exert a regulatory influence over cardiovascular function and malfunction of the network that can produce hypertension, a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. However, the way in which neuronal activity is coordinated within the central cardiovascular network is not known. This proposal tests the hypothesis that collateralized projections of C1 catecholamine neurons in the rostroventrolateral medulla provides the neural substrate for this integration.
Pitt Day in Harrisburg -- March 17, 2009
Pictured: Alan Sved, Daniel Jimenz, Krishna Ganapathy Subramanian, Beth Siegler Retchless, Erin Zimmerman
For more than 15 years, “Pitt Day in Harrisburg,” has given members of the General Assembly an opportunity to talk with alumni, faculty, and students about their work and to gain a first-hand perspective of the challenges and changes facing public higher education. Members of the Alumni Legislative Network (ALN) have annually traveled to Harrisburg in order to meet with elected officials and to be the voice of Pitt.
Representing the Department of Neuroscience and the CNUP were Alan Sved, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neuroscience and co-director of the CNUP, and graduate students, Daniel Jimenez, Krishna Ganapathy Subramanian, Beth Siegler Retchless and Erin Zimmerman.
Neuroscience in the News
Low Brainer: Ancient Skull Shows Early Primates Didn't Need Big Brains
Scientific American - June 23
A 54-million-year-old fossil suggests that certain early primate activities did not necessarily trigger the explosion in brain size
Migraine ‘aura’ tied to long-term brain damage
Reuters on Msnbc - June 23
Migraine headaches suffered by one in 10 women may inflict long-term damage to a part of the brain important to coordination and the senses, researchers said on Tuesday.
How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains
New York Times - June 22
A recipe for indulging: salt, sugar and fat, mixed many ways. But we can fight it. When it comes to stimulating our brains, individual ingredients aren’t particularly potent. But by combining fats, sugar and salt in innumerable ways, food makers have essentially tapped into the brain’s reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more and more even when we’re full.
Visualizing schizophrenia
New York Times – June 13, 2008
Times Essential: Expert Q&A with Paul Thompson. Paul Thompson is professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and leads the research group at the school’s Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. He uses imaging technology to map disease processes involving the human brain, carried out in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and more than 40 laboratories around the world. A goal is to create disease-specific atlases of the brain that can aid in the diagnosis, treatment and possible prevention of illnesses like schizophrenia.
