Scientists Identify Machinery that Helps Make Memories

   Scientists Identify Machinery that Helps Make Memories

Duke University Medical Center researchers have identified a missing-link molecule that helps to explain the process of plasticity and could lead to targeted therapies.

The discovery of a molecule that moves new receptors to the synapse so that the neuron (nerve cell) can respond more strongly helps to explain several observations about plasticity, said Michael Ehlers, MD, PhD, a Duke professor of neurobiology and senior author of the study published in the Oct. 31 issue of Cell. "This may be a general delivery system in the brain and in other types of cells, and could have significance for all cell signaling."

 Dr. Miguel Nicolelis has been named an International Blaise Pascal Research

   Dr. Miguel Nicolelis has been named an International Blaise Pascal Research

Dr. Miguel Nicolelis has been named an International Blaise Pascal Research
Chair for 2008-2009. These Chairs were established in 1996 by the State and
the Ile-de-France region to be awarded to highly qualified, internationally
acclaimed, foreign research scientists in exact or applied sciences, earth
and environmental sciences, new technologies and human or social sciences.


The prestigious international chair is named after Blaise Pascal, a 17th
century French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher who made
important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators, the
study of fluids, and the concepts of pressure and vacuum.

 The North Carolina Biotechnology Center Awards the Life Sciences Achievement Award for Breakthrough Research to, Mike Ehlers

   Mike Ehlers awarded the Life Sciences Achievement Award for Breakthrough Researc

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has awarded the Life Sciences Achievement Award for Breakthrough Research to Mike Ehlers. The award is given to a North Carolina researcher who has contributed significantly to the life sciences.

 Guoping Feng, Ph.D. to share the inaugural Hartwell Biomedical Research Collaboration Award,

   Guoping Feng, receives Hartwell Biomedical Research Collaboration Award,

The Hartwell Foundation Announces Inaugural
Biomedical Research Collaboration Award
Memphis, TN, August 18, 2008 -- The Hartwell Foundation officially announced the first winners of a Biomedical Research Collaboration Award, which will provide funding to expand the frontiers of early-stage, innovative, and cutting-edge applied biomedical research through special collaboration. Andrew Pieper, MD, Ph.D., Departments of Psychiatry and Biochemistry from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas and Guoping Feng, Ph.D., Department of Neurobiology, from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina will share $260,000 in combined direct cost over three years to pursue their proposed research for “Rapid Discovery of Small Molecules for Drug Development in an Animal Model of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.” The Hartwell Foundation currently funds both researchers individually, as 2006 Hartwell Investigators; both institutions are among The Hartwell Foundation’s 2008 Top
Ten Centers of Biomedical Research. In a groundbreaking research funded by The Hartwell Foundation, Dr. Feng has described a novel mechanism for the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). His unintentional introduction of OCD into mice was generated by a unique gene mutation that altered neuronal transmission, leading to an unprecedented opportunity to explore effective treatments for the disorder. Simultaneously, in a separate research project also funded by the Foundation, Dr. Pieper has demonstrated an innovative and facile approach for screening small drug-like molecules in a mouse model of schizophrenia, using a unique chemical compound library located at UT Southwestern.

 Michael Ehlers Earn Thomas Langford Award

    Michael Ehlers receives honor

Michael Ehlers, Ph.D. of the Department of Neurobiology have been selected for Duke University’s Thomas Langford Lectureship Award. This program was initiated eight years ago as a tribute to the memory of Thomas Langford, former Divinity School faculty member, dean, and provost, who embodied the highest university values of scholarship, teaching, collegiality, and the promotion of faculty excellence and community. The annual Langford Lectureship series is designed to provide Duke’s faculty with an opportunity to hear about the ongoing scholarly activities of their recently promoted colleagues.

 Michael Platt Receives Duke's Receives Duke's Master Teacher/Clinician Award

   Michael Platt receives honor

Michael Platt Receives Duke's Receives Duke's Master Teacher/Clinician Award. More information will be coming....

 Erich Jarvis Named Howard Hughes Investigator

   Erich Jarvis Named Howard Hughes Investigator

Erich Jarvis, Ph.D., an associate professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center, has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator by HHMI. He is one of 42 men and 14 women chosen this year in a highly selective national competition that occurs about every three years.

"These 56 scientists will bring new and innovative ways of thinking about biology to the HHMI community," said Thomas R. Cech, president of HHMI. "They are poised to advance scientific knowledge dramatically in the coming years, and we are committed to providing them with the freedom and flexibility to do so."

 Brain Pleasure Pathway Responds to Calorie-Rich Foods, Not Just Sugar Flavor

   the brain can respond to the calorie content of food, even in the absence of taste

DURHAM, N.C. – Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have discovered that the brain can respond to the calorie content of food, even in the absence of taste.

Their findings about the brain's dopamine-reward system may help shed light on why many people who drink diet sodas still gain weight. A mismatch between artificially sweet taste and zero calorie content may lead to some kind of rebound eating that may in part be explained by these results: the brain is wired to respond to both calorie content and sweetness.

For years, scientists have known that when mammals, including humans, taste sweet foods, dopamine levels increase in the ventral striatum, a brain region related to reward and reinforcement. The neural pathways have been well established for palatability (the power of a food to make one eat it spontaneously and with gusto) as food is being eaten. With this set of experiments, the Duke team studied the brain's response to food after it was ingested.

 Monkey Brains Provide Clues to Understanding Social Behavior

   Monkey Brain Gives Clues to Human Interaction

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University Medical Center researchers have pinpointed neurons in the brains of monkeys that may help explain how people make decisions in social situations and could aid understanding of autism.

Little is known about how the brain evaluates social information and uses this information to guide behavior. Even less is known about how this process breaks down in autism, a disease that affects more than a million Americans.

"Our prior studies described how social attention of rhesus monkeys is similar to humans -- motivated by status and sex, and sensitive to the attentive states of other individuals," said Michael Platt, Ph.D., associate professor of neurology at Duke. "Here we show that the parietal cortex, which plays a critical role in guiding attention, becomes active according to the social value of images seen and ultimately enables the behavior of the animal."

 McNamara lab identifies a novel mechanism of TrkB transactivation.

   Huang et al. have now identified a novel mechanism of TrkB transactivation.

In a Neuron Preview article highlighting the publication by Yang Z. Huang, Enhui Pan, Zhi-Qi Xiong and James O. McNamara,

Titled: Ama“Zinc” Link between TrkB Transactivation and Synaptic Plasticity, by Guhan Nagappan1, Newton H. Woo1 and Bai Lu, they wrote:

"While Trk receptors can be activated in a neurotrophin-independent manner through “transactivation” by GPCR ligands, its physiological significance in the brain remains unknown. Huang et al. have now identified a novel mechanism of TrkB transactivation. They show that zinc ions can transactivate TrkB independent of neurotrophins and that such a transactivation is important for mossy fiber long-term potentiation (LTP)."