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Michael Stryker to deliver Pepose Vision Sciences Award Lecture on March 12

February 22, 2012 By

This year’s Pepose Award in Vision Sciences, funded by an endowment from Brandeis graduates Jay Pepose (’75) and his wife, Susan Feigenbaum (’74), will be awarded to Michael Stryker, the William Francis Ganong Professor of Physiology at UCSF.  Dr. Stryker, who has been a faculty member at ‘SF since 1978, has been at the forefront of vision research for decades.  His lab has used a variety of animal models to probe cortical development and plasticity in the visual system, and developed a variety of techniques to analyze and measure these changes, often resulting in images that are visually inspiring in their own right (Figure, below).

This top down view of cat visual cortex shows color coded orientation columns, using a continuous-periodic imaging paradigm developed in the Stryker lab.

As a postdoc at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Stryker worked with Nobel Laureates Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel, whose groundbreaking research using the visual cortex of cats provided a first glimpse into cortical organization, development, and plasticity.  By studying how the responsiveness of neurons in visual cortex changes as a result of visual deprivation, Hubel and Wiesel pioneered a model for developmental neurobiology and introduced us to concepts like ocular dominance, orientation columns, and critical periods, a foundation upon which Dr. Stryker has built much in the subsequent decades: describing the arrangement of orientation maps in pinwheels; probing the role of spontaneous retinal activity in producing these maps; highlighting the importance of ongoing developmental activity using visual deprivation and pharmacological activity blockades; and more recently examining the molecular substrates of these changes using the genetically accessible murine model.  His career spans the visual field from its foundational work to the most modern, and with no end in sight!

Join us on March 12, 3:45 pm in Gersetnzang 121 as he accepts the award and delivers a public lecture on “Rewiring the Brain: Mechanisms of Competition and Recovery of Function in the Mammalian Cortex“.

Filed Under: awards, Neuroscience, seminars Tagged With: , , , ,

James P. Allison to deliver Gabbay Award Lecture

November 3, 2011 By

James Allison, PhD  from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will receive the 2011 Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine “for his development of strategies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for immunotherapy of cancer”. The award, administered by the Rosenstiel Center at Brandeis, consists of a $15,000 cash prize and a medallion. Dr. Allison will deliver the award lecture on Mobilizing the immune system to treat cancer: Immune checkpoint blockade, on Monday, Nov 14, 2011 at 3:30 pm in Gerstenzang 121.

Allison and his lab are interested in the mechanisms that regulate T cell responses and using that understanding to improve clinical outcomes in areas ranging from autoimmunity, to allergy to vaccination to  tumor therapy.

Filed Under: awards, seminars Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Women in Science Events

October 31, 2011 By

Two Women in Science events this week.

  1. The Brandeis Chapter of SACNAS, in affiliation with the Science Club for Girls, would like to cordially invite you to the Fall 2011, Women in Science Panel. Join us this Wednesday, November 2 at 5:30pm in Volen 119 for a night full of professional development, networking, culture, and community!  Interdisciplinary, inclusive, and highly interactive, the SACNAS Women in Science Panel offers an unparallel venue for discussion between women in science and science students. Come hear about the journeys of amazing female scientists, and learn how you can play a unique role in changing the status quo.
  2. On Thursday, November 4, the Women in Science Initiative will hold a Kick Off Reception at 3:00 pm in Abelson 131, where Associate Professor of Physics Gabriella Sciolla will talk about Dark Matter.

As an appetizer, you can read more about the rich history of Brandeis women in science in a new story at BrandeisNOW.

Filed Under: events, seminars Tagged With: , , ,

SUMO Proteins Emerge as Critical K2P Channel Regulators

October 23, 2011 By

In memory of Dan Getz (1969-2006) and sponsored by the Dan Getz Endowed Fund for Heart Disease Research, the most recent lecture in the Heart Research Series was presented on Wednesday afternoon. For the many that were in attendance, Dr. Steve Goldstein, the newly appointed Provost of the university, presented a wonderful story on his ongoing research involving K2P channels. The ubiquitously expressed K2P channels are critical in regulating a cell’s resting membrane potential, making them essential for the proper function of any cell that operates through electrical stimulation. His research has uncovered the surprising result that the activity of these elusive channels is regulated by small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) proteins. Sumoylation was widely thought to only occur in the nucleus, but a number of elegantly designed experiments proved that this is not the case. The recent finding that the activity of these channels is modulated by sumoylation uncovers an entirely new way of thinking about K2P channel activity. Although the research presented was focused on specific isoforms of the channel, Dr. Goldstein’s results will extend to aid research involved with trying to understand diseases of the heart and beyond.

Colocalization of SUMO1 and K2P1 at the plasma membrane, from Plant et al. PNAS 107(23): 10743–10748, 2010.

Filed Under: Biochemistry, events, labs, Neuroscience Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Complex Fluids Workshop on Sep 23

September 22, 2011 By

On Friday, Sep 23 2011, Brandeis will play host to the 48th New England Complex Fluids Meeting, run by the New England Complex Fluids Workgroup, of which the Brandeis Complex Fluids group is a charter participant. These quarterly meetings foster collaboration among researchers from industry and academia in the New England area studying Soft Condensed Matter, offer the opportunity to exchange ideas, and help introduce students and post-docs to the local academic and industrial research community.

The workshop, to be held in the Shapiro Campus Center, will have four talks by invited speakers, each about 30 minutes long with ample time for questions. In addition, everyone who attends is encouraged to give a five minute update (soundbite) of their current work.

Schedule

9:30 AM – Krystyn Van Vliet (Materials Science and Engineering, MIT), Chemomechanics of responsive gels
10:15 AM – Jeremy England (Physics, MIT), Shape Shifting: the statistical physics of protein conformational change

Soundbites: 11:30 – 12:30 PM Five minute updates of current research

1:30 PM – Francis Starr (Physics, Wesleyan), DNA-linked Nanoparticle Assemblies
2:15 PM – Jennifer Ross (Physics, UMass Amherst), Controlling Microtubules Through Severing

More Soundbites: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Filed Under: events, Physics, seminars Tagged With: , , , ,

Genetics Training Grant Symposium to be held Sep 2

August 10, 2011 By

The Genetics Training Grant at Brandeis (GTG) is an important part of the graduate programs in Molecular & Cell Biology and Biochemistry & Biophysics, teaching students to critically evaluate both their own research and the scientific literature, while also developing their communication skills. The annual symposium, organized and hosted by the GTG students, is central to this mission. This year’s GTG Symposium is entitled “Signal Transduction: Insights gained from diverse species”, and will take place on September 2.  Four distinguished scientists will be presenting their recent work:

  • Gary Ruvkun (Harvard Medical School), our Keynote Speaker, will speak about neuroendocrine control of C. elegans development, metabolism and longevity;
  • Marcia Haigis (Harvard Medical School) will present her work on mitochondrial sirtuins and aging;
  • Morris White (Children’s Hospital Boston) will talk about the molecular basis of mammalian insulin-like signaling in the pathophysiology of metabolic disease;
  • Cynthia Bradham (Boston University) will present work on secondary axis specification and patterning in the sea urchin.

These talks will be followed by a Poster Session and Reception (see schedule). Current and former GTG trainees will be presenting posters from 3:40 to 5:00 PM in the Shapiro Science Center Atrium, All life sciences graduate students are encouraged to present posters.

The entire event is free and open to the public.  For planning purposes, we ask anyone attending the symposium and/or presenting a poster to pre-register by August 24th, 2011. Poster titles will be available after registration is complete.

Please join us for this exciting symposium showcasing genetics at Brandeis.

Filed Under: Biochemistry, Biology, events, grad students Tagged With: , , , , ,

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