Neuroscience at the family dinner tableBy Natalia Rozas de O’Laughlin

I always find my in-laws to be the hardest audience to explain my research work to. And because I usually only see them during big family dinner events (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc), I decided to call this column “Neuroscience at the Family Dinner Table”. Through these interviews I want to learn and share with you the key elements in a conversation to successfully get non-scientists excited and interested about what we do. At the end you will find ac-tual comments from the interviewee’s family!

I met with Anuja Chandrasekar, a 3rd year student working in Dr. Waxham’s laboratory to talk about her work. Her research topic started as “role of neurogranin in regulating calcium binding to calmodulin” but after our conversation it ended up being “Diwali at the Post-Syn-aptic Density”. My goal is to be able to explain her work in a way in which anyone can understand it and maybe give you a conversation topic for your next family reunion.

Neuroscientists are still arguing about what as-pects of the brain are responsible for storing memo-ries. Some say memories are stored in different areas of the brain, depending on the type of memory. Others say memories are stored in networks formed by brain cells, throughout the brain. Yet others say memories are stored in the way neurons communicate, by changing the rate at which they send signals to each other. And finally, some think that the key to understanding how memories are stored is in the molecules themselves what they do and how they do it could be essential to understand how our brain can store memories. The right answer probably lies in between all these ideas, but currently we are only able to study one or two at a time. Anuja’s work focuses mainly on the last concept, that proteins can store memories by the way they inter-act and behave after an experience. (continued on page 2)

Directors’ Note

(Left) 2011 Retreat guest speaker and NGP alumnus Greg Fuller and Brittany Parker.

(Right) Program directors, students, and guests at the Camp Allen retreat.

NeurogradNewsThe University of TexasHealth Science Center at HoustonGraduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Summer 2012

Welcome back to The Neurograd News! Since the Summer 2011 newsletter we have had 8 new students start in the program, 7 students defend their theses, a student retreat at Camp Allen, and an outstanding video produced by two of our students which placed 3rd in the 2011 Inaugural SfN Brain Awareness Video Contest.

We are looking forward to the 2012-2013 GSBS entering class from which 11 students are interested in joining the neuroscience program. The Neurosci-

ence Student council is planning a recruitment picnic Saturday, August 4th at Surfside Beach. We encourage all alumni who are in the Houston area to join our fac-ulty/students and their families in welcoming the new students. Please visit neurograd.org (or our Facebook page UTHealth Neuroscience Graduate Program) for more details.

Thanks, Scan the QR code toAndy and Jack visit our website!

Anuja studies how brain cells, called neurons, com-municate with each other. Neurons are similar to any cell of the body since they have a nucleus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and so on. Neurons are differ-ent from other cells of the body in that they can process and transmit information very fast from one cell to the other through what is called a synapse. A synapse is composed of 3 main parts: the end of one neuron (pre-synaptic terminal), a space in between (synaptic cleft) and the beginning of another neuron (post-synaptic terminal). In both terminals there are many important proteins necessary to make this communication effi-cient and reliable. For example there are proteins that form channels for charged molecules to move in and out. We also find proteins, called receptors, which can identify a signal outside the cell and transmit this sig-nal inside. They do this by marking other proteins that will carry the message further in, sometimes all the way to the nucleus. We can think of all these molecules as the working force of the synapse, each one has a task to do and many interact to accomplish the job.

The molecules and proteins that Anuja examines work at what is called the Post-Synaptic Density (PSD). Anuja explained to me that the PSD is a region in the post-synaptic terminal that looks highly dense under the electron-microscope. It acts as a specialized

“sort-of ” organelle that ensures necessary proteins, such as channels and receptors, to be in close proxim-ity to receive a signal. In particular, Anuja studies how two molecules called neurogranin and calmodulin in-teract with each other to do their part in the big task of making a memory a lasting one. Neurogranin’s job is to bind Calmodulin and regulate its availability at the PSD. Calmodulin is one of the key proteins ca-pable of receiving the incoming signal (in the form of calcium that rushes into the neuron through channels) and translating it by changing its interaction patterns with many other proteins that will continue to send the signal down the cell body and eventually to another neuron.

Because Anuja is originally from India, I pictured her celebrating Diwali with her family and in-laws. It was very interesting how our conversation turned out to be in a pretend Diwali celebration where she would be explaining her work to her brother’s mother in law.

See how Natalia helps Anuja explain her project to her family in t he rest of Natalia’s article at the Neu-roscience program website: neurograd.org.

Natalia is a 5th year student in the Neuroscience Program. You can contact her at Natalia.S.Rozas@uth.tmc.edu.

Neuroscience at the family dinner table (continued from page 1)

Shuzo Sugita I earned my Ph.D in Neuroscience in 1994, following my graduate work with Drs. Jack Byrne and Doug Baxter. I came to Jack’s lab from Japan in 1989. Using electrophysiological and pharmacological approaches, I studied second messenger/protein kinase pathways that are involved in modulation of potassium currents and synaptic neurotransmission. Jack and Doug were great mentors and I really enjoyed working there together with many other motivated graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. After graduation, I moved to Dr. Thomas Südhof ’s lab at HHMI/UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas to study molecular mechanisms

underlying neurotransmitter release. Tom has been the world leader in the field for more than twenty five years. In his lab, I learned molecular biology, biochemistry and cell culture. I must admit that I struggled at the beginning to learn these new (to me) techniques, but still enjoyed a lot solving many interesting problems using these approaches. I primarily studied the function of synaptotagmins, neuroexins and Munc18. I moved to Toronto to start my own lab in 2001. I am currently Associate Professor of Physiology at University of Toronto and Senior Scientist at University Health Network. I am primarily studying the structure/function relationship of the complex interaction between Munc18 and syntaxin in neurotransmitter release. Why and how Munc18 is so essential for exocytosis is one of the biggest mysteries in the secretion field. I am currently working with three graduate students and one postdoctoral fellow.

(Continued on next page)

Alumni News

2 | Neurograd News

Alumni News (continued)Shuzo Sugita (continued)Similar to US, scientists in Canada are also suffering the difficulty in funding, but I hope that I can survive this difficult time. Outside of the lab, I got married with Kyoko in 1993 when I was a graduate student in Houston. Jack gave us a clock as a marriage gift, partly because I often overslept and came to the lab late. I still keep this clock. Thanks to aging, however, I can now wake up earlier. Kyoko and I enjoy life in Toronto, but still remember very fun times in Houston which includes Rice Uni-versity Village and the Houston Rockets. Thanks to the Neuroscience Program for great experiences and memories.

Sonja Blum I completed the MD/PhD program at UT in 2006 in the laboratory of Pramod Dash. My PhD thesis was titled “Cellular and molecular mechanisms of hippocam-pus-dependent long-term memory”. I completed an internal medicine  internship at Columbia University,  fol-lowed by neurology residency at the Neurological Institute at Columbia University. Cur-rently I am finishing a behav-ioral neurology fellowship also at Columbia. I have been working on memory and hippocam-pus-neocortical organization in normal aging. Also, I have been exploring the relationship of silent brain infarcts to memory performance in older individuals, which was recently published in Neurology under the title “Memory after stroke: Hippocampus and infarcts both matter”. I will be joining the New York University Neurology Department as an Assistant Professor, with clinical focus in neurorehabilitation and developing a line of research in cognitive rehabilitation.

James Bjork James Bjork, Ph.D. is a Program Official in NIDA’s Division of Clinical Neuroscience and Behavioral Research (DCNBR). Dr. Bjork joined DCNBR after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Studies of the NIAAA

intramural program. While at NIAAA, Dr. Bjork conducted behavioral and neuroimaging research on alcohol-dependent inpatients and in adolescents at risk for addiction, with a focus on impulsivity and incentive processing. Dr. Bjork has also conducted neuroimaging research on normative developmental differences between adolescents and adults in incentive-motivation and risk processing. Prior to joining NIAAA, Dr. Bjork conducted laboratory research on aggression and impulsivity in conduct-disordered adolescents at the Harris County Psychiatric Center (HCPC; Houston TX), part of the UT-Houston Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Bjork earned his Ph.D in Biomedical Sciences at the UT-Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) in 1999. His dissertation adviser was Dr. Donald Dougherty, who is now at UT-San Antonio and was also mentored by F. Gerard “Gerry” Moeller of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UTHealth Houston. Presently, Dr. Bjork develops and maintains a grant portfolio centered on neuroimaging and impulsivity in normal and addicted human brains, and also serves in a consultative role regarding NIDA’s pediatric neuroimaging portfolio. In addition, Dr. Bjork serves as the Scientific Officer on the main Human Connectome Project cooperative agreement with Dr. David Van Essen (Washington University). Other programmatic interests include psychopharmacology and traumatic brain injury and drug abuse in military and other populations. Dr. Bjork has authored dozens of peer-reviewed papers on human impulsivity and aggression, and is a frequent speaker about the motivational neurocircuitry of addiction and the at-risk brain. When not discussing the brain, Dr. Bjork moonlights as a professional saxophonist in the Washington DC metropolitan area.

New Neuroscience Program Faculty!Robert Dantzer and Annemieke Kavelaars have joined the Neuroscience Program Faculty. Both are members of the Department of Symptom Biology at MD Anderson.

Neurograd News | 3

Alumni News (continued)Jeannie Chin

It has been just over 10 years since I obtained my PhD from UT-Houston in the summer of 2001. It all started when I was a graduate student in Jack Byrne’s laboratory. It was under Jack’s mentorship and

support that I developed my interests in understanding the mechanisms underlying learning and memory, as well as the mechanisms underlying disorders of learning and memory such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). For my postdoctoral research, I joined the laboratory of Lennart Mucke at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and UCSF. Using transgenic mouse models of AD, I studied the cellular mechanisms by which AD-related factors like amyloid beta (Ab) impair synaptic plasticity and lead to memory and cognitive impairments. During my time in Lennart’s lab, I realized that many pharmaceutical companies were devoting a great deal of resources to AD research in a race to be the first to develop a disease-modifying therapy for this devastating disease. Lured by the vast resources for AD-focused basic research and drug discovery, I joined Wyeth Research (now Pfizer) in Princeton NJ. In my role as Principal Research Scientist, I led drug discovery programs as well as basic research efforts focused on Alzheimer’s as well as Parkinson’s disease. Although I certainly gained valuable experience during my years in industry, I also realized that progress in AD therapeutics is hampered by a lack of mechanistic understanding of disease pathogenesis, and that the only way that I could truly pursue my research interests was to return to academia. An extremely fortunate set of circumstances, timing, and location allowed me to become an Assistant Professor in the Farber Institute for Neurosciences and the newly-established Department of Neuroscience at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA - about an 8 minute walk from my house! I started at Jefferson in the summer of 2010, and I absolutely love being back in academics. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in industry, and even more fortunate for the opportunity to return to academia.

The focus of my lab is to understand the cellular and network mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments in AD. We utilize a multi-disciplinary approach to link molecular/cellular alterations to memory deficits in transgenic mouse models of AD. We use video-recorded EEG to characterize patterns of (aberrant) brain activity in individual mice and correlate this activity with performance in behavioral paradigms designed to test different aspects of memory and cognitive function. Finally, we use biochemical, molecular, and immunohistochemical techniques to identify links between alterations in particular proteins or pathways and dysfunction of neuronal circuits and cognitive processes on a mouse-by-mouse basis. This integrated approach allows us to investigate the molecular basis of memory impairments observed in AD, and to identify therapeutic entry points for the treatment of this devastating neurodegenerative disease. Over the last 10 years, my experiences have been shaped by my time at UT. Jack was a great mentor from whom I learned so much about what it is to “do” science, and how important it is to pay attention to the details - because it is often that spurious detail that turns into a fascinating story. I am also thankful to the other faculty members in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and to the Neuroscience Graduate Program for fostering such a warm community that made research fun, and taught me to appreciate that doing something that you enjoy means that you never have to work a day in your life.

Jeannie Chin and her husband, Javier Medina. Javier is also a graduate of the UT Neuroscience Graduate Program, and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

4 | Neurograd News

Joe AlcornLane Lab

Sarah Baum Beauchamp Lab

Brandon Brown Bean Lab

Anuja Chandrasekar Waxham Lab

Christopher Conner Tandon Lab

Brittany Coughlin Byrne Lab

Deepna Devkar Wright Lab

Nadeeka Dias Lane Lab

Sarah Eagleman Dragoi Lab

Madeline Farley Waxham Lab

Jonathan Flynn Shouval Lab

Julia Hill Dash Lab

Curtis Neveu Byrne Lab

Brittany Parker Wei Zhang Lab

Stuart RedSereno Lab

Caleb Robinson Dougherty Lab

Natalia Rozas De O’Laughlin

Dash Lab

Akanksha Singh Gopalakrishnan Lab

Heather Turner Galko Lab

Alejandro Vila O’Brien Lab

Natalie Sirisaengtaksin

Bean Lab

Yanran (Helen) WangO’Brien Lab

Ariana AndreiDragoi Lab

Monica Gireud Bean Lab

Denisse MezaBean Lab

Neda Shahidi Dragoi Lab

Neuroscience Program Students

Not pictured:

Benedict Igwe Dantzer/Kavelaars Lab

Chihan Kadipasaoglu Tandon Lab

Cathy ClaussenDafny Lab

George EdwardsSoto Lab

Zach JonesDafny Lab

Neurograd News | 5

Joe Alcorn was awarded the 2012 Roberta M. And Jean M. Worsham Endowed Scholarship.

Sarah Baum is the recipient of the NRC Graduate Student Outreach Award.

Anuja Chandrasekar was recognized as a Student Research Achievement Award winner at the Biophysical Society’s 56th Annual Meeting in the “Intrinsically Disordered Proteins” category.

Sarah Eagleman was awarded a Graduate Student Travel Award by the Houston Area Chapter of the Society of Neuroscience.

Madeline Farley was named the 2012 recipient of Thomas F. Burks Scholarship for Academic Merit.

Bryan Hansen (pictured on right with family)was awarded the 2012 Presidents’ Research Scholarship provided by the Presidents of the University of Texas Health Science Center and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Stuart Red was accepted into the NIMH Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience for 2012.

Natalie Sirisaengtaksin was the recipient of a poster session award at the UT/MDACC Symposia on Cancer Research 2011 in the category “Regulation and Structure of HER Proteins”.

Anuja Chandrasekar, Stuart Red, and Christopher Conner were selected to be a part of the UT Grant Initiative in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience.

Brittany Coughlin and Stuart Red were named recipients of the 2012 Zilkha Family Discovery Fellowship in Bioengineering.

NRC Poster Session1st place: Bryan Hansen (Valentin Dragoi’s lab)

awardee of the Dee S. and Patricia Osborne Endowed Scholarship in Neuroscience

2nd place (tie): Jennifer Dulin (Ray Grill’s lab, left) with Dr. Jack Byrne (center) and Michelle Reith (Michael Gambello’s lab, right).

Student Retreat Poster Session1st place: Brittany Parker (center)

2nd place: Natalie Sirisaengtaksin (left)

3rd place: Natalia Rozas De O’Laughlin (right)

Congratulations to the winners of the 2011 Dean’s Research Scholarship Awards. From left, Dr. Andrew Bean, chair of the Graduate Student Education Committee, Bryan Hansen, Jennifer Dulin, Anu

Rambhadram, Rachel Reith, and Caitlin Elmore.

The Synaptic Plasticity video by graduate students Natalia Rozas De O’Laughlin and Julia Hill has won the People’s Choice Award after placing third in the 2011 Inaugural Society for Neuroscience Brain Awareness Video Contest. Their success was celebrated at the Society’s annual Brain Awareness Campaign event during Neuroscience 2011 (below).

Recent Student Awards

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Claussen C and Dafny N (2012). Acute and chronic methylphenidate modulates the neuronal activity of the caudate nucleus recorded from freely behaving rats. Brain Research Bull. 87(4-5):387-96

Claussen C, Chong S, and Dafny, N (2012). Selec-tive bilateral lesion to Caudate Nucleus modulates the acute and chronic methylphenidate effects. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 101(2):208-16.Hansen BJ and Dragoi V (2011). Adaptation-induced synchronization in laminar cortical circuits. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:10720-10725.

Hansen BJ, Gutnisky DA, and Dragoi V (2011). Adaptive population coding in visual cortical networks. IEEE E-Health and Bioengineering.

Vila A, Satoh H, Rangel C, Mills SL, Hoshi H, O’Brien J, Marshak DR, Macleish PR, Marshak DW (2011). Histamine receptors of cones and horizontal cells in old World monkey retinas. J Comp Neurol 520(3):528-543.

Recent Student Publications

Recent Neuroscience Program Events

The Annual Neuroscience Program Picnic was held on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at the Valhalla located on the Rice University Campus. Program students and faculty enjoyed a night of karaoke, great food and games!

Orientation for the Neuroscience Program was held August 26, 2011. After tours of various labs in the program, faculty and students welcomed incoming stu-dents at our annual reception.On October 6-7, 2011 the Neuroscience Program students and incoming students interested in neuroscience gathered at Camp Allen for student talks, a poster competition and special guest speakers. Greg Fuller, alumnus of the Neuroscience Graduate Program, spoke on “If You Want to Take the Full Ride, You Have to Get All of Your Tickets Punched and other lessons gleaned from 35 years in academics by a 1970s-era UTGSBS Neuroscience Graduate Student” and Kartik Venkatachalam, member of the

Neuroscience Program faculty, spoke on “Diminutive Dipterans Dodge Disease”. On February 7, 2012 the student council members scheduled “Rapid fire talks” that included a five minute presentation with one slide that told the audience about their research. Student invited speaker, James D. Lauderdale from the University of Georgia, spoke on April 12, 2012. The title of his talk was “A Controlled Comparison of Evoked Seizure Activity in the Mature and Immature Brains of Zebrafish”. The Summer Recruitment Picnic is scheduled for August 4th, 2012. Keep a look out for it on neurograd.org!

Neurograd News | 7

Neuroscience Graduate Program6431 Fannin, MSB 7.046Department of Neurobiology & AnatomyHouston, Texas 77030

NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDHOUSTON, TXPERMIT NO. 209

Neuroscience Graduate ProgramCo-Directors

Andrew Bean and Jack Waymire

Program CoordinatorAmanda Concha

Neuroscience Student Council MembersDeepna Devkar, Nadeeka Dias, Jon Flynn, Curtis Neveu, Natalie Sirisaengtaksin, Heather Turner

UPCOMING EVENTSNeuro LuauSaturday, August 4thSurfside Beach, TX4:00 PM

Neuroscience Program OrientationThursday, August 23rdMSB 7.046 (with program faculty lab tours)Reception following

Congratulations, Neuroscience Program Graduates!

Ph.D. GraduatesProletta DattaJennifer DulinCaitlin Elmore

Joshua GowinBryan HansenAntony Passaro

Caitlin Elmore and her advisor, Anthony Wright celebrating her successful defense.

M.S. GraduatesAntonio Tito

Ray Grill and Jen Dulin at commencement this past May.