Michael Platt named as new Director of the Center for Cognitive Michael Platt named as new Director of the Center for Cognitive

   Michael Platt named as new Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

Michael Platt named as new Director of the Center for Cognitive
Neuroscience
About the Center

The Center for Cognitive Neuroscience (CCN) at Duke University is dedicated to research, education, and training in the psychological, computational, and biological mechanisms of higher mental function in these research areas: perception, attention, memory, language, emotion, motor control, executive functions, consciousness and the evolution of mental processes. Cognitive neuroscience is, by its nature, an interdisciplinary area of research and scholarship, and the Center's faculty, researchers, and students, drawn from several university and medical school departments, reflect this.

 Eric Jarvis is the recipient of the 2009 Ruth and A. Morris Williams Faculty Research Prize

   Eric Jarvis receives 2009 Ruth and A. Morris Williams Prize

Eric Jarvis is the recipient of the 2009 Ruth and A. Morris Williams Faculty Research Prize.

This award was established by Ruth and A. Morris Williams to advance research opportunities for faculty members and to publicize the caliber of medical research being done at Duke. Mr. Williams, a 1962 graduate of Duke University, served on Duke’s Board of Trustees and its Medical Center Affairs Committee. He and his wife, Ruth Whitmore Williams, a 1963 graduated of the Duke Women’s College, contributed a special endowment to
establish this annual prize to recognize outstanding contributions in
clinical and basic science research.

 Ryohei Yasuda Awarded One of HHMI's 2009 Early Career Scientists

   Ryohei Yasuda Awarded One of HHMI's 2009 Early Career Scientists

Ryohei Yasuda's undergraduate program in physics required hands-on research in a biophysics lab. There, he discovered a love for biology. Later, as a graduate student, he learned about the smallest rotary engine in biology. That engine is an enzyme called F1-ATPase, which produces ATP, the molecule cells rely on for energy. Yasuda attached a fluorescent filament to the enzyme so he could watch it spin. Now at Duke University, he has since developed more tools that allow him to watch proteins at work. He is imaging proteins inside tiny protrusions on the surface of dendrites, the branched arms of neurons that receive incoming signals. The biophysical techniques and fluorescent indicators Yasuda has developed allow him to see the protein machinery in these structures as they move and act to enable learning and memory.

 Nicolelis Lab Develops Novel Spinal Cord Stimulator, Sparking Hope for Parkinson’s Disease Treatment

   Nicolelis Lab Develops Novel Spinal Cord Stimulator, Sparking Hope for Parkinson’s Disease Treatment

A novel stimulation method, the first potential therapy to target the spinal cord instead of the brain, may offer an effective and less invasive approach for Parkinson’s disease treatment, according to pre-clinical data published in the journal Science by researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

Researchers developed a prosthetic device that applies electrical stimulation to the dorsal column in the spinal cord, which is a main sensory pathway carrying tactile information from the body to the brain. The device was attached to the surface of the spinal cord in mice and rats with depleted levels of the chemical dopamine – mimicking the biologic characteristics of someone with Parkinson’s disease along with the impaired motor skills seen in advanced stages of the disease.

When the device was turned on, the dopamine-depleted animals’ slow, stiff movements were replaced with the active behaviors of healthy mice and rats. Improved movement was typically observed within 3.35 seconds after stimulation.

“We see an almost immediate and dramatic change in the animal’s ability to function when the device stimulates the spinal cord,” says senior study investigator Miguel Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D., the Anne W. Deane Professor of Neuroscience at Duke. “Moreover, it is easy to use, significantly less invasive than other alternatives to medication, such as deep brain stimulation, and has the potential for widespread use in conjunction with medications typically used to treat Parkinson’s disease.”

 Miguel Nicolelis receives the 2009 Fondation IPSEN Neuronal Plasticity Prize

   Miguel Nicolelis receives Fondation IPSEN Neuronal Plasticity Prize

Established in 1983 under the aegis of the Fondation de France, the mission of La Fondation Ipsen is to contribute to the development and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Its mission is to durably encourage interaction between research scientists and clinicians. The ambition of La Fondation Ipsen is to trigger debate on major scientific challenges for years to come. It has developed an important international network of scientific experts who meet regularly at meetings known as Colloques Médecine et Recherche. Six main themes are: Alzheimer's disease, neurosciences, longevity, endocrinology, the vascular tree and oncology. In 2007, La Fondation Ipsen started three new series of meetings in partnership with Nature and the Salk Institute « Biological Complexity », Nature «Emergence and Convergence », Cell and the Massachusetts General Hospital « Exciting Biologies ». Since its beginning, La Fondation Ipsen has organised more than 73 international conferences, published 65 volumes with renowned publishers and 199 issues of Alzheimer Actualités. It has also awarded dozens of prizes and grants.

Excerpted from Fondation Ipsen July 2008 Press Release

 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."