Source: Society for Neuroscience
Scientists who study the brain do so for many reasons. For some, the opportunity to study the most complex living structure in the known universe is itself an exciting quest. So much is still unknown about brain function and development.
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What is Neuroscience? - BrainFacts.org
The Graduate Program in Neuroscience (NEUS)at Drexel University College of Medicine embraces the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience. By incorporating expertise across departments and areas of research, the program offers a broad exposure to cellular, molecular, behavioral, developmental and systems neuroscience, with a strong emphasis on disease, injury and therapeutics. Students engage in rigorous research training using multidisciplinary approaches and cutting-edge technology. Their educational experience is not limited to the bench - they benefit from extensive interactions with the faculty, participation in scientific meetings and training in the panoply of skills (writing, teaching, formulation of hypotheses, experimental design) required for independence and success in a variety of career possibilities.
Students in the program can earn an MS or PhD degree, leading to careers in academic research, teaching, pharmaceutical research, industry, government, academic administration, public policy and beyond.
Immunostaining the the developing spinal cord for neurofilament proteins reveals the distribution of axons within the spinal cord and innervating the internal organs and the muscles of the limbs. Image taken by Lyandysha Zholudeva (PhD candidate).
Drexel's Neuroscience program focuses on several key areas of research, including:
The MS program offers both a master's degree with a requirement of a laboratory research project for a thesis-based degree and a non-thesis degree program in which students can earn the degree by taking additional classes and writing a literature review paper. Students who wish to continue their graduate training after the master's degree may apply to the PhD program, and their credits may be applied to the doctoral program.
The PhD program involves the same rigorous course work as the MS program but a more intensive research component. Graduates of the PhD program will be thoroughly prepared for a variety of career options, including the option of moving on to postdoctoral work at the world's most prestigious research institutions.
Graduating Division of Biomedical Science Programs students (27 PhD, 5 MD/PhD, 11 MS) accepted teaching, industrial, residency and postdoctoral positions at:
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PhD / Master of Science in Neuroscience - Drexel University ...
View print quality imageImmunology professor Alexander Dent poses with ballroom dance instructor Lollie Henshilwood at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Avon.Photo by Tim Brouk, IU Communications
When he's not making CD4 regulatory and follicular helper T cells dance under the microscope, Alexander L. Dent does some moving himself.
The professor of immunology and microbiology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis has been pursuing a passion for ballroom dancing for the past five years. He has been a student at the Avon location of Arthur Murray Dance Studio and has performed around Indiana. From swing to tango, Dent has danced them all.
"It's a wild ride," said Dent before a recent rehearsal in Avon. "It's better than anything you can do at an amusement park, I think. Once you have a routine and you can run through it, it's super-fun. It's a lot of adrenaline."
Dent first laced up his dance shoes after shepherding then-9-year-old daughter, Anjani, to her own ballroom dance lessons. It looked like fun, so he gave ballroom a go. Wife Lakshmi joined in, and now the family rehearses together and has performed together in showcases.
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Video transcript
IUPUI Professor is the king of swing, immunology and microbiology video onhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7dd7Uz-Yc
[Words appear: IUPUI presents]
[Video: Alexander Dent dances with instructor]
[Alexander Dent speaks:It's just something I never really did before. I never really appreciated dance before, but once I started doing it, I liked it a lot. It's a good brain activity as well as reasonably good activity and there's studies that say it's good for you and that sort of thing.]
[It's neat, because it's better than anything that you could do at an amusement park, I think. Once you have a routine and you can run through it, it's just super fun to go through the whole thing. It's just a great ride and just a lot of adrenaline. Once you get into the more advanced dance, there's a lot of technique and a lot of careful things you have to think about.]
[I'm not naturally very, physically talented or anything like that. I'm a little clumsy, I guess, so it's probably harder for me to learn this than other people but I think it's still really good, and I feel like I've grown into it.]
[Words appear: IUPUI Fulfilling the Promise]
[End of transcript]
In his immunology lab nestled in the Indiana University School of Medicine's R2 Research building, Dent is in charge of School of Science graduate students as he pursues research to help humans resist disease and allergies. He also instructs America's future physicians in immunology classes at the medical school.
With ballroom dance, he was reminded that learning never stops. There is always the next level to attain, whether it's science or salsa dancing.
"It's a good combination of exercise and mental activity," Dent said. "I never appreciated dance before, but once I started doing it, I liked it a lot. A routine goes by in a second. I don't think I even take a breath the whole time."
Dent's work with regulatory T cells, which modulate the immune system while maintaining tolerance to self-antigens in hopes of preventing autoimmune or inflammatory disease, has been growing since his arrival to Indianapolis in 1998. His research looks to understand and eventually improve the responses of lymphocytes that help produce antibodies. His research on follicular helper cells, which are found in the spleen and lymph nodes and protect us from germs, aims to better control cellular response. His work can lead to better vaccines, and one ultimate goal is developing an effective HIV vaccine.
Testing on mice, Dent developed a model for transcription factor BCL6, which is critical for both Tfh cell differentiation and the differentiation of germinal center B cells and antibody-secreting plasma cells. The mouse model has been distributed worldwide and helps guide other immunologists as they dig into work with T cells.
Utilizing the training he received in the University of California system, Dent's current research digs deeper into finding ways to make our immune system stronger. His work also explores tumorigenesis via the BCL6 gene, which can initiate the cancer process when it is mutated.
"It's a very complicated factor in terms of it not having a straightforward pathway to how it's regulated and how it acts," Dent explained. "It turns off genes rather than turning them on, so that makes things a little trickier to look at. But we've found that it's a really important regulator that actually represses inflammatory genes."
Dent never claimed to be a natural ballroom dancer, but his love for music -- as a classically trained pianist and devourer of tunes, from heavy metal to jazz -- helped pique his interest in the activity. But most importantly, he saw the fun that young Anjani was having at her lessons, and he recognized dance's physical and mental positives. It also helped strengthen the family bond. When the Dents showed up for a recent rehearsal at Arthur Murray, the studio's staff lit up. The Dent family has become a staple in Avon.
"He has progressed so much," said Lollie Henshilwood, an Arthur Murray instructor who has worked with Dent for the past four years. "He's one of my favorite students to teach because he is so creative. There are so many different layers to him."
Henshilwood agreed that there is a science to ballroom dance.
"We could all just get out there and flop like fish, or instead, you can learn how your body moves," she explained. "You can learn from the feet up. It is a science, and he's almost mastered it. I'm very proud of him."
Back in the lab, Markus Xie, one of Dent's Ph.D. students, was familiar with his professor's dance pursuits almost as much as his breakthroughs in T cell research.
"I think outside activities help us relax," said Xie, an avid golfer. "Sometimes we also relax in the lab, but it's better to get some balance in life."
That balance has helped Xie take Dent's foundational work and apply it to some "very promising" food allergy research, namely how and why some humans suffer from peanut allergies. Xie said the work can have some future ramifications for food allergy sufferers.
While Dent doesn't plan on turning into a professional ballroom dancer, he does find the new hobby helpful. The cellular research he choreographs actually gets a boost from his artistic side.
"Once you get into the more advanced dancing, there's a lot of technique and lot of careful things you have to think about," he said. "I feel like I've grown into it."
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Immunology professor tangos between science and ballroom dancing - IU Newsroom
Newswise The FDA today approved the first ever CAR-T cell therapy to treat cancer. Alison Sehgal, MD, is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and a hematologist/medical oncologist at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center specializing immunotherapy and stem cell transplants for blood cancers.
This rapid pace at which immunotherapy has been transferred from the bench to the bedside to the point that we now have an FDA approved cellular therapy shows that CAR-T cells and immunotherapy in general are the future of cancer treatment. The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center is actively involved in several cutting edge immunotherapy and cellular therapy efforts both in basic science and clinical trials that will translate into advanced care being available for patients throughout the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center system. Dr. Allison Sehgal
To speak with Dr. Sehgal about the approval of CAR-T cell therapy, please contact Cyndy Patton.
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UPMC Hillman Cancer Center immunology expert available to talk about FDA approval of CAR - T cell therapy. - Newswise (press release)
The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday, Aug. 28.
In his 2010 book I Live in the Future & Heres How It Works, the technology writer Nick Bilton relayed anecdotes about early 19th-century anxieties in Britain at the dawn of train travel. It was thought that people would asphyxiate if carried at speeds of more than 20 mph and reputable scientists believed that traveling at a certain speed could actually make our bones fall apart. So far, that hasnt happened. While adjusting to the future is often alarming, as Bilton illustrated, humans find a way to cope.
A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette drove that point home. Doctors have identified the condition of text neck, found most often in teenagers and young adults who stare down at their smartphones for two to four hours a day. An orthopedic surgeon quoted in the article advises people to simply take a break from that thing. If that proves unrealistic, theres a Pilates class geared for teenagers, which includes a focus on overcoming text neck. The instructor noticed that four girls in a recent class could not drop their heads in a relaxed position during the exercises a clear sign of TN.
It is beyond doubt that the proliferation of digital devices is changing the way people process information: smaller gulps from wider sources, less sustained attention. When you can pry your hands from your own smartphone for a minute, go ahead and wring them over this decline in intellectual capacity. But the endurance of the human species is testimony to its remarkable ability to adapt. And theres one constant: Each generation is horrified by the decadence of the one following.
The fork ratings are based primarily on food quality and preparation, with service and atmosphere factored into the final decision. Reviews are based on one unsolicited, unannounced visit to the restaurant.
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The Daily News | Watch your neck: Physiology and the advent of the ... - The Daily News Online
Taipei, Aug. 30 (CNA) Taiwan's Tang Prize Foundation announced Wednesday that it had formed a partnership with International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) in promoting the advancement of biopharmaceutical science Education.
The foundation signed a 9-year partnership project agreement with IUBMB in 2016 which is currently on the move, according to a statement issued by the organization.
Chern Jenn-chuan (), chief executive of the foundation, said in the statement that IUBMB plays a significant role in uniting researchers and scientists in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology from 77 countries.
The cooperation project with IUBMB marked another step forward by the foundation in promoting the biopharmaceutical science education after it signed a memorandum of cooperation that established a 10-year partnership with the Experimental Biology (EB) in 2015, the statement said.
The EB, an annual gathering of professional research scientists, is sponsored by six societies: American Association of Anatomists (AAA), the American Physiological Society (APS), American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), American Society for Nutrition (ASN), and American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET).
Furthermore, the Tang Prize Foundation will support outstanding young scientists to attend the "New Horizons in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education" conference which will be held Sept. 6-8 in Israel, it said.
The conference will be coorganized by the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) of Israel, IUBMB and the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), the statement said.
Taiwanese chemist Andrew Wang (), president-elect of IUBMB who serves as the distinguished visiting chair of the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top academic research institution, will also attend the conference which is aimed at providing a think tank setting that can bring inspiration to the teaching of biochemistry and molecular biology, it added.
The conference will be followed by the FEBS 2017 congress which will take place Sept. 10-14 in Jerusalem, the foundation said.
Feng Zhang (), one of the 2016 Tang Prize winners in Biopharmaceutical Science, is to host a Tang Prize/IUBMB lecture in the conference on Sept. 12 on the topic "From Microbial Immunity to Genome Editing."
Zhang shared the Tang Prize with Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer Doudna of the United States for the development of CRISPR/Cas9 as a breakthrough genome editing platform that promises to revolutionize biochemical research and disease treatment.
The cooperation between the Tang Prize and the world's top research organizations not only promotes awareness of the Prize in biopharmaceutical ccience but also encourages education and technology exchange in the Prize's four fields.
The Tang Prize awards were established by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin () in 2012 to honor people who have made significant contributions in the fields of sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, sinology and rule of law. They are dubbed as the "Asian Nobel Prize."
(By Romulo Huang) Enditem/sc
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Tang Prize Foundation, IUBMB cooperate in promoting science education - Focus Taiwan News Channel
Nanoparticles (orange) deliver temporary gene therapy to immune cells (blue) to give them disease-fighting tools. (Fred Hutch Illustration / Kimberly Carney)
CAR T immunotherapies are all the rage in the medical community, reprogramming a patients immune system to fight cancer. For some patients, theyve produced near-miraculous recoveries, and they could be a huge breakthrough in cancer treatment.
The business community is taking note as well: Kite Pharma, a biotech company developing these therapies, announced a deal to be acquired for $11.9 billion on Monday, sending stock prices of Seattle immunotherapy developer Juno Therapeuticsskyrocketing.
But there are still giant pitfalls to using the therapies on a large scale because they are incredibly complex and expensive to produce. Researchers from Seattles Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are taking the problem head-on with new hit-and-run gene editing technology.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, researchers led by Dr.Matthias Stephan reported they have developed a nanoparticle delivery system that can temporarily alter cells so they are able to fight cancer and other diseases.
The best part? The treatment is a powder that just needs to be mixed with water to activate and even better, it could be an essential breakthrough in making cutting-edge medical technology affordable for patients.
Stephan told GeekWire in a previous piece on the technology that his goal is to make immunotherapy so easy to access that it replaces chemotherapy as the front-line treatment for cancer.
What I envision is like the Walgreens flu shot scenario, or you go to your doctor and you get hepatitis B shot, he said at the time. You go there every Friday, and thats it.
We realized in order to outcompete chemotherapy, we have to design something that is at least as affordable and can be manufactured at large scale by one biotech company and shipped out to local infusion centers, Stephan said. At the moment, CAR T cell therapies must be made individually for each patient in specialized labs.
Heres how the new tech works: The nanoparticles designed by Stephan and his team act like shipping containers for bundles of mRNA, the molecules that tell cells how to build disease-fighting proteins. The nanoparticles also have molecules attached to the outside to help them find the right kind of cells, like a shipping label on a package.
When the mRNA is delivered to the cell, it prompts the cell to grow disease-fighting features, like the chimeric antigen receptor in CAR T cells that help them identify and kill cancer.Researchers said the technology could potentially be used to develop treatments for HIV, diabetes and other immune-related diseases.
In the short run, the tech could help researchers discover new treatments and therapies in the lab. It could one day be used in hospitals and clinics around the world, but will first need to undergo extensive clinical trials to ensure the tech is effective and safe to use in humans.
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New 'hit-and-run' gene editing tool temporarily rewrites genetics to treat cancer and HIV - GeekWire
August 30, 2017
Scientists have discovered a network of genes and genetic regulatory elements in the lining of the intestines that has stayed remarkably the same from fishes to humans. Many of these genes are linked to human illnesses, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, diabetes, and obesity.
The findings, which appear in the journal PLOS Biology, establish the fish as an experimental platform for studying how this ancient genetic information -- distilled over 420 million years of evolution -- controls the development and dysfunction of the intestine.
"Our research has uncovered aspects of intestinal biology that have been well-conserved during vertebrate evolution, suggesting they are of central importance to intestinal health," said John F. Rawls, Ph.D., senior author of the study and associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University School of Medicine. "By doing so, we have built a foundation for mechanistic studies of intestinal biology in non-human model systems like fish and mice that would be impossible to perform in humans alone."
The intestine serves a variety of important functions that are common to all vertebrates. It takes up nutrients, stimulates the immune system, processes toxins and drugs, and provides a critical barrier to microorganisms. Defects in the intestinal epithelial cells lining the intestine have been implicated in a growing number of ailments, including inflammatory bowel diseases, colorectal cancer, food allergy, diabetes, obesity, malnutrition and infectious diarrheas.
For decades, scientists have relied on animal models to gather information on intestinal epithelial cells that could help combat human diseases. But it wasn't clear just how alike these cells were across multiple species.
In this study, Rawls and his team used a comparative biology approach to tackle that question. Research associate Colin R. Lickwar, Ph.D., and colleagues generated genome-wide data from intestinal epithelial cells in four evolutionarily distant species: zebrafish, stickleback fish, mouse and human. Lickwar then created maps for each of the species depicting not only the activity level of all of the genes, but also the location of specific genetic sequences or regulatory elements that flipped those genes on and off.
Lickwar was surprised to find a striking amount of similarity between the different vertebrate species. He identified a common set of genes -- an intestinal epithelial cell signature -- some of which had shared patterns of activity in specific regions along the length of the intestine. What's more, many of the genes included in this conserved signature had previously been implicated in a variety of human diseases. Lickwar and Rawls wondered if this conserved genetic signature was controlled by regulatory elements that might also be shared between species.
To test if this was the case, they took various regulatory elements from fish, mice, and humans and stuck them into the zebrafish. Because zebrafish are transparent organisms, the researchers could look under the microscope for patterns of color to tell whether a green fluorescent protein or red fluorescent protein, which they had inserted along with the regulatory element, had been flipped on in the intestine. They found that the regulatory switches transplanted from the other species worked in zebrafish, indicating a remarkable level of conservation.
"Our findings suggest that intestinal epithelial cells use an ancient core program to do their job in the body of most vertebrates," said Lickwar, who is lead author of the study. "Now that we have identified this core program, we can more easily translate results back and forth between humans and zebrafish."
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Genetics of digestion stayed remarkably the same from fishes to humans, research shows - News-Medical.net
Clay Siegall
Seven years after Copenhagen-based Genmab inked a collaboration deal with Seattle Genetics, the US biotech has decided to opt-in on a development partnership.
The pact struck in 2010 gave Genmab rights to Seattle Genetics antibody-drug conjugate tech so it could work on a new approach for its HuMax-TF antibody targeting the tissue factor antigen. A year later they struck a deal giving Seattle Genetics an opt-in on tisotumab vedotin, now in several Phase I/II studies for solid tumors, including recurrent cervical cancer.
Whatever data that early program has produced was good enough to persuade Seattle Genetics to agree to share the development costs and any profits 50/50.
Seattle Genetics has run into a series of late-stage mishaps over the past year. The biotech was forced to scrap a Phase III study of vadastuximab and halt a slate of other trials as researchers puzzled out what caused an imbalance of deaths between the drug and control arms. Just a few weeks before the June imbroglio, Seattle Genetics was also forced to throw the towel in on a $2 billion deal to collaborate with Immunomedics, further limiting its late-stage effort. Seattle Genetics mainstay franchise drug did score a win on frontline Hodgkin lymphoma at the end of H1, but the gain was so marginal that some analysts fretted it looked like the kind of small advantage that may not be worth much commercially.
Our ADC partnership with Genmab has generated promising Phase I/II data for tisotumab vedotin in patients with recurrent cervical cancer. As Seattle Genetics opts into co-development of this clinical program, we add another potential product to our strong pipeline, said Seattle Genetics CEO Clay Siegall.
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Seven years in the making, Seattle Genetics picks up early option on Genmab's ADC effort - Endpoints News
The water flowing in the Newberry Street fountain is teal because September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.
During a brief ceremony Wednesday morning, Debbie Mills and Alicia Owens of Gails Anatomy got the organizations commemoration efforts started a little early by pouring dark, greenish-blue dye into the fountain.
The more than 20 people who joined them included Dr. Todd Wright, general manager and executive vice president of AECOMs Nuclear & Environment Strategic Business Unit, and Aiken City Council members Gail Diggs and Lessie Price.
The fountain is in a good location to help us spread awareness about ovarian cancer to Aikens residents and visitors, Mills said. There are festivals and different events in the area, and The Alley is close by. Were also putting up teal bows in downtown Aiken.
Mills is the founder and director of Gails Anatomy, and Owens is the co-director.
In 2007, Mills daughter, Gail Mills, died of ovarian cancer less than four months after being diagnosed with the disease. A graduate of Silver Bluff High School and USC Aiken who worked at Target, she was only 30 years old.
I wanted to make something positive out of the whole experience and tell people about ovarian cancer and try to save lives, Debbie said.
Not long after Gails death, family, friends and co-workers formed a team for an American Cancer Society Relay For Life fundraiser.
The theme was Night of a Thousand Stars, which had to do with movies and TV shows, and Gails favorite TV show was Greys Anatomy, so we called our team Gails Anatomy, Debbie said.
Afterward, Debbie decided she wanted to do more to educate women about ovarian cancer, and that led to Gails Anatomy becoming a group with a year-round mission to raise awareness.
I want to prevent what we went through from happening to someone else, Debbie said. Because it happened to Gail, I know it can happen to anybody. She did everything she was supposed to do. She went to the doctor every year. We didnt have any history of ovarian cancer or breast cancer in our family.
Symptoms of ovarian cancer include bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, loss of appetite or feeling full more quickly than usual and a more frequent or urgent need to urinate.
For more information about Gails Anatomy, visit the organizations website, http://www.ovariancancerawareness4life.org, or its Facebook page.
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since January 2013. A native of Concord, N.C, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Gail's Anatomy turns Newberry Street fountain teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month - Aiken Standard