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Embryology

Western Reserve student learns responsibility through farming and 4-H – Norwalk Reflector

During summer vacation I wake up early and then can sleep late on a long hot day after chores. But I learned that when raising animals that just because Im sick, I cant take the day off. Just because Im sick doesnt mean the animals are sick. Another thing is that I like working with animals more than field work. I never judge the animals. There is a special bond between us. Ill be out there loving on them while cleaning and feeding them. But its not the life for some people.

"Being on a farm introduced me to 4-H the best thing, hands down. There are not a lot of farm kids at Western Reserve but 4-H introduced me to other farm kids at the fair. I made friends around the whole county. We see each at various 4-H events. We meet at 4-H Camp Conger every year, too. It has been a camp for nearly a hundred years. Elaine Conger asked the campers how many of their parents went to camp here and a lot of hands went up. She asked how many grandparents went to camp and fewer hands went up. When she asked how many great-grandparents went here the circle got a lot smaller but I could say yes to all. There were only three of us in that circle.

Linder said the club opened him up to attend the Ohio State Fair and competing in the health and safety speech contest. He said the fair is a year-round event.

"Also when choosing my animal to show, it doesn't start two weeks or two months before the county fair. It starts two weeks after the fair, when we begin to clean up our barn and get ready for new animals to come in.

"This year we had three animals we were going to show, but one didnt have the right hair quality so two will go to Huron County and the state fair. They are on a schedule every day. In October they weighed 650 to 700 pounds. Now eight months later they hit 1,050 to 1,200. They still need to gain three to four pounds every day and are weighed every two weeks. You can tell a lot about their general health by their weight if they are sick or need to be vaccinated or if they have worms.

"This year I also have two boer goats but only one will go to the fair. Also, of the three hogs, only two will go to show. Besides four hours or more a day taking care of the steers, more time goes into getting these other animals ready. If Dad needs help in the field, I can go out and do that, but he makes sure I have time for the animals. I learned it may not always be fun, but if that's what you love you'll do the work anyway. It's in your heart and mind.

"From the beginning Dad has helped me start my own herd and now I have 12 cows. The first one was bought from winnings at the fair and now some have calves."

From all this work Linder has a growing investment and he even gets taxed, he says. Due to his continuing experience raising these animals, through 4-H, chores, and extra shows, he is planning to study embryology and animal husbandry in college.

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Western Reserve student learns responsibility through farming and 4-H - Norwalk Reflector

Cell Biology

Salk Institute hires two noted researchers – The San Diego Union-Tribune

The Salk Institute has hired two new faculty members, bringing expertise in immunology and mitochondrial function.

* Susan Kaech will become director of the Norris Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis.

* Gerald Shadel will join Salks Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory.

Kaech studies how immune cells called T cells remember previous infections, so they can respond more quickly to the same infection. Shes also studied how cancer suppresses the immune response.

Shadel specializes in the roles of mitochondrial dysfunction in aging and disease. Mitochondria are cellular organelles that contain their own DNA and are best known as the cells energy producers. Unhealthy mitochondria are a factor in Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases, as well as cardiovascular ailments.

Both currently at Yale University, they are scheduled to arrive in early 2018. While married to each other, Kaech and Shadel conduct their research independently.

Kaechs research has won her awards including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. award and the Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation award.

Kaech and Shadel said they were attracted to the Salk Institute not only because of its reputation as a center of basic research, but by the scientific community in San Diego as a whole.

The scientific community is very welcoming and warm and scientifically interactive, Kaech said.

Moreover, the scientific community participates in the larger San Diego community, taking part in activities such as educational outreach, fundraising and philanthropy.

It seems to be a little bit more vibrant in the San Diego community than what I've experienced before, Kaech said.

Likewise, the nonscientific community is interested in what San Diego scientists are doing.

So that's another kind of attraction, (the interest) seems a little bit more communitywide, Kaech said. Science is clearly on the minds of people in San Diego.

The Salk Institute itself exemplifies this collaborative spirit, Kaech said.

Great minds are there, all interacting together, she said. How they cross-fertilize each other's research is very exciting, for me to be a part of that.

Shadels honors include an Amgen Outstanding Investigator award, the Glenn Foundations Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging and the Glenn/AFAR Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award.

Shadel said being located at the Salk Institute will put him in a better position to study the multiple functions of mitochondria, in part by interdisciplinary research with other experts.

I think my lab has been instrumental, along with others, to show that mitochondria are integrated into cells for other reasons in addition to the energetic functions, Shadel said.

What really excited me about the Salk was this chance to interact with really great experts in other fields and bring my research to the interface with other disciplines and really answer questions in bold new ways.

I also knew several of the people who were professors there already who are involved in the aging research realm mostly, but also others are involved in metabolism as well.

What this leads to is the power of fundamental science to help solve some of societys most pressing problems, Shadel said.

In my opinion, the most transformative types of discoveries are born out of pure basic research endeavors, and the Salk Institute has a really rich history of groundbreaking basic science, he said.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020

UPDATES:

The Salk Institute has hired two new faculty members, bringing expertise in immunology and mitochondrial function. Both from Yale University, they are scheduled to arrive in early 2018 with the rank of full professor.

-- Susan Kaech will become director of the Norris Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis. She studies how immune cells called T cells remember previous infections, enabling them to mobilize more rapidly to subsequent exposure.

-- Gerald Shadel will join the Salks Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory. He is noted for research on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in aging and disease. Mitochondria are organelles that contain their own DNA.

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Salk Institute hires two noted researchers - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Cell Biology

Stem Cells Play a Role in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Relapse – Technology Networks

Leukemia researchers led by Dr. John Dick have traced the origins of relapse in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) to rare therapy-resistant leukemia stem cells that are already present at diagnosis and before chemotherapy begins.

They have also identified two distinct stem-cell like populations from which relapse can arise in different patients in this aggressive cancer that they previously showed starts in blood stem cells in the bone marrow.

The findings provide significant insights into cell types fated to relapse and can help accelerate the quest for new, upfront therapies, says Dr. Dick, a Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, and Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology and is Co-leader of the Acute Leukemia Translational Research Initiative at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. This study was primarily undertaken by post-doctoral fellow Dr. Liran Shlush and Scientific Associate Dr. Amanda Mitchell.

"For the first time, we have married together knowledge of stem cell biology and genetics areas that historically have often been operating as separate camps to identify mutations stem cells carry and how they are related to one another in AML," says Dr. Dick, who pioneered the cancer stem cell field by identifying leukemia stem cells in 1994.

A decade ago, he replicated the entire human leukemia disease process by introducing oncogenes into normal human blood cells, transplanting them into xenografts (special immune-deficient mice that accept human grafts) and watching leukemia develop a motherlode discovery that has guided leukemia research ever since.

The researchers set out to solve the mystery of AML relapse by analysing paired patient samples of blood taken at the initial clinic visit and blood taken post-treatment when disease recurred.

"First, we asked what are the similarities and differences between these samples. We carried out detailed genetic studies and used whole genome sequencing to look at every part of the DNA at diagnosis, and every part of the DNA at relapse," says Dr. Dick. "Next, we asked in which cells are genetic changes occurring."

The two-part approach netted a set of mutations seen only at relapse that enabled the team to sift and sort leukemic and normal stem cells using tools developed in the Dick lab a few years ago to zero in on specific cell types fated to relapse.

"This is a story that couldn't have happened five years ago, but with the evolution of deep sequencing, we were able to use the technology at just the right time and harness it with what we've been working on for decades," he says.

Today's findings augment recent research also published in Nature (Dec.7, 2016) detailing the team's development of a "stemness biomarker" a 17-gene signature derived from leukemia stem cells that can predict at diagnosis which AML patients will respond to standard treatment.

Dr. Dick says: "Our new findings add to that knowledge and we hope that we will soon have a new biomarker that will tell whether a patient will respond to standard chemotherapy, and then another to track patients in remission to identify those where treatment failed and the rare leukemia stem cells are coming back.

"These new kinds of biomarkers will lead to new kinds of clinical trials with targeted chemotherapy. Right now, everybody gets one size fits all because in AML we've never had any opportunity to identify patients upfront, only after they relapse. Now we have the first step to identify these patients at the outset and during remission."

The research was funded by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium via Genome Canada and the Ontario Genomics Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Terry Fox Foundation, a Canada Research Chair and The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided byUHN. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

Reference:

Shlush, L. I., Mitchell, A., Heisler, L., Abelson, S., Ng, S. W., Trotman-Grant, A., . . . Dick, J. E. (2017). Tracing the origins of relapse in acute myeloid leukaemia to stem cells. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature22993

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Stem Cells Play a Role in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Relapse - Technology Networks

Cell Biology

Biology: Technological advances help us understand the world in and around us – The Columbus Dispatch

Scientists canstudy only the things that we can observe. We are limited to studying natural, detectable phenomena.

In the history of biology, bursts of discoveries often follow breakthroughs in technology.

The first microscopes in the 1590s permitted discovery of cells and microbes in the 1600s. Biologists described the tenets of modern cell theory by the 1850s. All organisms are made of cells. Cells are the basic unit of living things. Cells are produced by other cells.

After World War II, the 1946 Atomic Energy Act permitted the U.S. government to sell radioactive isotopes, produced in nuclear reactors, for research and medical treatments. Using these atomic energy byproducts, biologists identified DNA as the genetic material in 1952. They described the structure of DNA in 1953, and explained how DNA replicates in 1958.

Those dominoes of DNA discovery that began falling in the middle of the last century led to the release of the complete human genome sequence at the start of this century. Along the way, we invented technologies to automate gene sequencing. And what started as a slow, laborious, expensive process has become a rapid, easy, inexpensive way to map every gene of any organism thata biologist studies.

At the start of the DNA age, biologists identified a species of interest and acquired a specimen. They then extracted, sequenced and compared its genes with other species.

Modern, automated gene sequencing reverses this process.

With high-throughput DNA sequencers, biologists identify all of the genes in a sample of ocean water or human gut contents. They use computer programs to assemble the most likely community of microorganisms in the sample. They use gene sequences to identify species present in a microbiome, all of the microbes in the sample.

Invention of microscopes led to the discovery of cells and microorganisms. Invention of high-throughput gene sequencing techniques has led to the discovery of microbiomes around us, on us and in us.

Biologists have just begun to discover the extent and impact of microbiomes. Consider these microbiome discoveries published in the past two months:

Pregnant mothers with decreased vaginal microbiome diversity experience more preterm births.

Characterizing the gut microbiome of patients with inflammatory bowel disease can advise effective therapies to treat the condition.

Patients with an imbalanced gut microbiome are more likely to have scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that hardens and scars connective tissue.

Composition of a persons microbiome might influence his or her risk for obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Characterization of the gut microbiome might provide early warning of the disease.

Composition of the microbiome in hair follicles might influence the development of acne in patients.

What you dont see, you cant understand. As individual organisms, we are living ecological communities with healthy and diverse or not microbiomes on us and in us. We interact with and depend on individuals of other species to feed us and provide us other ecological services. Each of those individuals has a microbiome.

You cant tell the players without a program. Were in the earliest stages of writing programs to identify players in microbiomes on which we depend.

Steve Rissing is a biology professor at Ohio State University.

steverissing@hotmail.com

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Biology: Technological advances help us understand the world in and around us - The Columbus Dispatch

Cell Biology

Scientists manipulate ‘signaling’ molecules to control cell migration – Phys.Org

June 30, 2017 Researchers have found a way to tweak cells' movement patterns to resemble those of other cell types. Credit: Tim Phelps/Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins researchers report they have uncovered a mechanism in amoebae that rapidly changes the way cells migrate by resetting their sensitivity to the naturally occurring internal signaling events that drive such movement. The finding, described in a report published online March 28 in Nature Cell Biology, demonstrates that the migratory behavior of cells may be less "hard-wired" than previously thought, the researchers say, and advances the future possibility of finding ways to manipulate and control some deadly forms of cell migration, including cancer metastasis.

"In different tissues inside the body, cells adopt different ways to migrate, based on their genetic profile and environment," says Yuchuan Miao, a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "This gives them better efficiency to perform specific tasks." For example, white blood cells rhythmically extend small protrusions that allow them to squeeze through blood vessels, whereas skin cells glide, like moving "fans," to close wounds.

On the other hand, Miao notes, uncontrolled cell migration contributes to diseases, including cancer and atherosclerosis, the two leading causes of death in the United States. The migration of tumor cells to distant sites in the body, or metastasis, is what kills most cancer patients, and defective white blood cell migration causes atherosclerosis and inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis, which affects 54 million Americans and costs more than $125 billion annually in medical expenditures and lost earnings.

Because cells migrate in different ways, many drugs already designed to prevent migration work only narrowly and are rarely more than mildly effective, fueling the search for new strategies to control migratory switches and treat migration-related diseases, according to senior author Peter Devreotes, Ph.D., a professor and director of the Department of Cell Biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Basic Biomedical Research.

"People have thought that cells are typed by the way they look and migrate; our work shows that we can change the cell's migrating mode within minutes," adds Devreotes.

For the new study, Devreotes and his team focused on how chemical signaling molecules activate the motility machinery to generate protrusions, cellular "feet" that are a first step in migration. To do this, they engineered a strain of Dictyostelium discoideum, an amoeba that can move itself around in a manner similar to white blood cells. The engineered amoebae responded to the chemical rapamycin by rapidly moving the enzyme Inp54p to the cell surface, where it disrupted the signaling network. The cells also contained fluorescent proteins, or "markers," that lit up and showed researchers when and where signaling molecules were at work.

Experiments showed that the engineered cells changed their migration behavior within minutes of Inp54p recruitment. Some cells, which the researchers termed "oscillators," first extended protrusions all around the cell margins and then suddenly pulled them back again, moving in short spurts before repeating the cycle. Fluorescent markers showed that these cycles corresponded to alternating periods of total activation and inactivation, in contrast to the small bursts of activity seen in normal cells.

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Other cells began to glide as "fans," with a broad zone of protrusions marked by persistent signaling activity.

Devreotes describes the signaling behavior at the cell surface as a series of waves of activated signaling molecules that switch on the cellular motility machinery as they spread. In their normal state, cells spontaneously initiated signaling events to form short-lived waves that made small protrusions.

In contrast, oscillators had faster signaling waves that reached the entire cell boundary to generate protrusions before dying out. Fans also showed expanded waves that continually activated the cell front without ever reaching the cell rear, resulting in wide, persistent protrusions.

The scientists say their experiments show that the cell movement changes they saw resulted from lowering the threshold level of signaling activity required to form a wave. That is, cells with a lower threshold are more likely to generate waves and, once initiated, the activation signals spread farther with each step.

Devreotes says the team's experimental results offer what appears to be the first direct evidence that waves of signaling molecules drive migratory behavior. Previously, his laboratory showed a link between signaling and migration, but had not specifically examined waves.

In further experiments, Devreotes and his team found that they could recruit different proteins to shift cell motility, suggesting, he says, that altering threshold is a general cell property that can change behaviorno matter how cells migrate. His team was also able to restore normal motility to fans and oscillators by blocking various signaling activities, suggesting new targets for drugs that could be designed to control migration.

Devreotes cautions that what happens in an amoeba may not have an exact counterpart in a human cell, but studies in his lab suggest that something like the wave-signaling mechanism they uncovered operates in human cells as well.

The bottom line, says Miao, is that "we now know we can change signaling wave behavior to control the types of protrusions cells make. When cells have different protrusions, they have different migratory modes. When we come to understand the essential differences between cells' migratory modes, we should have better ways to control them during disease conditions."

Explore further: How cells communicate to move together as a group

More information: Yuchuan Miao et al. Altering the threshold of an excitable signal transduction network changes cell migratory modes, Nature Cell Biology (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncb3495

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Scientists manipulate 'signaling' molecules to control cell migration - Phys.Org

Physiology

KSU Polytechnic now offering UAS night flying in curriculum – Salina Journal

Eric Wiley @EWileySJ

Students will now be able to experience night flying of unmanned aircraft, thanks to a three-year waiver granted by the FAA to the Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus Applied Aviation Research Center.

The Federal Aviation Administration granted the waiver because flying an unmanned aircraft after sunset is not permitted under the FAAs Part 107 rule, the regulatory framework for civil and commercial small UAS operations.

David Burchfield, teaching assistant professor, said it will allow the school to expose students to different flight scenarios they might encounter after graduation.

There are an increasing number of night applications for UAS, such as search and rescue and ag mapping, that are becoming important. Exposing them to as many scenarios as possible will help them be better prepared for what they could face," he said.

Burchfield said the waiver can be used at both the Salina and Manhattan campuses and for any research being conducted by the university.

A first look

On Friday, K-State Polytechnic instructor Travis Balthazor conducted a commercial remote pilot training course for professionals seeking to fly UAS at night.

The course included one hour of classroom instruction covering night flight basics, necessary waivers and exemptions as well as how to set up a night-flight operation.

The FAA requires that everyone be trained on how to conduct site surveys such as identifying obstacles and hazards, Balthazor said. We go over that as well as possible night illusions, hardware requirements and human physiology and how our eyes adapt to night and the differences in day and night vision.

Additionally, students practiced night flight using an S-1000 multi-rotor aircraft.

Cones with lights were set up and students went over basic skills before attempting more difficult maneuvers.

I wanted to get them uncomfortable with the situation and where they are at in space, Balthazor said. We push them out far. We then use potential situations such as failure of motor, grand control station, primary control failure and an encroaching aircraft to see how they responded to them.

Applying knowledge

Jackson County sheriffs deputy Jeffery Roberts, who participated in Fridays course, said night search and rescue flights can be the difference in whether we find someone dead or alive.

Just a few weeks ago we had to do a search-and-rescue, but luckily we found that person during the day. If it had gotten to night and we didnt find them, we would have had to wait until the morning to continue the search.

If Im able to get trained and my department can get a waiver, then we can do search and rescues at night and better serve our people.

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KSU Polytechnic now offering UAS night flying in curriculum - Salina Journal

Physiology

Spanish- and English-speaking students connect through science in Todos Santos – Source

Above: Middle school students make models of neurons at the Colorado State University Todos Santos Center during the first day of the biomedical sciences anatomy and physiology outreach week.

Cmo movemos nuestros cuerpos?

CSU biomedical sciences PhD candidate Asghar Ali works with a student from Mexicos National Pedagogic University to teach K-12 students about the heart at the Colorado State University Todos Santos Center during the first day of the biomedical sciences anatomy and physiology outreach week.

CSU student Hannah Haberecht asked a group of Mexican middle school students, How do we move our bodies? as she engaged them in a discussion about how muscles work. Two volunteers then came forward to try out the muscle stimulator machine she had set up, which reads an electrical signal traveling from one person and stimulates nerves in their partner, causing their hand to jerk involuntarily.

They absolutely loved it, Haberecht said. Over 400 K-12 students came by her booth that May day as part of the Department of Biomedical Sciences first anatomy and physiology outreach event at the Colorado State University Todos Santos Center. All of the students were engaged and interested in the materialit was a lot of fun.

Haberecht, a biomedical sciences junior, traveled to Todos Santos, Mexico, with a group that included three graduate students, five undergraduate students, physiology instructor Kayla Brown, and C.W. Miller, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences who also serves as associate department head and director of its undergraduate program.

CSU biomedical sciences senior Conner Weeth teaches middle school students about the lungs during the first day of the biomedical sciences anatomy and physiology outreach week. Students then used balloons to build lung models and demonstrate how they work.

CSUs Department of Biomedical Sciences routinely introduces youth to its renowned anatomy and physiology instruction through interactive K-12 community events staffed by faculty and student volunteers. These programs showcase a variety of learning stations that inspire young people to get excited about science and health.

This was the departments first trip to Todos Santos, with the goal of expanding the scope of its outreach program while providing CSU biomedical sciences students with international outreach experience.

The CSU students presented material in Spanish at several activity stations that included walking the path food takes as it travels through the digestive system, mimicking how the heart pumps blood, building a neuron, demonstrating how the lungs work, exploring muscle contraction, testing reflexes, equilibrium, reaction times, and visual perception, and more.

They collaborated with a group of college students from Mexicos National Pedagogic University,who helped them translate their presentation and answer questions from the local K-12 students.

The CSU biomedical sciences anatomy and physiology outreach team with their peers from Mexicos National Pedagogic University in front of the Colorado State University Todos Santos Center.

It was an amazing and unforgettable experience for every individual involved, and it will be exciting to see how this project can grow in the future, Brown said.

By the end of the week, the group had interacted with nearly 900 people through a series of open houses and school visits.

The chance to providephysiology outreach to local Spanish-speaking students with talented biomedical sciences students and my highly organized and positive colleague Kayla Brown wasthe highlight of my year, Miller said. And seeing the interactions between our students and the enthusiastic local children, as well as the talented students from the National Pedagogic University, was very uplifting.

Aines Castro Prieto, director of the CSU Todos Santos Center, congratulated the group for their excellent work and passion and hopes to see the outreach event happen again next year.

The biomedical sciences students agreed that the trip was one of the best experiences of their lives.

I got so much out of it, Haberecht said. Not only was it meaningful and took me out of my comfort zone, it was my first time traveling to a non-English speaking country and seeing a significantly different culture. Being able to form such strong connections with everyone we worked with, despite the language barrier, was really powerful.

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Spanish- and English-speaking students connect through science in Todos Santos - Source

Neuroscience

What Insights Lie at the Intersection of Neuroscience and Marketing? – Knowledge@Wharton

Research into the interplay between the discipline of neuroscience which studies the brain and the nervous system and marketing could help to explain how people make decisions, how they react to stimuli and what triggers might amplify or diminish the impulses that drive social interactions or even innovation in a business setting. Such research also raises ethical questions on how those insights might be used, and how to prevent them from getting into the wrong hands.

Those are the opportunities and challenges for the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, which was launched in September 2016, according to Michael Platt, its director. Platt, a neuroscientist, is also a Penn Integrates Knowledge professor with appointments at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine, the department of psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences, and the marketing department at Wharton. Creating the neuroscience initiative at the intersection of medicine and business is a provocative idea, said Platt. But he is convinced that it sends a clear signal to business schools, universities and people in industry that neuroscience is here, and the future of business is in neuroscience.

Technological developments in the space also make it an opportune time for such an initiative, according to Elizabeth (Zab) Johnson, who is managing director and senior fellow of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative. She pointed to the huge boom in wearable neurotech, and the proliferation of devices such as heartbeat monitoring watches, sleep monitoring gadgets and brainwave headbands. [Students] need to know how to tell hype from whats practical, she said. We need them to be savvy about that. Platt and Johnson were previously colleagues at Duke Universitys Institute for Brain Sciences.

Platt and Johnson discussed the intersection of neuroscience and business on the Marketing Matters show on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM channel 111. (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.)

How We Tick, Why We Tick

Businesses and marketers need to get up to speed on the use of neuroscience in advertising and marketing, according to Catharine Hays, executive director of the Wharton Future of Advertising program, who co-hosts the Marketing Matters show. The essence of the initiative is grounded in helping people, understanding how we tick, why we tick, and then using that information to make sure that we tick well, she said. It helps that Penn has a large neuroscience community, she noted.

Platt expanded on Hayss comments and said, Knowing something more about how we tick as individuals and how we tick together sometimes and sometimes we dont could impact the way we do business and educate the next generation of students.

According to Platt, the tremendous strides in neuroscience over the last couple of decades will help people with brain disorders like Alzheimers disease. Those same advances in neuroscience will also help businesses and individuals reach their maximum potential to create value for society, he added.

The Wharton Neuroscience Initiative this year started an Introduction to Brain Science for Business course. It essentially uses business as a vehicle to teach students neuroscience, and also a means to convey some of the emerging areas for applications, said Platt. Some of those are in the area of marketing, to test the effectiveness of advertising such as engaging people and predicting sales, he explained. The idea is to broaden the domain of neuroscience beyond attention or decision-making to social neuroscience or studies of creativity, he added.

The brain is trying to figure out ambiguity, and is trying to find solutions for what we see and what we perceive. Elizabeth (Zab) Johnson

Takeaways for Businesses

Research being conducted by Platt and Johnson could find numerous applications in the world of business. Johnsons research includes studies in vision and color vision. For example, she would examine why different people identify the same color differently, such as some seeing blue as black or white as gold. She pointed to applications, for example, in the cosmetics industry. We spend a lot of time looking at whether or not we can make ourselves more attractive by adding different colors, she said.

Johnson saw big opportunities for research into those varying perceptions of color. People had very emotional responses when they realized that what their friends saw was different from what they saw, even though it is same [color], she said. The neuro-scientific explanation for people seeing colors differently is still being probed, she added.

Inherently what you perceive is all in your head, which as neuroscientists we always knew, Johnson said. We also know that the brain is trying to figure out ambiguity, and is trying to find solutions for what we see and what we perceive. She has also begun to research how colors on peoples faces change depending on their emotional state and the signals that we might be getting but we dont think about, such as when people blush.

Hays noted that 80% of the decisions or choices people make are based in their subconscious. [In] bringing them to the fore and making them explicit, the business applications are mind boggling, she said.

Platt said his research includes trying to understand at a very deep level aspects of interpersonal interactions. That begins with how people perceive each other to higher-order processes such as how that might prompt people to be kind or deceptive, he explained.

We are working out the circuitry [and] trying to understand how we might turn up the volume on some of those signals and turn down the volume on some others, Platt said. So, could you do various kinds of nudges to promote more social behavior, to make us more attentive to each other, or [to become] better able to read social cues and be better listeners?

Could you do various kinds of nudges to promote more social behavior, to make us more attentive to each other, or [to become] better able to read social cues and be better listeners? Michael Platt

A Measured, Cautious Approach

Penn research is focused on using those insights to test new therapies to treat people with disorders, including both medicines and non-invasive brain stimulation, Platt explained. We need to do research to figure out how to do it right, and how to do it safely. Some of those therapies are being put into practice at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, he added.

Platts research extends to studying decision-making and how people weigh trade-offs between continuing to exploit something they know well versus taking risks to explore new ways of doing things. That is where the spark of innovation comes from, he added. As that research advances, it will also try to uncover the mechanisms of that process, measure it on individuals unobtrusively through a wearable device or stimulate that circuitry on people whose job it is to be innovative. The research work will also extend to innovating on devices at an ideas lab to improve quality and make them cheaper so they can be used more in everyday lives.

Platt acknowledged that such research raises important ethical questions, but clarified that they are not specific to neuroscience in a business context. He said that among other resources to grapple with those issues, he wants to tap into the deep expertise in bioethics at Penn. Johnson called for continuing debate on these issues to come up with the right applications.

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What Insights Lie at the Intersection of Neuroscience and Marketing? - Knowledge@Wharton

Neuroscience

Neuroscience Concentration Graduate Program in Biomedical …

Neuroscience Concentration Description

All students enrolled in the Neuroscience program will work towards obtaining a Ph.D. degree through the College of Medicine. Every student in the Neuroscience concentration is required to have at least one published or in press peer-reviewed, original research article pertaining directly to the students dissertation prior to graduating. Each student must have at least one member on his/her dissertation committee who holds a primary appointment in the Department of Neuroscience.

The Neuroscience curriculum is designed to complement the research interests of our graduate students. After completing the courses required in the fall semester of the first year, each student must complete a total of 12 credits of advanced graduate course work. All students enrolled in the Neuroscience concentration are required to take and successfully complete at least two of the courses in List A (below) or they may choose to take all of them. Successful completion means obtaining a 3.0 grade point average. Most students enrolled in the program complete their advanced course work by the end of the second year.

The Neuroscience concentration offers five (5) advanced courses annually (see List A) and additional elective courses annually or biennially. Students may also select their elective advanced courses from those offered by other doctoral programs. In some cases, students may choose to take courses offered by programs outside of the College of Medicine. Each students selection of courses must be approved by the students advisory/dissertation committee and the Neuroscience Graduate Program Directors.

Finally, each student is required to participate in the Neuroscience Graduate Research Seminars (GMS 6792), the Neuroscience Department Seminars (GMS 7794), and one journal club each Fall and Spring semester starting in their second year. The topics of the journal clubs are tailored to the specific educational needs of our students and vary each semester.

For a list of faculty members in the Neuroscience advanced program, please click here. Faculty names link to faculty web pages.

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Neuroscience Concentration Graduate Program in Biomedical ...

Neuroscience

Neuroscience Symposium at St. Rita’s – Your News Now

Two alarm fire on North Jameson in Lima By Joseph Sharpe Digital Content Manager 2017-06-29T02:38:35Z

Thick black smoke billowed over Limaearlier this evening, as a city home goes up in flames.

The City of Lima just got a bit bigger in hopes of future development.

A three car accident snarls traffic at the intersection of Spencerville and Wapak Road.

Lima Municipal Court has earned final certification from the Ohio Supreme Court's commission on specialized dockets.

The Putnam County Commissioners dealing with a new lawsuit filed against them regarding the improvements done to County Road 5.

Heat from a garage fire caused damage to cars and surrounding buildings.

Marathon now has a distribution network to ship materials from the Utica Shale Region to other parts of Ohio and beyond.

Authorities in Van Wert County are searching for an inmate who didn't return to jail, after a medical furlough.

Since it was first identified in the United States more than 30 years ago, expanded treatment options for HIV have dramatically improved the lives of those affected.

A free manufacturing training course will be held at Rhodes State College starting July 10th.

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Neuroscience Symposium at St. Rita's - Your News Now