2009 Neuroscience News: Congratulations to Sunitha Rangaraju who has recently published her first, first author manuscript in Neurobiology of Disease. The paper is titled "Pharmacological induction of the heat shock response improves myelination in a neuropathic model" and appeared online July 8th, 2008. PMID: 18655835. Sunitha is mentored by Dr. Lucia Notterpek. The Department of Neuroscience is pleased to welcome our newest faculty member, Dr. Matthew Sarkisian. Matt's research interests focus on studies of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying normal and pathogenetic development of the cerebral cortex. Congratulations to Mercedes Prudencio who was recently named a recipient of one of the Outstanding International Student Awards by the College of Medicine. Mercedes will accept her award at the 14th Annual Interntional Student Awards Ceremony on November 18th at 5:30 in the Rion Ball Room, Reitz Union. Mercedes is mentord by Dr. David Borchelt. Congratulations to Travis Jackson who has recently published his first, first author manuscript in Cell Death and Differentiation. The paper titled "Regional hippocampal differences in AKT survival signaling across the lifespan: implications for CA1 vulnerability with aging" appeared online November 28th, 2008. PMID: 19039330. Travis is mentored by Dr. Tom Foster. The Department of Neuroscience is pleased to announce that Dr. Lucia Notterpek has recently been appointed Chair of the Department of Neuroscience. She assumed her new position on January 1, 2009. All of the faculty, staff, and students wish her the best and look forward to working with her and supporting her efforts to lead the Department. Congratulations to Mercedes Prudencio who has recently published her first, first author manuscript in the Journal of Neurochemistry. The paper titled "Modulation of mutant superoxide dismutase 1 aggregation by co-expression of wild-type enzyme" appeared online December 11th, 2008. Mercedes is mentord by Dr. David Borchelt. Congratulations to Dr. Celeste Karch who successfully defended her doctoral research March 20th titled, "Mechanisms of SOD1 Aggregation in Familial ALS". Celeste entered the Neuroscience IDP program in 2005 and has two first author published papers (J. Biol Chem and PNAS) and two more in preparation. Celeste is mentored by Dr. David Borchelt. We wish Celeste continued success in her postdoctoral studies. Congratulations to Jeremy Flint who has recently published his first, first author manuscript in Neuroimage. The paper titled "Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging of neuronal activity in the hippocampal slice model " appeared online February 19th, 2009. PMID: 19233299. Jeremy is mentored by Dr. Stephen Blackband. Congratulations to Sunitha Rangaraju who has was recently awarded a Young Investigator Educational Enhancement Award to attend the 40th Annual American Society for Neurochemistry meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. She will be presenting a poster titled "RAPAMYCIN IMPROVES MYELINATION BY NEUROPATHIC SCHWANN CELLS". Congratulations to Jonathan Verrier who has recently published his first, first author manuscript in Glia. The paper titled "Peripheral myelin protein 22 is regulated post-transcriptionally by miRNA-29a. " appeared online January 23rd, 2009. PMID: 19170179. Jonathan is mentored by Dr. Lucia Notterpek. Congratulations to Sunitha Rangaraju who was awarded the first place Gold Medal for her research presentation titled "Modulation of heat shock and autophagy pathways improves myelination in a hereditary neuropathy model" at the 34th Annual Medical Guild-sponsored Graduate Student Research Competition. The competition was held April 29th, 2009 as part of the annual College of Medicine Research Day. Sunitha is the first Neuroscience graduate student to win the gold medal in this event - a notable achievement indeed! Sunitha is mentored by Dr. Lucia Notterpek. Congratulations to Daniel Silver who has recently published his first, first author manuscript in Trends in Neuroscience. The paper titled "Common astrocytic programs during brain development, injury and cancer " appeared online April 25th, 2009. PMID:19398132. Daniel is mentored by Dr. Dennis Steindler. Congratulations to Rabia Zafar, whose recent presentation on the effects of somatostatin gene therapy on seizure severity at the Annual American Epilepsy Society Meeting was highlighted in their news letter. Rabia is mentored by Dr. Paul Carney. Congratulations to Dr. Ben Nahir, who successfully defended his doctoral research titled "Endocannabinoids: Linking GABA and Glutamate in the Hilus" on May 19th. Ben entered the Neuroscience IDP program in 2004 and has one first author published paper (J. Neurophysiol) and three additional published manuscripts. Ben is mentored by Dr. C. Jason Frazier. We wish Ben continued success in his postdoctoral studies. He will be moving to the Orgeon Health and Science University in Portland, OR to work with Dr. Craig Jahr. Congratulations to Mercedes Prudencio who recently published her second first author paper this year titled "Variation in aggregation propensities among ALS-associated variants of SOD1: Correlation to human disease" in Hum Mol Genet. The paper appeared online May 30, 2009 and is the 100th peer-reviewed, published work for her mentor, Dr. David Borchelt.