Jason Yi, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience, and Harrison Gabel, PhD, an associate professor of neuroscience, both at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, each have received two-year $300,000 pilot grants from the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. The researchers will use the funds to investigate genetic diseases that result in autism. […]
Researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have pioneered a new technique that will enable higher-resolution imaging of very small objects like neurons. The technique, which improves on an existing method called expansion microscopy, is described in a new paper published in the journal Nano Letters. Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD and Barani […]
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are defined by structural diversity, and the determinants of this diversity are an important area of biophysical investigation. IDPs are involved in a range of important biological processes, including cell signaling and regulation, that allow healthy cells to respond to environmental factors appropriately, but they are also associated with human diseases […]
Tristan J. McIntosh, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study ethical collaborations between academia and industry in the development of brain technologies. The goal is to fill gaps in understanding the ethical complexities […]
Three researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently have received funding from the Alzheimer’s Association for projects that aim to study and make progress against the disease. Enmanuel Perez, MD, PhD, an instructor in neurology, has received a $250,000 grant from the Alzheimer’s Association to study how traumatic brain injury leads to […]
A team of researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has developed an energy-efficient way to consolidate long-term memories on a tiny chip. Shantanu Chakrabartty, PhD, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, and members of his lab developed a […]
Jonathan D. Cooper, PhD, a professor of pediatrics, of genetics and of neurology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, received two grants totaling $2.55 million over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Cooper will study enzyme replacement therapy as a possible […]
Before mixing an oil-and-vinegar-based salad dressing, the individual drops of vinegar are easily seen suspended in the oil, each with a perfectly circular boundary that delineates the two liquids. In the same way, our cells contain condensed bundles of proteins and nucleic acids called condensates delineated by clear boundaries. The boundaries are known as interfaces […]
Anuradhika Puri, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate working with Meredith Jackrel, PhD in the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, won the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association’s Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship. The $150,000 award supports her work on applying the human disaggregase, HtrA1, to counter amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Originally published on […]
Four years after Washington University in St. Louis researchers detected a possible link between risk for Alzheimer’s disease and the appearance of the eye’s retina, a $10.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is expanding the effort to understand that connection. Gregory P. Van Stavern, MD, […]
Proscovia Nabunya, PhD, an assistant professor at the Brown School and co-director of the International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD); and Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, both at Washington University in St. Louis, have received a five-year $1.2 million research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, […]
Patrick Hill, PhD, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received a three-year $237,970 grant from Velux Stiftung, a science-funding foundation based in Switzerland, for research on future time perspective as a motivator for healthy aging practices. Originally published on The Source.
Todd Braver, PhD, a professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received a $442,135 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study aging effects on the neural coding of proactive and reactive cognitive control. Originally published on The Source.
About 50 million Americans experience chronic pain. For many, the pain involves the muscle and the fascia surrounding it, creating myofascial pain with trigger points. This chronic pain syndrome significantly affects patients’ daily functioning and quality of life. While there are treatments, including physical therapy, non-opioid and opioid medications and trigger point injections, adequately controlling […]
Researchers have been experimenting with different ways to deliver genes to the brain to treat central nervous system diseases and tumors. One of the obstacles, however, is the ability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier while having minimal effect on the other organs in the body. Hong Chen, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the […]
More than 10 million people worldwide live with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement, balance and thinking. Severity of the disease is measured through external symptoms, as there are no effective biomarkers that indicate the phase of the illness. A team of engineers, physicians and researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, […]
An interdisciplinary project has received funding to help ensure that if — or more likely, when — certain imaging tools that use artificial intelligence (AI) are put to clinical use, their inherent uncertainty is considered as part of any subsequent clinical decisions, including guiding treatment. The project, led by Abhinav Jha, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical […]
Ulugbek Kamilov, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering and of computer science at Washington University in St. Louis’ McKelvey School of Engineering, is among 21 early-career researchers awarded funding in the second year of Scialog: Advancing Bioimaging. The project is supported by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the […]
Benjamin Garcia, PhD, the Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, along with Elizabeth Bhoj, at the University of Pennsylvania, received a five-year $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for their research titled […]
Although sleep consumes one-third of our lives and is a common feature among all animals, how the brain orchestrates sleep remains largely unexplained. To fill in this knowledge gap, Geoffrey Goodhill, PhD, professor of developmental biology and of neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues will track each cell in the […]
For animals such as mice, olfaction is their primary route to pick up social information, whether that’s identifying the dominant male in a group or figuring out the reproductive status of females. In turn, these signals can influence animals’ behavior and physiology. Pheromones in male urine, for instance, can trigger early puberty in mice. While […]
The factors that lead to preterm birth, which affects nearly 10% of pregnancies worldwide, are poorly understood. Its effects, however, are known. Among them: cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, and visual and hearing impairments. In order to better understand the cause of preterm birth, researchers need to better understand the uterine contractions patterns responsible for initiating […]
Denise Head, PhD, professor of psychological and brain sciences, and Jeffrey Zacks, PhD, associate chair and professor of psychological and brain sciences, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, won a five-year $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for work on aging and development. Originally published on The Source.
Guoyan Zhao, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, received a $433,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to apply a cutting-edge imaging technology to study subcellular features of brain tissue from Alzheimer’s patients. Read more.
Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of proteins, when tethered to folded domains, function either as flexible tails or as linkers between domains. Most IDRs are composed of a mixture of oppositely charged residues. Recent measurements of tethered polyampholytes have shown that arginine- and lysine-rich sequences tend to behave very differently from one another. In a paper […]
Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, PhD, professor of neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine, as well as professor of biomedical engineering and of economics, received a five-year $2.3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Neuronal mechanisms of good-based economic decisions.” Originally published on The […]
Vijay K. Samineni, PhD, assistant professor of anesthesiology at the Washington University School of Medicine, received a five-year $2.34 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Neural mechanisms underlying IC/BPS.” Originally published on The Source.
Mark A. Rutherford, PhD, assistant professor of otolaryngology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, received a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research on the pore-forming and auxiliary subunit molecular anatomy of AMPA-type glutamate receptors in the cochlea […]
In order to understand healthy neurodevelopment — and the threats to that health — researchers need a more comprehensive understanding of how the brain grows throughout childhood and young adulthood. To that end, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $753,181 grant to Deanna Barch, PhD, chair and professor of psychological and brain […]
Kristin Van Engen, PhD, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences and of linguistics, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a $433,242 National Science Foundation grant to support research into why some speakers are more difficult to understand than others and how listeners adjust to unfamiliar accents. Unlike […]
Naresha Saligrama, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology and of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, is part of a team led by Lisa Wagar, of the University of California, Irvine, that has received a multiyear, multi-million-dollar grant through Wellcome Leap to use human tonsil organoids to study immune responses. Originally published on […]
Aaron DiAntonio, MD, PhD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Developmental Biology; Joseph Bloom, PhD, assistant professor of genetics; and Jeffrey Milbrandt, MD, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Professor and head of the Department of Genetics, all at the School of Medicine, received a two-year $300,000 grant from the ALS Finding a Cure and […]
Carl F. Craver, PhD, a professor of philosophy and of philosophy-neuroscience-psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won a grant of $282,603 from the National Science Foundation. The NSF grant will fund a new project titled “Time and Episodic Memory: Neuropsychology Meets Philosophy.” This will build on Craver’s previous investigations with R. […]
The Whitehall Foundation has awarded a three-year $225,000 grant to Tristan Qingyun Li, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience and of genetics at Washington University School of Medicine. The funding will go to investigate the function of microglia, immune cells that reside in the brain and perform myriad critical functions during development, injury and disease. Microglia were once thought […]
Four faculty members in the Department of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis — Yao Chen, Thomas Papouin, Jason Yi and Guoyan Zhao — have been awarded their first R01 grants through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This funding will support research critical to understanding the cellular and molecular processes occurring during neurodevelopment and […]
Geoffrey Goodhill, PhD, professor of developmental biology and of neuroscience at the Washington University School of Medicine, has received a two-year $675,000 grant to enhance the capabilities of light field microscopy for brain imaging. The funds, awarded by the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will […]
Daniel Scott Marcus, PhD, professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, received a one-year $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “A high performance research image repository (RIR) for the Washington University Center of High Performance Computing.” Originally published on The Source.
Daniel Kerschensteiner, MD, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, of biomedical engineering and of neuroscience the School of Medicine, received a five-year $2 million grant from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)for research titled “Synaptic organization and function of retinal interneurons and downstream visual pathways.” Originally published on The Source.
Paul J. Shaw, PhD, professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine, received a one-year $2.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Bidirectional interactions between sleep and Alzheimer’s disease: Functional dissection of the brain transcriptome in humans and drosophila.” Originally published on The Source.
Steven J. Mennerick, PhD, the John P. Feighner Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and a professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine, received a five-year $2.3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “GABAA receptor populations in hippocampus and thalamus.” Originally published on The […]
Cyrus A. Raji, MD, PhD, assistant professor of radiology and of neurology at the School of Medicine, received a one-year $2.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s disease imaging biomarkers in midlife obesity.” Originally published on The Source.
Zhoufeng Chen, PhD, the Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Professor of Anesthesiology, and professor of developmental biology, of medicine and of psychiatry, all at the School of Medicine, received a five-year $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Extramural […]
Naresha Saligrama, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, received a three-year $1.1 million grant from the Children’s Discovery Institute for research titled “Defining the role of adaptive immunity in pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis.” Originally published on The Source.
Aristeidis Sotiras, PhD, assistant professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Advanced machine learning algorithms that integrate multi-modal neuroimaging to quantify the heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s disease.” Originally published on The Source.
Robi D. Mitra, PhD, professor of genetics and the Alvin Goldfarb Distinguished Professor of Computational Biology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year $1.6 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Expanding opportunities in genomic research for underrepresented students.” Originally published on The Source.
Marco Colonna, MD, the Robert Rock Belliveau Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the School of Medicine, received a four-year $1.7 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for diabetes, digestive and kidney diseases extramural research, and a one-year $1.6 million grant from the National Institute […]
Adam Joseph Bloom, assistant professor of genetics and of anesthesiology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year $2.9 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his research titled “Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders.” Originally published on The Source.
The National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded James Fitzpatrick, PhD a $600,000 grant to purchase a Zeiss LSM 980 Airyscan 2 microscope platform for the Washington University Center for Cellular Imaging (WUCCI). The instrument will complement the existing optical microscopes at WUCCI by expanding super-resolution imaging to a […]
The James S. McDonnell Foundation has awarded $750,000 to Henry “Roddy” Roediger, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. The three-year award will fund the Collective Memory Collaborative, led by Roediger and co-principal investigator James Wertsch, the David R. Francis Distinguished Professor in anthropology […]
Shiming Chen, PhD, professor of ophthalmology in the John F. Hardesty, MD, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine, has received a 2021 Stein Innovation Award from Research to Prevent Blindness. The $300,000 award provides flexible funding to scientists engaged in research to improve the understanding of the visual system […]
