MRI’s magnetic field affects focused ultrasound technology

In a mouse model study of MRI-guided focused ultrasound-induced blood-brain barrier opening at MRI field strengths ranging from ­approximately 0 T (outside the magnetic field) to 4.7 T, the static magnetic field dampened the detected microbubble cavitation signal and decreased the BBB opening volume. (Image courtesy of Chen lab)

MRI-guided focused ultrasound combined with microbubbles can open the blood-brain barrier and allow therapeutic drugs to reach the diseased brain location under the guidance of MRI. It is a promising technique that has been shown safe in patients with various brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and glioblastoma. Chen While MRI […]

Kroll receives NIH grant

Kristen Kroll, PhD, professor of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, has received a four-year $2.09 million R01 research grant from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project titled “The cis-regulatory grammar and epigenetic control of human interneuron progenitor specification.” Originally published at The […]

Raji receives NIH grant for Alzheimer’s study

Cyrus Raji, MD, PhD, assistant professor of radiology and of neurology at the School of Medicine, received a three-year $2.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his research titled “Neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s Disease Imaging Biomarkers in Midlife Obesity.” Originally published on The Source.

Grant funds research pushing limits of cyborg insects

The Office of Naval Research has awarded Barani Raman, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, an $851,320 grant for research to determine just how sensitive locusts’ noses are when it comes to explosives — and how well researchers can interpret what the insects are […]

Graduate student in the Jackrel lab wins NIH fellowship

Macy Sprunger, a graduate student in Meredith Jackrel’s lab in the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, won a three-year $136,560 National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award supports Sprunger’s project “Defining the Molecular Drivers and Modulators of MATR3 Proteinopathy […]

FUSIN promising in therapeutic agent delivery to brain tumor

Brainstem glioma is often diagnosed in children and young adults and has a low survival rate. A multidisciplinary team at Washington University in St. Louis developed a technique that delivered a therapeutic agent to the gliomas using focused ultrasound with very promising results. Dezhuang Ye, a doctoral student in the lab of Hong Chen, PhD, […]

Mechanism behind heartbeat regulation, heart function uncovered

Jianmin Cui, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, and Po wei (Billy) Kang, an MD/PhD student at the School of Medicine who conducts research in Cui’s lab, led an international team that revealed new details on how two biomolecules modulate opening and closing of the KCNQ1 potassium channel. This channel […]

Brain & Behavior Research Foundation awards grants to three researchers

Three Washington University in St. Louis researchers have received Young Investigator Grants from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. The foundation is committed to alleviating the suffering caused by mental illness by supporting research that will lead to advances and breakthroughs in scientific research. The $70,000 grants help junior investigators launch innovative basic, translational and clinical research […]

Zacks receives $250K grant from James S. McDonnell Foundation

Jeffrey M. Zacks, associate chair and professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences and professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, received a four-year $250,000 grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to study event cognition “in the wild.” This project will take the research into the world, where people actually […]

Babulal receives five-year $4M grant from National Institute on Aging

Ganesh M. Babulal, assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year $3,984,843 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute On Aging for research titled “The Impact of Depression and Preclinical Alzheimer Disease on Driving Among Older Adults.” This study will investigate how depression, preclinical Alzheimer’s disease and antidepressant […]

Cabassa receives $2.2M training grant renewal from NIMH

Leopoldo J. Cabassa, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Mental Health Services Research at the Brown School, has received a five-year $2.2 million training grant renewal from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This training program previously led by Enola Proctor, builds upon the center’s 25-year history of successfully […]

Zacks awarded $2M grant from NIH

Jeffrey Zacks, professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a nearly $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in support of a multiyear project titled “Improving Everyday Memory in Healthy Aging and Early Alzheimer’s Disease.” Read more.

Braver receives $433K grant from NIH

Todd Braver, professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a $432,938 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support a project titled “Healthy Aging and the Cost of Cognitive Effort.” Read more.

Gallardo received 5-year, $1.96M grant from National Institute on Aging/NIH

Gilbert Gallardo, assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.96 million grant from the National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Engineering anti-tau intrabodies that reduce tauopathy by either the proteasome, lysosome, or chaperone mediated autophagy.” Read more.

Snyder receives 5-year $2.55M grant from National Eye Institute/NIH

Lawrence H. Snyder, MD, PhD, professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine and of psychological and brain sciences in  Arts  & Sciences, received a five-year $2.55 million grant from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research titled “Interhemispheric communication underlying bimanual and eye-hand coordination.” Read more.

Mokalled receives $1.93M from the NINDS of the NIH

Mayssa Mokalled, assistant professor of developmental biology, has received a five-year, $1.93 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project titled “Mechanisms of glial bridging and neurogenesis during spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish.” Read more.

Victoria Church receives $165K postdoctoral fellowship award from Bumpus Foundation

Victoria Church, a postdoctoral research scholar in the lab of Andrew S. Yoo,  associate professor of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, received a three-year, $165,000 postdoctoral fellowship award from the William N. & Bernice E. Bumpus Foundation for her project titled “Modeling PD with patient-derived directly reprogrammed neurons.” Read more.

Cavalli receives $300K Stein Innovation Award

Valeria Cavalli, professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine, received a $300,000 Stein Innovation Award from Research to Prevent Blindness to explore ways to support the survival or regeneration of cells in the eye in order to prevent blindness caused by glaucoma. Read more.

Laura Ibanez awarded $281K grant from Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation

Laura Ibanez, a postdoctoral research associate in neurogenetics and informatics in the laboratory of Carlos Cruchaga at the School of Medicine, has received a $281,370 grant from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation to study gene products associated with Alzheimer’s disease that can be found in the blood. The project will use next-generation sequencing to measure […]

Lai awarded $127K from Russell Sage Foundation

The Russell Sage Foundation has awarded Calvin Lai, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, $127,015 for a randomized controlled trial aimed at addressing the gap between the aims and outcomes of implicit bias training in police departments. The project, titled “Improving Police-Community Relations with a Social-Psychological Intervention for Reducing Racial Bias in Policing initiative,” will allow […]

Hengen receives McKnight Scholar Award

Keith Hengen, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, received a McKnight Scholar Award from the McKnight Foundation. The award supports neuroscientists in the early stages of their careers who are focusing on disorders of learning and memory. Read more.

Chen awarded $310K from National Institute on Aging of the NIH

Hong Chen, assistant professor at the McKelvey School of Engineering and at the School of Medicine, received a $309,909 grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore the application of a focused ultrasound-mediated drug delivery technique for treating Alzheimer’s disease. Read more.

Jackrel receives $300K from ALS Association

Meredith Jackrel, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, received a $300,000 grant from the ALS Association to support a project titled “Countering the aggregation of TDP-43, FUS, DPRS, and Matrin 3 with engineered protein disaggregases.” Read more.

Bogdan awarded $265K from NIH

Ryan Bogdan, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a two-year, $264,938 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the effects of alcohol on the maturing brain. The study will look at genome-wide association studies to longitudinal neuroimaging studies of adolescents and young adults in order to […]

NSF awards $380K to Chakrabartty

Shantanu Chakrabartty, the Clifford Murphy Professor in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, recently received a $380,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to address a persistent problem when it comes to recreating the brain’s neuronal networks in silicon: energy efficiency. This is known as the “neuron-to-network energy gap.” His research also […]

Barch receives $550K grant from NIH

Deanna Barch, chair of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences and the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, received a $554,195 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for computational psychiatry research. Read more.

$1.04M CDI grant awarded to Theunissen, Kroll and Solnica-Krezel

Thorold Theunissen, assistant professor of developmental biology, Kristen Kroll, associate professor of developmental biology, and Lilianna Solnica-Krezel, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor and head of developmental biology, all at the School of Medicine, have received a three-year, $1.04 million grant from the Children’s Discovery Institute for their project titled “Establishing novel stem cell platforms to model developmental disorders […]

$785K NIMH grant awarded to Brown School’s Mary McKay

Mary McKay, the Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean of the Brown School, has received a five-year, $785,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute of Mental Health for a project titled “Navigating Resource-Constrained Systems and Communities to Promote the Behavioral Health of Black Youth.” Sean Joe, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development […]

Kroll receives $150K from Undiagnosed Diseases Network

Kristen Kroll, associate professor of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, has received a one-year, $150,000 grant from the Undiagnosed Diseases Network for her project titled “Using human pluripotent stem cell models to evaluate pathogenicity and define disease mechanisms for ZNF292 variant found in UDN373964.” Read more.

Imai awarded $1.6M from NIH’s National Institute on Aging

Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, professor of developmental biology at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project titled “eNAMPT-mediated adipo-hypothalamic communication for NAD+ production and aging.” Read more.

English receives $431K NIH grant

Tammy English, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a $431,000 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant in support of research on mild cognitive impairment and emotion regulation in naturalistic contexts. Read more.

Gutmann receives $900K from Gilbert Family Foundation

David Gutmann, MD, the Donald O. Schnuck Professor of Neurology at the School of Medicine, has received a three-year, $900,000 grant from the Gilbert Family Foundation to study ways to restore sight to patients with neurofibromatosis type 1. Read more.

Ornitz receives grant from National Institutes of Health

David Ornitz, MD, PhD, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Developmental Biology, received a two-year, $456,853 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project titled “Signaling mechanisms and mouse models for insulin-mediated pseudoacromegaly.” Read more.

Tang, Braver receive grant from NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

Catherine Tang, a graduate student working with Todd Braver, professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a $39,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health for a project titled “Examining mindfulness training effects and mechanisms on cognitive control.” Read more.

White receives grant from the National PKU Alliance

Desiree White, professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a  $130,500 grant from the National PKU Alliance for a project titled “Validation of the NIH Toolbox for use in phenylketonuria clinical trials.” Read more.

Hong Chen receives $1.6 million grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Hong Chen, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering and of radiation oncology at the School of Medicine, received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The research will fund a broader understanding of Chen’s earlier work combining intranasal drug delivery […]

Bauer awarded $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s NINDS

Adam Q. Bauer, assistant professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, received a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a research project titled “Optogenetic Mapping of Cell Specific Connections in the Mouse Brain After Stroke.” Stroke is the leading cause of adult […]

Soranno receives grant from the Alzheimer’s Association

Andrea Soranno, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the School of Medicine, received a three-year, $150,000 research grant from the Alzheimer’s Association for his work titled “Conformational analysis of ApoE isoforms and their role in AD mechanism.” Read more.

Vlassenko, Goyal, Raichle awarded 2 grants totalling $3.7 million from National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded two grants, totaling about $3.7 million each, to study the link between sugar breakdown and the aging brain. One study, led by Andrei Vlassenko, MD, PhD, assistant professor of radiology, and Manu Goyal, MD, assistant professor of radiology, both at the School of Medicine, will […]

Oltz, Colonna awarded $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s NIAID

Eugene Oltz, professor of pathology and immunology, and Marco Colonna, MD, the Robert Rock Belliveau, MD, Professor of Pathology, both at the School of Medicine, received a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study how immune cells balance the need for a robust […]

Monosov received a three-year, $300,000 McKnight Memory and Cognitive Disorders Award

Ilya Monosov, assistant professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine, received a three-year, $300,000 McKnight Memory and Cognitive Disorders Award to study how the brain seeks, values and uses information to resolve uncertainty about the future. This work can help shed light on disorders that arise from maladaptive decision-making and poor risk/reward assessment. Read more.

Markson receives $49 K from the Russell Sage Foundation

Lori Markson, associate professor and director of graduate studies, and Rebecca Schwarzlose, postdoctoral research associate, both in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences, received $49,000 from the Russell Sage Foundation for a research project titled “Conceptual understanding of skin color inheritance among American children and adults.” Read more.

Stark, Ances and Brennan receive NIH National Institute on Aging $3.3 million grant

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)‘s National Institute on Aging has awarded a $3.3 million grant to Susan Stark, associate professor of occupational therapy, and Beau Ances, MD, PhD, the Daniel J. Brennan, MD, Professor of Neurology, both at the School of Medicine, to assess whether falls can be used to predict onset of Alzheimer’s […]

Hassenstab receives $3.4 million grant from the NIH National Institute on Aging

Jason Hassenstab, assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, has received a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)‘s National Institute on Aging to develop a smartphone app to assess cognition in people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Read more.

Dantas, Stappenbeck and Moon awarded $3.5 million from NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $3.5 million grant to study how live bacteria can be used for drug delivery to Gautam Dantas, professor of pathology and immunology, and Thaddeus Stappenbeck, the Conan Professor of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine, both at the School of Medicine, and Tae Seok Moon, associate professor of […]

DuBois awarded $2.6 M from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging

James DuBois, the Steven J. Bander Professor of Medical Ethics and Professionalism at the School of Medicine, received a five-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute on Aging for a research project titled “Implementing Evidence-based Informed Consent Practices to Address the Risk of Alzheimer’s Dementia and Cognitive Impairment in […]

Lee and Panagos awarded $1.2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant

Jin-Moo Lee, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, and Peter D. Panagos, MD, professor of emergency medicine, both at the School of Medicine, received a $1.2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to establish the Mid-America Regional Coordinating Center as part of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s StrokeNet. StrokeNet is a group of 25 leading […]

Soranno receives one year award from American Federation for Aging Research, Inc.

Andrea Soranno, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the School of Medicine, received a one year $46,296 New Investigator Award in Alzheimer’s Disease from the American Federation for Aging Research Inc. for his work titled “Identifying Neurotoxic Conformers in the Structural Ensemble of apoE.”

Berezin awarded $300 K grant from NIH National Cancer Institute

Mikhail Berezin, associate professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, received a $300,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Cancer Institute for research titled “Neuro-muscular junction based mechanism of chemotherapy-induced cachexia.” Cachexia-related changes reduce physical, emotional and social well-being and significantly decrease the chances of survival in millions of cancer patients. […]

Grantham awarded $2.2 million training grant

Heather Grantham, associate professor in the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences (PACS) at the School of Medicine, will be the principal investigator on a $2.2 million training grant awarded to PACS from the U.S. Department of Education. The two five-year awards will provide scholarship support and expanded training opportunities for students in the Master […]