Past Events
2008-2009 Rae Nishi, PhD, University of Vermont The main goal of Dr. Nishi’s research is to attain a fundamental understanding of how neural cell phenotypes are regulated in the peripheral and central nervous system of the chicken embryo. One of the two main projects she is currently working on in her lab involves determining how cell death triggers new cells to differentiate as neurons. Her current hypothesis is that the process is regulated by Notch signaling between mature neurons expressing the Notch ligand Delta, and adjacent undifferentiated cells, as Notch signaling normally inhibits neural development. The other main project of her lab is understanding how nicotinic signaling leads to cell death and how this can be controlled. Misexpressing on of 6 recently discovered chicken genes that encode molecules that fold into structures homologous to alpha-bungerotoxin (which blocks the activation of alpha-7 subunit containing nicotinic receptors) rescues neurons from dying. This suggests that it may act as an endogenous regulator of nicotine receptor function. Dr. Nishi hosted an information session for students on graduate studies in the biological sciences, including discussion of the various options available to those with a degree in the biological sciences. Following this, she presented a research seminar to students and faculty in the biology and neuroscience departments. The Director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, Dr. Nishi received her B.S. in 1975 from Stanford University in the Biological Sciences and her Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of California, San Diego in Biology.
Kim Wallen, PhD, Emory University Prof. Kim Wallen of Emory University and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta has spent the last several decades exploring sex differences in behavior and the role of hormones in shaping those differences. His work with rhesus monkeys has dramatically improved our understanding of the mechanisms underlying sexual differentiation in primates and has demonstrated significant influences of gonadal hormones on adult behaviors ranging from sex behavior to toy preferences to spatial cognition. Among his recent findings is an exciting discovery that even male and female rhesus monkeys exhibit sex differences in toy preferences that parallel those often reported in humans, suggesting that biological predispositions play a very powerful role in the development of such differences. During his visit, Dr. Wallen met with students in the First-Year Residential Seminar, “Perspectives on Sex”, and gave a colloquium to students and faculty in neuroscience, psychology, and biology. Dr. Wallen received his PhD in 1978 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and has been a faculty member at Emory University and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center since 1979. Currently, he is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroendocrinology at Emory.
Rosalind Segal, MD, PhD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute Dr. Segal’s recent work has focused on stem cell niches in the developing cerebellum. These proliferating precursor cells go on to form the most abundant neuronal type in the cerebellum (the granule cells), which are restricted to the most superficial layer of the cerebellum (the external granule layer). Dr. Segal’s work has demonstrated that interaction between the growth factor Sonic hedgehog and heparan sulfate proteoglycans present in the external granule layer is required for the proliferative response. Furthermore, the nerve growth factor family member BDNF is required for migration out of the stem cell niche. These features are also found in childhood tumors of the cerebellum such as medulloblastoma. Dr. Segal was invited to speak to the Senior Seminar students and prospective neuroscience concentrators and students and faculty in the Biology and Psychology departments. Dr. Segal then led an extended discussion with the Senior seminar students on topics related to her research; she also spoke about how her work as a practicing neurologist has informed her neuroscience research. Dr. Segal receieved her PhD in 1985 from Rockefeller University and her MD in 1986 from Cornell University Medical College, followed by a residency in the Harvard Neurology Program and a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Lara Hutson, PhD, Williams College Dr. Hutson is a member of the Williams College Biology Department and one of the core faculty in the Neuroscience Program. Her research focuses upon how genetics and environment combine to regulate development of the vertebrate nervous system. She uses zebrafish as a model system for investigating the role of small heat shock proteins during development of the neuromuscular system both normally and in the context of environmental stress. This research has important implications for two human neuromuscular diseases: Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and Distal Hereditary Motor Neuropathy, which are related to mutations in two specific small heat shock proteins but also have a strong environmental component in the progress of the disease. Dr. Hutson's lab has generated transgenic lines that express the mutant variants of the small heat shock proteins in the zebrafish and she is using a combination of behavioral and histochemical analyses to determine the effects on neurons and muscle cells in embryos, juvenile, and adults. Dr. Hutson’s seminar, presented to faculty and students in the Biology Department and Neuroscience Program, was followed by questions and discussion. After receiving her B.A. in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Hutson received her Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Washington. She held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Utah before joining the faculty of Williams College.
Jackie D. Wood, PhD, Ohio State University Dr. Wood’s studies focus on the neurobiology of the enteric nervous system or the “brain-in-the-gut.” The enteric nervous system is an independent integrative nervous system and has been implicated in a number of human diseases including inflammatory bowel disease. Dr. Wood’s laboratory has three main areas of interest. He and his colleagues are characterizing a purinergic slow excitatory postsynaptic potential that acts through metabotropic ATP receptors. The discovery of this potential may provide a means to find drug therapies to address bowel diseases. A second area of interest is signal transduction in the enteric nervous system. Secretomotor neurons in the intestinal submucosal plexus and musculomotor neurons in the myenteric plexus are critical in the control of fluidity of intestinal contents and in intestinal motility. The discovery of paracrine signaling and slow potentials have indicated different signaling mechanisms than those traditionally found in this nervous system and allow for further characterization of the normal physiology of the gut. Finally, Dr. Wood’s laboratory studies the relation of stress, corticotropin releasing factor and various bowel disorders. Dr. Wood presented some of his findings to the Animal Physiology class, met with members of the class for a lunch discussion, and gave a general seminar to the scientific community at Williams. Dr. Wood received his B.S. in Biology from Kansas State University, his M.S. in Biology/Physiology from Kansas State University, and his Ph. D. in Physiology and Cell Biology and Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University.
Larry Benowitz, PhD, California Institute of Technology The main goal of Larry Benowitz’s research is restoring nerve function lost as a consequence of stroke or injury. His approach is to work to discover the basic mechanisms that control the growth of nerve connections and to apply insights from this work to promote regeneration and functional recovery after CNS injury. One of the main focuses of his lab is optic nerve regeneration, as this is a classic model for a CNS pathway that normally fails to regenerate after injury. He has found that inducing an inflammatory response in the eye can cause macrophages that enter to secrete the previously unknown growth factor oncomodulin. Oncomodulin binds to high affinity receptors on neurons and can cause them to revert to an active growth state and to begin regenerating. However, there are several other molecules that are being secreted at the same time by non-neuronal cells and which act to suppress axon regeneration. Although blocking these molecules alone is not enough to stimulate axon regeneration, Benowitz’s lab has found that blocking these and at the same time using oncomodulin to activate the intrinsic growth state leads to dramatic CNS regeneration following injury. Dr. Larry Benowitz presented a research seminar to students and faculty at Williams from the Biology and Neuroscience departments. Dr. Larry Benowitz received his B. Eng. from The Cooper Union. He received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in biology/psychobiology. He has completed fellowships at California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard Medical School.
Sally Temple, PhD, New York Neural Stem Cell Institute Dr. Sally Temple’s research was the first to describe self-renewing, multipotent stem cells in the embryonic mouse forebrain. She has continued to be a pioneer in the stem cell field, developing methods to grow these stem cells in tissue culture, to identify them using specific cell markers, and to examine their genetic composition. She focuses her research on the intermediate stages of development, to understand the interactions of partially differentiated stem cells to create complex, heterogeneous tissues like the central nervous system. Her research indicates that internal counting mechanisms, rather than external signals in the progenitors, determine the number of cell divisions they undergo. She has recently shown that progenitor cells gradually lose their capacity to divide into cell types that normally form the earliest cortical layers, but that by reducing expression of the gene Foxg1 this can be delayed partially. Temple’s basic research on the differentiation of neural progenitors can bring us closer to effective clinical treatments for central nervous system damage caused by trauma, neurodegenerative diseases, malignancy, or stroke. Dr. Temple presented a colloquium on her work to the Senior Seminar students, prospective neuroscience concentrators, and students and faculty from the Psychology and Biology departments. Dr. Temple then led an extended discussion with the Senior seminar students. Dr. Temple also had lunch and dinner with Williams students and faculty, and discussed her research and experiences. After completing her BA in 1982 from the University of Cambridge, Sally Temple received her PhD in 1986 from University College London. She is a 2008 MacArthur Fellow and the current scientific director of the New York Neural Stem Cell Institute.
2007-2008 Magdalene Moran ‘96, PhD, Hydra Biosciences Magdalene Moran is Senior Director of Biology at Hydra Biosciences, a
Nathan Fox ‘70, PhD, University of Maryland, College Park After graduating with Honor is Political Science from Williams College, Dr. Fox went on to study for his doctoral degree in Psychology and Social Relations at Harvard University. Dr. Fox is currently the Director of the Child Development Lab at the Institute for Child Study in the Department of Human Development at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on socio-emotional development in children, including temperament, development of emotion and emotion regulation, psychophysiology, and infant cognitive/social development. Of particular interest to his lab is the observation and measurement of attention, memory, as well as emotion expression and social experience. In his research, Dr. Fox links these psychological processes to neural activity through brain imaging methods such as EEG, ERP and functional neuroimaging.
Judy Willis ’71, M.Ed, MD, RADteach.com Dr. Willis '71 received her M.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine and her M.Ed. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. After practicing as an adult and child neurologist for 15 years, she decided to pursue a career in education. Since then, she has been teaching middle school and infusing her classroom practices with her expertise in neurology. Her research focuses on RAD learning, an acronym that stands for the parts of the neural system that are particularly active in learning and memory: Reticular activating system, Amygdala, and Dopamine. She also defines RAD as "reach and discover" for the less-scientifically inclined among her audience. She is the author of a number of books, including "Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning: Insights from a Neurologist/Classroom Teacher" (2006),”Brain-Friendly Strategies for the Inclusion Classroom" (2007), and "How Your Child Learns Best: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher" (upcoming, 2008). Willis also writes extensively for professional educational journals and was honored as a 2007 Finalist for the Distinguished Achievement Award by the Association for Educational Publishers.
Peter Tyack, PhD, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Dr. Tyack is as Senior Scientist and Walter A and Hope Noyes Smith Chair in the Biology Department of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research focuses on the social behavior and acoustic communication in whales and dolphins as well as vocal learning and mimicry in their natural communication systems. In particular, Dr. Tyack is investigating what the structure and function of whale songs can reveal about how whales and dolphins respond to human noise, as well as the social function of these songs among cetaceans. Developing methods to identify which cetacean produces a sound within a social group of conspecifics along with new techniques to tag whales, locate their calls, and monitor vocal and social behavior of marine mammals is a crucial part of furthering this investigation. He has been involved in the design, planning and fieldwork for a series of experiments investigating the possible impact on marine mammals of human-made sources of noise.
Chi-Bin Chien, PhD, University of Utah School of Medicine After receiving his Ph.D. 1991 from the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Chien held post-doctoral fellowships at both the University of California San Diego and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany prior to his current position as Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Chien’s research uses the zebrafish as a model system to understand how genetic and molecular mechanisms control cell behavior in vivo. Many of the signaling molecules that are critical for development have now been identified: for instance, guidance ligands and receptors during axon and vascular guidance, and morphogens and transcription factors during embryonic patterning. It is much less clear how these molecules function in cells during development, and furthermore how multiple signaling pathways are orchestrated as the embryo develops.
Bevil Conway, PhD, Wellesley College, McLean Hospital, and Harvard Medical School Dr. Conway is a neuroscientist and artist, and is the Knafel Assistant Professor of Natural Science at Wellesley College. His research examines the neural basis for visual behavior, with a particular focus on color vision. Dr. Conway is particularly interested in investigating the relationship between visual processing and visual art -- what can art tell us about how the brain works? Can neuroscience, vice versa, inform our understanding of visual art?
Essel Foundation Neuroscience Alumni Symposium Essel Foundation Neuroscience Science Symposium Flyer
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