News
July 18, 2024
Steffen Wolff, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, received a five-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for “A circuit mechanism for the interactions between distinct learning systems”.
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July 16, 2024
Researchers in the lab of Andrea Meredith, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology, published “Structural mapping of patient-associated KCNMA1 gene variants” in the Biophysical Journal, work led by Hans Moldenhauer, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow. The article was also featured as the cover art for the July issue, showing a structural cartoon of two subunits of the calcium-bound tetrameric Big K+ (BK) channel. Shown in red are residues altered by patient-associated missense variants in KCNMA1, the gene encoding the channel.
July 10, 2024
Todd Gould, MD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, was the corresponding author of “Entactogen Effects of Ketamine: A Reverse-Translational Study” which was published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, work led by first author Evan Hess, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow.
July 3, 2024
Kelly Westlake, PhD, Associate Professor, and Jason Falvey, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, participated in a radio segment on NPR’s On the Record hosted by Sheilah Kast, where they spoke about fall prevention and recovery. Listen to their segment here!
July 3, 2024
Todd Gould, MD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, co-authored “A Phase 1 Assessment of the Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics, and Pharmacodynamics of (2R,6R)-Hydroxynorketamine in Healthy Volunteers”, results of a Phase I clinical trial (ID# NCT04711005) that was published in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. This study followed the findings of a study published by Dr. Gould’s group in Nature in 2016.
June 26, 2024
Researchers in the laboratory of Thomas Blanpied, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology published “Distinct SAP102 and PSD-95 Nano-organization Defines Multiple Types of Synaptic Scaffold Protein Domains at Single Synapses” in the Journal of Neuroscience, work led by co-first authors Sarah Metzbower, PhD (a PIN alumnus), and Aaron Levy, PhD, Research Associate.
May 14, 2024
Multiple UM-MIND-associated faculty members were awarded funding from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) to support their research:
- Ivy E. Dick, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology. Project title: “Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Models for the Study and Treatment of CACNA1A Related Disorders”
- Miroslaw Janowksi, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine. Project title: “Computational Approach to In Vivo Genome Editing in the Brain”
- Xiaofeng Jia, BM, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurosurgery. Project title: “Developing and Improving Human Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicle Therapy for Brain Recovery After Cardiac Arrest”
- Yajie Kevin Liang, MB, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine. Project title: “Smart Intravital Multiphoton Imaging iPSC-Derived Cells Grafted into Ischemic Brain Assisted by Empowered Helper Cells”
- Iris Lindberg, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurobiology. Project title: “Neuroprotection by An Endogenous Chaperone in a Stem Cell Model of Parkinson’s Disease
- Graeme Woodworth, MD, BS, Howard M. Eisenberg, MD Distinguished Professor and Chair of Neurosurgery. Project title: “Mechano-Biological Analyses of Human Neural Stem Cells in Confined Microenvironments”
April 23, 2024
Researchers in the lab of Dudley Strickland, PhD, Professor, Department of Surgery, led by first author Joanna Cooper, PhD, Research Associate, published “SORL1 is a receptor for tau that promotes tau seeding” in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Their article was selected as a JBC “Editor’s Pick”, highlighting influential work, and was also featured on ALZFORUM.
April 16, 2024
Researchers in the laboratory of Thomas Blanpied, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology published “Differential nanoscale organization of excitatory synapses onto excitatory vs. inhibitory neurons” in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, work led by co-first authors Poorna Dharmasri, PhD (a PIN alumnus), and Aaron Levy, PhD, Research Associate.
April 12, 2024
Brian Mathur, PhD, Professor, Department of Pharmacology, was a co-corresponding author on “Pathological claustrum activity drives aberrant cognitive network processing in human chronic pain” which was published in Current Biology, work led by first author and PIN PhD candidate Brent Stewart.
March 19, 2024
Margaret McCarthy, PhD, James and Carolyn Frenkil Dean’s Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology, and Director, UM-MIND, was named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women per The Daily Record.
January 20, 2024
Kelly Westlake, PT, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, presented “Reactive Balance Control and Training in Parkinson’s Disease” at the Encompass Health 44th Annual Neurorehabilitation Conference.
December 22, 2023
Xiaofeng Jia, BM, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, was the corresponding author of “Metabolically Glycoengineered Neural Stem Cells Boost Neural Repair After Cardiac Arrest” published by the Jia Lab in Advanced Functional Materials.
Their study was also highlighted on the journal’s cover, featuring artwork by Tina Wang, MA, the Medical Illustrator for the Department of Neurosurgery & UM-MIND!
Read more about the study here.
December 6, 2023
Joseph Cheer, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurobiology, was elected as a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
November 29, 2023
Adam Puche, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Neurobiology, was recognized as Outstanding Mentor at the 46th Annual Medical Student Research Day.
November 1, 2023
Michael Anderson and Abigail Vigderman, PhD Candidates in the Program in Neuroscience (Blanpied and Longden labs, respectively) were selected for the President’s Entrepreneurial Fellowship (PEF)! This paid fellowship, led by the UM Ventures office, provides hands-on training and experience in commercializing health science discoveries made by UMB faculty, as the Fellows work together as an interdisciplinary team to bring several promising technologies to market. Congrats Mike and Abby!
October 12, 2023
Seth Ament, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Margaret McCarthy, PhD, James and Carolyn Frenkil Dean’s Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology, and Director, UM-MIND, were co-corresponding authors on “A single-cell genomic atlas for maturation of the human cerebellum during early childhood”, published in Science Advances as part of the BRAIN Initiative’s Cell Census Network (BICCN) collection.
Read more about their study here, or view the video below.
Dr. Ament was also corresponding author on another piece published in the collection: “Single-cell genomics reveals region-specific developmental trajectories underlying neuronal diversity in the human hypothalamus”, work led by first author Brian R. Herb, PhD, Research Associate, Department of Pharmacology, which was also published in Science Advances.
Read more about the BICCN Collection here.
October 1, 2023
Piotr Walczak, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, received a four-year, $1,259,544 grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs for “Image-Guided Intra-Arterial Delivery of Stem Cells to Repair Brain Damage After TBI.”