Research Education News

Exposure to toxic chemicals while in the womb or in early life may weaken a baby's immune system response to the tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, researchers say.

The study focused on two common toxins: PCBs, an industrial chemical; and DDT, used in pesticides. These so-called "persistent" pollutants are not easily broken down and remain a health threat years after being banned.

PCBs were banned in the United States in 1979. DDT is banned in the United States, but is still used in some countries to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes, the study authors, from the University of Rochester in New York, said in a university news release.

"There are thousands of pollutants similar to PCBs and DDT with unknown health implications," study leader Dr. Todd Jusko, assistant professor in the departments of environmental medicine and public health services, said in the news release. "Our work provides a foundation for how these types of chemicals affect the developing immune system in infants around the world."

Fetal exposure to two chemicals -- polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and DDE, a product of the breakdown of the insecticide DDT -- can dampen infants' immune response to the tuberculosis vaccine, according to a new study of mothers and children.

Both chemicals have been banned in many countries, including the United States, but are considered persistent pollutants, which pose health risks long after being introduced into the environment, can accumulate. The effects of such pollutants can pass between species through the food chain.

PCBs were used in manufacturing and consumer products in the United States until 1979, but most people have detectable PCB concentrations in their blood. DDT was banned in the United States in 1972, though many countries still use it to control the spread of malaria by mosquitoes.

There are thousands of pollutants similar to PCBs and DDT with unknown health implications, said Dr. Todd Jusko, an assistant professor at the University of Rochester, in a press release.

OyaGen, a small medical research firm off Jefferson Road in Henrietta, has used federal grants for its HIV drug discovery programs with the goal of finding a cure. Dr. Harold Smith, Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics at the University of Rochester, and the company's founder, president and CEO got his start as a molecular biologist studying heart disease.

"It became clear to me that the things we were doing to study heart disease and find out why things were happening translated directly into the HIV research arena," Smith said.

By 2010, things kicked into high gear. Advanced robotics were added allowing scientists to work with advanced chemistries. They've now identified a weak point in the HIV virus that's never been exploited before. Vif is a viral defense HIV releases into cells it infects. It destroys the body's natural defense against infections. OyaGen discovered a way to defeat HIV by disabling Vif.

"If we can proceed along track, we will be looking at entering clinical trials within a completely different way of approaching the virus and the disease within three years," Smith said.

Former Biochemistry graduate student and current Chair of Biology, Dr. Gloria Culver, will be formally installed as dean of the School of Arts & Sciences during an investiture ceremony at 4 p.m. today in the Interfaith Chapel on the River Campus.

University Trustee Ani Gabrellian ’84 will provide opening remarks, followed by words from Provost Peter Lennie, the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering. Mariette Westermann, vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Jon Lorsch, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, will serve as guest speakers. Following the ceremony, a reception will be held in the Hawkins-Carlson Room of Rush Rhees Library.

Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Genetics have unraveled one of the key molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell behavior, a discovery that could provide important insight into regenerative medicine and certain forms of cancer.

The study -- led by Benoit Biteau, Ph.D. -- appears in the journal Cell Reports, and was conducted in fruit flies, or drosophila. While diminutive in stature, fruit flies have proven to be an invaluable research tool and have made oversized contributions to medicine, particularly in the fields of molecular biology and genetics.

Benoit and his colleagues focused on a transcription factor called Sox21a which is uniquely found in the stem cells of the drosophila intestine. Transcription factors are proteins that control the expression of genes and, subsequently, help regulate cellular activity. Sox21a is the equivalent of Sox2, a transcription factor found in humans that is known to play an important role in the function of stem cells and cell reprogramming.

Anna Bird has received the Randy N. Rosier Award for public speaking ($1000 in travel funds received at the URMC CMSR Symposium 2015) and the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Trainee Abstract Award ($750 in travel funds for AAI New Orleans Conference, 2015).

Kerry O'Banion, M.D., Ph.D., has been awarded $1.8 million from NASA to study whether extended deep space travel places astronauts at risk for neuro-degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

The grant is one of nine announced by NASA that will fund research that employ beams of high-energy, heavy ions simulating space radiation. The studies will be conducted in part at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. By colliding matter together at very high speeds, the accelerators at Brookhaven can reproduce the radioactive particles found in space.

The studies will seek to better understand and reduce the risks to humans associated with long journeys in deep space, specifically focusing on neurological and cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Understanding the potential health impact of space travel is a priority for NASA as it develops future plans for maned voyages to Mars and other destinations.

University of Rochester Medical Center researcher Richard P. Phipps, Ph.D., won a top scientific award from the pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, to collaborate on a new obesity therapy based on his laboratory's discoveries.

Phipps, the Wright Family Research Professor of Environmental Medicine, is the first UR faculty to receive the competitive Novo Nordisk Diabetes and Obesity Biologics Science Forum Award. The drug company is providing substantial financial support for the two-year project, which is designed to quickly move basic science in diabetes and obesity to an early stage of drug development known as proof-of-principle.

Phipps discovered a new function for a protein known as Thy1 (formally called CD90), linking it to fat cell accumulation.

Congratulations to Nguyen Mai for winning first place for the poster competition at the 2015 APSA/Tri-Institutional MSTP Conference at SUNY Upstate in Syracuse, NY.

A new study appearing in the Journal of Neuroinflammation suggests that the brain's immune system could potentially be harnessed to help clear the amyloid plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

This research confirms earlier observations that, when activated to fight inflammation, the brain's immune system plays a role in the removal of amyloid beta, said M. Kerry O'Banion, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the University of Rochester Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, the Del Monte Neuromedicine Institute, and the lead author of the study. We have also demonstrated that the immune system can be manipulated in a manner that accelerates this process, potentially pointing to a new therapeutic approach to Alzheimer's disease.

The findings are the culmination of years of investigation that were triggered when O'Banion and his colleagues made a surprising discovery while studying mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. They observed that amyloid beta plaques -- which scientists believe play a major role in the disease -- were being cleared in animals with chronic brain inflammation.

Fatima has successfully defended her PhD thesis.

Congratulations Dr. Rivera-Escalera!!!

Monique was recognized at the 2014 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) for an outstanding poster/ oral presentation and was awarded an AHA/ASA Travel Award. This award is given to recognize promising and outstanding investigators in the early stages of their careers, and provide travel assistance to participate in the upcoming 2015 Scientific Sessions. Scientific Sessions is the American Heart Association's largest gathering of scientists and healthcare professionals devoted to the science of cardiovascular disease and stroke and the care of patients suffering from these diseases. It is the leading cardiovascular meeting in the country with over 17,000 professionals attending annually, and over 22,000 total attendees. Programming for this meeting is designed to improve patient care by communicating the most timely and significant advances in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease from many different perspectives. Sessions provides five days of comprehensive, unparalleled education through more than 4,000 presentations given by some of the world's top leaders in the areas of cardiovascular disease, as well as a chance to experience more than 300 exhibitors showcasing the latest cardiovascular technology and resources.

This year's Scientific Sessions will be held November 7th - 11th in Orlando, FL

Most of us at one time or another have counted the seconds between a lightning flash and its thunder to estimate distance. University researcher Duje Tadin and his colleagues have discovered that humans can unconsciously notice and make use of sound delays as short as 40 milliseconds (ms) to fine tune what our eyes see when estimating distances to nearby events.

Much of the world around us is audiovisual, says Tadin, Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and senior author of the study. Although humans are primarily visual creatures, our research shows that estimating relative distance is more precise when visual cues are supported with corresponding auditory signals. Our brains recognize those signals even when they are separated from visual cues by a time that is too brief to consciously notice.

For the study, published in PLOS ONE, researchers used projected three-dimensional (3D) images to test the human brain's ability to use sound delays to estimate the relative distance of objects.

For the entire story, visit the Univ. Rochester Newscenter.

On October 29, Dr. Lynne E. Maquat received a 2015 Canada Gairdner International Award, for her work discovering and elucidating the mechanism of mRNA decay pathways. Dr. Maquat was accompanied during presentation of the award by University of Rochester President Joel Seligman, Dean Mark Taubman, and the US Ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman (see photo). The sold out annual black tie gala took place at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada and was attended by members of the health care, academic, private and public sectors. Among the attendees were Nobel Laureate Dr. Phillip Sharp, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, and the Swiss and Japanese Ambassadors to Canada, who accompanied recipients of the Canada Gairdner International Award from those countries.

Leading up to this event, Dr. Maquat visited four local universities where she spoke to high school students about her personal story of how she became interested in research and what she hopes to achieve through her work. She also met with post-docs and graduate students at each university as well as speaking to faculty members about their research. Following the gala, Dr. Maquat attended and spoke at a 2015 Gairdner Symposium RNA and The New Genetics at the University of Toronto, which she helped coordinate. Her last event occurred at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton where she once again spoke to high school students On being a Scientist: Uncovering the mysteries of life and met with post-docs and graduate students about their research. Dr. Maquat took every opportunity to be part of the National Program, where the goal of these programs is to contribute to Canadian science culture and innovation, and to be part of the Student Outreach Programs where she helped realize one of the Gairdner Foundation's missions to inspire young people to consider a career in science, and to increase their awareness of the value of scientific research.

A local reception was also held to honor Dr. Maquat; pictures available here.

David R. Williams, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on human vision, has been named the recipient of Sigma Xi’s 2015 William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement. The prize is given annually since 1950 in recognition of outstanding achievement in scientific research and demonstrated ability to communicate the significance of this work to scientists in other disciplines. Past Procter Prize recipients have included Jane Goodall, Vannevar Bush, Margaret Mead, Murray Gell-Mann, and Rita Colwell.

He will be presented the Procter Prize at an evening ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 24 in Kansas City, during the scientific research society Sigma Xi’s annual meeting.

For the entire article, visit the Rochester NewsCenter.

LASIK revolutionized vision correction in the 1990s. Now, a new technology arising from research conducted by Wayne Knox, Professor of Optics and Physics; Krystel Huxlin, Professor of Ophthalmology; and Jonathan Ellis, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, may do the same, notes UR Ventures Technology Review.

Known as LIRIC (Laser Induced Refractive Index Change), this ground-breaking method also uses a laser to correct the optical properties of the eye, but that's where the similarities to LASIK end.

The older technology uses two lasers and includes cutting the cornea to create a flap and then pulling that flap back to expose the inner cornea. A laser is then applied to ablate and reshape the corneal tissue to achieve the desired focus. The corneal flap is repositioned and the healing process begins. Complications are rare, but as with any surgery, are a concern. Fear of complications and of having one's eye cut are big reasons why less than 2 percent of people who are eligible for LASIK undergo the procedure.

The LIRIC method uses a laser at a much lower power and does not cut or remove any tissue. Instead, it is a non-invasive procedure that alters the refractive index of the corneal tissue to correct vision. Since the procedure doesn't thin the cornea like LASIK, it may be repeated many times over the course of a patient's lifetime as the eye grows and changes.

This technology has been licensed to Clerio Vision, Inc., a local startup poised to bring this new treatment to market. Clerio was started by a team of entrepreneurs with proven track records - Mikael Totterman (VirtualScopics, iCardiac), Alex Zapesochny (Lenel, iCardiac), Scott Catlin (AMO, Abbott Medical Optics - and now with UR Ventures), and Sasha Latypova (VirtualScopics, iCardiac). The company successfully concluded an oversubscribed Series A round of fundraising with participation from three venture capital firms, and is considering a Series B round to further accelerate product and clinical development. They have proven efficacy in animal models and hydro-gels (contact lenses), and plan to conduct human studies early in 2016.

Congratulations to Taylor Moon and Kyle Koster for their award-winning presentations at two local scientific meetings. Taylor received the "Excellence in Scientific Presentation" award at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology Retreat on October 6th 2015. Kyle received the second place award for his poster at the American Physician Scientists Association Northeast Regional Meeting in Syracuse October 17th 2015. Taylor and Kyle are Microbiology and Immunology doctoral students in the Elliott Lab in the Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology.

Protease inhibitors are a class of antiviral drugs that are commonly used to treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center designed a new delivery system for these drugs that, when coupled with a drug developed at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, rid immune cells of HIV and kept the virus in check for long periods. The results appear in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.

While current HIV treatments involve pills that are taken daily, the new regimens' long-lasting effects suggest that HIV treatment could be administered perhaps once or twice per year.

Nebraska researcher Howard E. Gendelman designed the investigational drug delivery system--a so--called nanoformulated protease inhibitor. The nanoformulation process takes a drug and makes it into a crystal, like an ice cube does to water. Next, the crystal drug is placed into a fat and protein coat, similar to what is done in making a coated ice--cream bar. The coating protects the drug from being degraded by the liver and removed by the kidney.

When tested together with URMC--099, a new drug discovered in the laboratory of UR scientist Harris A. (Handy) Gelbard M.D., Ph.D., the nanoformulated protease inhibitor completely eliminated measurable quantities of HIV. URMC--099 boosted the concentration of the nanoformulated drug in immune cells and slowed the rate at which it was eliminated, thereby prolonging its therapeutic effect.

October 2015. Ann Dozer, Ph.D. was selected as one of 163 nurse leaders to be inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing for 2015. Academy fellows represent all 50 states, District of Columbia, and 24 countries and include government and hospital administrators, college deans, and renowned scientific researchers.

Barbara Iglewski, professor emeritus in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, will be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame this weekend. She is the third faculty member to be enshrined in Seneca Falls: Judith Pipher, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy, and Loretta Ford, founding dean of the School of Nursing, were inducted in 2007 and 2011, respectively.

The Brain with Dr. David Eagleman
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Join WXXI for a special preview screening of a new series that tells the story of the inner workings of the brain.

The Brain with Dr. David Eagleman, a new six one-hour series that explores the human brain in an epic series that reveals the ultimate story of us, why we feel and think the things we do, premieres on WXXI-TV in October 14th. But before it does, you can enjoy a sneak preview of the series on the big screen at The Little Theater (240 East Avenue) on Wednesday, September 30 at 7 p.m. The event is free, but seats are first come first served. WXXI is pleased to partner with the Rochester Museum & Science Center to bring you this screening, followed by a panel discussion featuring Liz.

For further information, please visit the WXXI website.

Humberto Mestre, M.D.

In 2014, Humberto was selected for the Latin America Training Program by the Society for Neuroscience and the International Brain Research Organization.

This program was formerly known as the Ricardo Miledi Neuroscience Training Program. The Program allowed 15 young scientists from Latin America and the Caribbean to attend a three week course where top faculty from across the region and North America provided the young scientists with lectures, lab exercises using cutting edge techniques, and training on vital professional development topics - one speaker was Dr. Deborah Cory-Slechta.

The completion of the year-long participation culminated with a travel grant to attend the Society for Neuroscience Meeting 2015 in Chicago, IL and to present science at the International Fellows Poster Session to be held on Saturday, October 17 from 6:30 pm-8:30 pm in Hall A of McCormick Place.

Hartmut "Hucky" Land, Ph.D., the Robert and Dorothy Markin Professor of Biomedical Genetics at the University of Rochester, received a newly established multimillion dollar award from the National Cancer Institute that supports exceptional scientists with seven years of uninterrupted funding.

The NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA) is in its inaugural year. It was designed to reward productive and influential researchers by giving them the freedom to pursue long-term goals without having to re-submit grants each cycle. He will continue to test a bold hypothesis that's been the cornerstone of his work for 30 years—that different cancers have many shared features, and understanding the common characteristics of cancer might unlock the next generation of targeted treatments.

"I feel very grateful and a bit humbled," said Land, director of research and co-director at UR Medicine's Wilmot Cancer Institute. "It's a wonderful affirmation of our focus on the common core of cancers and the work of our research team."

• Ania Majewska PhD - Outstanding Graduate Program Director
• John Olschowka PhD - 1st Year Teaching Special Commendation
• Martha Gdowski PhD - Gold Medal Teaching Award
• Nina Schor MD, PhD - Faculty Academic Mentoring Award

Congratulations All!!

MELVILLE A. HARE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN GRADUATE RESEARCH (MBI): Denise Skrombolas and Benson Cheng

MELVILLE A. HARE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN GRADUATE TEACHING (MBI): Jennifer Colquhoun

OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT TEACHER: Jim Miller, Ph.D.

EXCELLENCE IN POSTDOCTORAL MENTORING: Luis Martinez-Sobrido, Ph.D.

GRADUATE ALUMNI AWARD: Deborah Fowell, Ph.D.

OUTSTANDING T32 PROGRAM DIRECTOR: Stephen Dewhurst, Ph.D.

FIRST YEAR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING: Constantine Haidaris, Ph.D.

FACULTY MENTORING AWARD FOR BASIC SCIENCE: Minsoo Kim, Ph.D.

SPECIAL COMMENDATION FOR FIRST YEAR TEACHING: John Frelinger, Ph.D.

OUTSTANDING POSTDOCTORAL MENTOR AWARD: Aitor Nogales Gonzalez, Ph.D.

OUTSTANDING POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER AWARD: Eva-Stina Edholm, Ph.D.

Much like birds fly in flocks to conserve energy, dolphins swim in pods to mate and find food, and colonies of ants create complex nests to protect their queens, immune cells engage in coordinated behavior to wipe out viruses like the flu. That’s according to a new study published in the journal Science by researchers at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The findings reveal, for the first time, how immune cells work together to get to their final destination – the site of an injury or infection. The body is expansive and a virus or bacteria can take hold in any number of locations: the lungs, the throat, the skin, the stomach or the ear, just to name a few. How do immune cells, specifically the ones that are responsible for killing foreign invaders, know where to go?

Research performed by Associate Professor Alan Grossfield and colleagues into how a new class of drugs fights bacterial infections was highlighted in a recent Cosmos Magazine article. Dr. Grossfield's research was also recently highlighted in EurekaAlert!, an online magazine run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) would like to welcome Dr. Martha Susiarjo to URMC.

Dr. Martha Susiarjo applies her background in epigenetics to understanding whether epigenetic regulation of genes contributes to gene-environment interaction during early development. She joins us as Assistant Professor from the University of Pennsylvania, where she recently completed her postdoc studying environmental estrogens and regulation of imprinted genes (genes contributed by only one parent). Dr. Susiarjo employs a mouse model to understand the mechanism(s) by which environmental exposures -- obesogenic endocrine disrupting chemicals in particular -- during in utero development can shape the future health outcomes of the offspring. She hopes to identify mechanisms in order to better inform exposure prevention efforts.

Dr. Susiarjo looks forward to collaborating with center members to utilize her expertise in epigenetics, especially DNA methylation, in various models of environmental perturbations. She also hopes collaborative efforts can elucidate how nutritional intervention may provide protective effects on environment-induced developmental outcomes.

Most hearing aids on the market today are designed to mimic what happens in our inner ear - specifically the amplifying role of the outer hair cells.

However, the lab of Laurel Carney, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, is studying what happens beyond the inner ear - in the complex network of auditory nerve fibers that transmit the inner ear's electrical signals to the brain, and in the auditory center of the midbrain, which processes those signals.

Therein lies the key to creating hearing aids that not only make human speech louder but clearer, Carney believes.

An important focus of her research uses a combination of physiological and behavioral studies, and computer modeling, to study the 30,000 auditory nerve fibers on each side of our brain that transmit electrical signals from the inner ear. Critical to this is the initial transduction of mechanical energy to electrical signals that occurs in the inner hair cells of the inner ear's organ of Corti.

This is critical for shaping the patterning of responses in the auditory nerves, and the patterning of those responses at this first level, where the signal comes into the brain, has a big effect on the way the mid brain responds to the relatively low frequencies of the human voice, Carney explained.

In people with healthy hearing, the initial transduction results in a wide contrast in how various auditory nerve fibers transmit this information. The responses of some fibers are dominated by a single tone, or harmonic, within the sound; others respond to fluctuations that are set up by the beating of multiple harmonics, Carney said. In the mid brain, neurons are capable of assimilating this contrast of fluctuating and nonfluctuating inputs across varying frequencies. They begin the process of parsing out the sounds of speech and any other vocalizations that involve low frequencies. A better understanding of how this process works in the midbrain, Carney believes, could yield new strategies for designing hearing aids.

A lot of people have tried to design hearing aids based just on what is going on in the inner ear, but there's a lot of redundancies in the information generated there. We argue that you need to step back and, from the viewpoint of the midbrain, focus on what really matters. It's the pattern of fluctuations in the auditory nerve fibers that the midbrain responds to. The sort of strategies we're suggesting are not intuitive. The idea of trying to restore the contrast in the fluctuations across different frequency channels has not been tried before. The burden is on us to prove that it works, she added.

To that end, Carney works closely with Joyce McDonough, Professor of Linguistics, in exploring how auditory nerve fiber transmissions play a role in coding speech sounds. Her lab also works closely with that of Jong-Hoon Nam, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering, whose inner-ear studies were described in this newsletter last week. Carney shares what her lab is learning about the interface of auditory nerve fiber signaling with the brain, and in return, we try to include in our models a lot of the nonlinear properties of the inner ear that he (Nam) has been working on. By interacting with his lab, we hope to continue to modernize our model as he discovers more, Carney said.

The patent titled "Chimeric Fibronectin Matrix Mimetics and Uses Thereof" (US 9,072,706) has recently been assigned to the University of Rochester with inventors Denise C. Hocking, Ph.D. (Pharmacology and Physiology, BME, RCBU) and Daniel Roy, Ph.D. (BME PhD 2012 alumnus). The patent relates to a series of recombinant fibronectin peptide mimetics developed to promote wound repair. The technology falls under a new and exciting class of therapies known as wound biologics. The primary commercial application for this technology is to promote healing of hard-to-heal or chronic wounds, including diabetic, venous, and pressure ulcers, which impose a significant health care burden worldwide. Encouraging results from recent studies indicate that topical application of these fibronectin peptide mimetics to full-thickness excisional wounds in diabetic mice accelerates wound closure and promotes granulation tissue deposition, remodeling, and re-vascularization. Denise Hocking is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology and of Biomedical Engineering. Daniel Roy is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, TX.

Garrick Salois, 1st year student, is this year's recipient of the Irving L. Spar Fellowship Award.

Humberto Mestre, 1st year student, was awarded the Merritt and Marjorie Cleveland Fellowship.

Holly Beaulac, 1st year student, received this year's Graduate Alumni Fellowship Award.

Jenn Stripay, 5th year student, was selected to receive this year's Outstanding Student Mentor Award.

Congrats to all!

David Williams, Ph.D.

$500,000 prize for his transformative breakthrough in vision research

David Williams, widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts on human vision, has been named the 2015 recipient of the Beckman-Argyros Award in Vision Research. Williams pioneered the use of adaptive optics technologies for vision applications. He serves as the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics, director of the Center for Visual Science and dean for research in Arts, Science, and Engineering at the University of Rochester.

The award, bestowed by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, rewards an individual who has made transformative breakthroughs in vision research. Williams will receive a total of $500,000, along with a solid gold commemorative medallion.

It's an incredible honor for me to receive this award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, said Williams. He added that one aspect that made this award particularly special is that it allows our group to take risks.

Dr. Charles Duffy

A small company started by a neuroscientist at the University of Rochester has moved closer to providing doctors with what he says is a simple, computer-based tool to help detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia.

Cerebral Assessment Systems has received marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Cognivue, a cognitive-assessment tool that functions somewhat like a video game. A patient can perform the inexpensive and simple test while a time-strapped primary-care physician tends to other patients. The 10-minute, non--invasive examination can detect subtle lapses in the brain’s perceptual ability that may signal the early stages of mental decline caused by dementia.

The federal government's approval to market the device comes as Alzheimer's researchers everywhere step up the pursuit for easier and more inexpensive ways to identify dementia in its earliest stages.

Look, there is a late-life tsunami of late-life cognitive decline coming at us, and health-care providers are standing on the beach, said Charles J. Duffy, a neurology professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center who founded the company. What we are all about is making cognitive care part of primary care.

Read the article from the Washington Post.

The Program for Advanced Immune Bioimaging at the University of Rochester will host the 1st Annual Immune Imaging Symposium November 7th, 2015 from 8:30 am -- 5pm.

The free symposium will provide a forum where the newest developments in understanding immune function through visualizing immunity 'in action' will be shared and discussed. The goal of the symposium is to foster lively scientific discussion, exchange of ideas and future collaborations. We have an exciting program including a distinguished group of international speakers, an interactive poster session and opportunities for oral presentations from students and postdoctoral fellows.

For more information and to register, visit the Immune Imaging Symposium website.

Researchers at SUNY Stony Brook and The University of Rochester think so.

Sleeping in the lateral, or side position, as compared to sleeping on one’s back or stomach, may more effectively remove brain waste and prove to be an important practice to help reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases, according to researchers at Stony Brook University.

In the paper, “The Effect of Body Posture on Brain Glymphatic Transport,” Dr. Benveniste and colleagues used a dynamic contrast MRI method along with kinetic modeling to quantify the CSF-ISF exchange rates in anesthetized rodents’ brains in three positions – lateral (side), prone (down), and supine (up).

Dr. Benveniste and first-author Dr. Hedok Lee, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Radiology at Stony Brook developed the safe posture positions for the experiments. Their colleagues at the University of Rochester, including Lulu Xie, Rashid Deane and Maiken Nedergaard, PhD, used fluorescence microscopy and radioactive tracers to validate the MRI data and to assess the influence of body posture on the clearance of amyloid from the brains.

Great news from Environmental Medicine—its Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) core grant was recently renewed for the 41st straight year. The department ushered in the $7.5 million, five-year, EHSC award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (with a remarkable score of 12). She is also overseeing the setup of EHSC’s new epigenetics core facility. Funding for the Center began in 1975 and has been continuously supported by the NIH for costs related to infrastructure, career development, biostatistics, and to support collaborations across research departments at URMC.

Environmental Medicine also hired a new scientist with an interest in reproductive toxicity and epigenetics, a hot field concerned with investigating the environmental factors (such as the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A) that cause changes in gene expression across generations. Martha Susiarjo, Ph.D., completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and will join the UR as an assistant professor Sept. 1. She brings an NIH K99 award and expertise to the new epigenetics core facility.

The EHSC will celebrate 50 years of research with a two-day symposium Sept. 23-24, which will include a Science Café Series at the Pittsford Barnes & Noble, a poster session in Flaum Atrium, and a full slate of presentations at URMC from faculty and local civic leaders. Planning is under way; stay tuned for more details.

Researchers Pinpoint Brain's Audiovisual Processing Center

A new study is helping scientists more precisely understand how the brain stitches together sensory information such as sound and images, insight that could shed new light on conditions such as Autism. The research, which appears in the Journal of Neuroscience, identifies an area of the brain in the frontal lobe responsible for working memory and sensory integration.

Work in our laboratory is aimed at understanding how auditory and visual information are integrated since we know this process is crucial for recognizing objects by sight and sound, communicating effectively, and navigating through our complex world, said Lizabeth Romanski, Ph.D., an associate professor in the University of Rochester Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and co-author of the study.

Our recent study demonstrates that the prefrontal cortex plays an essential role in audiovisual working memory, and when this area is switched off our ability to remember both the auditory and visual cues is impaired, said Bethany Plakke, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Romanski lab and co-author of this study.

Infants can use their expectations about the world to rapidly shape their developing brains, researchers have found.

A series of experiments with infants 5 to 7 months old has shown that portions of babies' brains responsible for visual processing respond not just to the presence of visual stimuli, but also to the mere expectation of visual stimuli, according to researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of South Carolina.

That type of complex neural processing was once thought to happen only in adults—not infants—whose brains are still developing important neural connections.

We show that in situations of learning and situations of expectations, babies are in fact able to really quickly use their experience to shift the ways different areas of their brain respond to the environment, said Lauren Emberson, who conducted the study at the University of Rochester's Baby Lab while a research associate with Richard Aslin in the department of brain and cognitive sciences.

Laurel Carney, a professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been recognized for her work by the premier scientific organization in the field of acoustics. The Acoustical Society of America has awarded Carney the William and Christine Hartmann Prize in Auditory Neuroscience.

It's truly a great honor to receive an award created by Bill and Christine Hartmann, two of my role models, said Carney. I welcome the challenge to emulate their life of discovery, presentation, publication, service, and education throughout the world.

William and Christine Hartmann established the award with a donation to recognize and honor research that links auditory physiology with auditory perception or behavior in humans or other animals. William Hartmann is a physicist, psychoacoustician, and former president of the Acoustical Society of America. His contributions to the field involved pitch perception, signal detection, modulation detection, and the localization of sound.

In her research lab, Carney is working to better understand how the brain translates sounds into patterns of electrical impulses. By studying physiology, human hearing, and computer models, Carney hopes to learn how the brain distinguishes sounds in noisy environments and why even a small degree of hearing loss can lead to major problems. Her ultimate goal is to develop effective strategies to help people who have experienced hearing loss.

Carney earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University and professor of biomedical engineering at Syracuse University before joining the faculty at the University of Rochester in 2007, where she serves as professor in three departments—biomedical engineering, neurobiology and anatomy, and electrical and computer engineering.

Ruchira Singh, Ph.D.

University of Rochester Medical Center scientist Ruchira Singh, Ph.D., received a grant from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation to investigate how neurodegenerative diseases, such as juvenile Batten disease, cause blindness.

Singh, assistant professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Genetics, will use the $60,000 grant to create a human model of Batten disease (CNL3) using patient’s own cells. The project may lead to better understand the disease mechanisms, aiding in the development of drug therapies to preserve vision in affected patients.

For the complete article, visit the URMC newsroom.

Dr. Jonathan Mink

Jonathan Mink, M.D., Ph.D., chief of Child Neurology at Golisano Children’s Hospital, is the first recipient of the Tourette Association of America’s Oliver Sacks Award for Excellence. The award, named for the famous British neurologist, was to be presented at the First World Congress on Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders, but due to a scheduling conflict, representatives from TAA instead traveled to Rochester to present him with the award in a surprise ceremony.

The award is in recognition of his many years of leadership, mentorship, research, and care on behalf of all people touched by Tourette syndrome and tic disorders around the world.