News

Michele, an NBA graduate student in the Fudge Lab, has just received a stipend to travel to New Orleans and present her work entitled, Differential numbers of bromodeoxyuracil (BrdU) positive cells in the amygdala of normal adolescent and young adult rats. This work shows that cell proliferation is one mechanism of plasticity in the rat amygdala, and that it occurs at a higher rate in young animals.

Congratulations to Danielle, who is in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), for receiving NIMH Fellowship support for her project, An Extended Amygdala Path with Implications for Early Life Stress. Using a variety of techniques, Danielle is examining a pathway through the amygdala that appears plays a role in development of stress responses and is affected by early life stress. Her project is an outgrowth of collaborations with Dr. Judy Cameron (University of Pittsburgh) and Dr. Karoly Mirnics (Vanderbilt University), and previous support of the URMCCTSI Pilot Program.

Danielle has won a highly competitive travel award to the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). This meeting brings together basic and clinical scientists in the field of psychiatric research, and is a wonderful opportunity to see the latest work in the field. Congrats!

Youngsun Cho successfully defended her thesis entitled, Defining Limbic Subsystems: Examining a Functional Reward Network and Cortico-Amygdala-Striatal Anatomic Circuits, on June 11, 2012. She is now off to complete her fourth year of medical school, and life beyond. Very best wishes!

Nanette Alcock, Lab Tech IV, joined our laboratory in May, bringing a wealth of expertise in histology and animal care. Her organizational skills keep us humming along.

Dan Tylee, the ‘go-to’ guy in our laboratory for the last two years will be attending the Medical Scientist Training Program at SUNY Upstate Medical Center. Congratulations to Dan whose many accomplishments include being a ‘Strong Star’, co-publishing a paper on how ‘coping with stress’ influences rodent behavior and corticosterone, organizing a TED conference, and getting pretty good at soccer. Join us in wishing Dan well!

We will be having two undergraduates joining the lab this summer: Ben Berg (Allegheny College) and Hannah Bazarian (University of Rochester). Both are exploring options for future studies in Neuroscience. Projects to be determined!

Youngsun’s recent abstract is one of 35 selected (from among 800 submissions) for the Society for Biological Psychiatry’s Top Poster award. Her poster, entitled The Functional Stations of the Amygdala, Based on Cortico-Amygdala-Striatal Circuits, will be presented on May 5, 2012 at the meeting in Philadelphia. The theme of this year’s meeting is Systems Neuroscience: Application to Psychiatric Illness. Congratulations and good luck!