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!

Kyeesha Becoats, our former lab technician, has completed her Master degree, and is moving into Medical School. She recently received her 'white coat' to begin her next steps at SUNY Stony Brook Medical School. Congratulations!

Does being an adult have benefits in terms of weathering late effects of stress? Beatriz (Betty) Guerrero spent the summer with us looking (and waiting) for the answer to this question. She stressed adult rats to see if they had similar or different behavioral effects compared to animals that had received the same exposure as adolescents. She'll present results on in the Summer Scholars Poster Session, Thursday August 4^th, MRB Atrium, at 9:30-11:30 AM. Her poster is entitled: Is Adulthood a 'Stress Sensitive' Period in Rats?

Danielle deCampo passed her Qualifying Exams on June 21, 2011, proposing continued work on a unique project that combines microarray techniques, in situ hybridization, and tract tracing studies. Preliminary data for her project The Paralaminar Nucleus of the Amygdala: Substrate for Effects of Early Life Stress was supported through a Pilot studies grant through the Center for Translational Studies Institute at the URMC, and involves collaborations with laboratories in Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Nashville. Congratulations!!

We are happy to have Beatriz ‘Betty’ Guerrero from the University of Puerto Rico and Ben Berg from Allegheny College, Pennsylvania in the laboratory this summer. Betty is part of the Summer Graduate Education in Biomedical Sciences (GEBS) program, and Ben is increasing his skills in wet lab work.

After completing two years in the laboratory collecting a significant amount of preliminary data, Michele passed her Qualifying Exams in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy on June 7, 2011. Her mom, dad, sister Rachel, and fiancé Eric joined us for a celebration lunch. Congratulations, Michele!

Who knew? Dan Tylee, our technician by day, also volunteers during the evening at Golisano's Children's Hospital. On his first night as a volunteer, Dan caught the staff’s attention for his kindness and attentiveness to a child enduring a very long hospitalization. Way to go!

Kyeesha Becoats our former laboratory technician has completed the first semester of her MS-MD Program at SUNY Stony Brook. Kyeesha's first semester GPA was an impressive 3.75! Keep up the great work Kyeesha!

MSTP student Youngsun Cho was the recipient of an NIMH-sponsored Travel Award to this year's American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida, in December. In an unexpected twist, she graciously stepped in to present data for our panel entitled, How Does Anxiety Take Hold? Anatomical and Functional Connectivity in Adolescents and Adults, organized by Drs. Monique Ernst and Julie Fudge. Earlier in the meeting, Youngsun also presented a poster of recent work collected and analyzed during her NIMH 'mini-sabbatical'. She is examining the functional connectivity of prefrontal-amygdala-striatal circuits in adolescents and adults, and her presentation was entitled Neural Differences in Adolescents and Adults in Response to Monetary Anticipation.

We're looking forward to having Youngsun back in Rochester during the month of February!

Youngsun Cho, a first year MSTP student in the Fudge Lab was recently awarded a Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F30) for three years of training. Youngsun's proposed studies involve examining circuitry that may underlie modulation of approach behavior in anxious adolescents. She will first detail connections between specific regions of the prefrontal cortex the amygdala in animals, based on her work in Rochester. This data will then be used to design studies investigating functional connectivities between these regions in anxious adolescents. The latter studies are being conducted in partnership with Dr. Monique Ernst at the NIMH intramural program.

Kyeesha Becoats, our star laboratory technician and all-around lab team member is on her way to medical school at SUNY Stony Brook this fall. The program is a five year one in which Kyeesha will earn an MS and her MD. Since graduating from UR with a BS in Biology, Kyeesha has been single-handedly running the lab, participating in Journal club as a regular member, and co-authoring a paper with us. We’ll miss her but look forward to great things!

Youngsun Cho, an MD/PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Julie Fudge, leaves to begin "mini-sabbatical" training in functional MRI and studies in anxious adolescents at with colleagues at NIMH. Youngsun is interested in structural and functional brain connections that influence reward and punishment anticipation in adolescents, and she will take anatomical studies from the laboratory to the next phase of her training with Dr. Monique Ernst in the Section on Mood and Anxiety Disorders at NIMH.

Michele Saul (NBA graduate student) and Dan Tylee (undergraduate assistant) each won first prize honors at the 8^th Annual Collier Mental Health Poster Session, sponsored by the Department of Psychiatry. Michele presented new work on the effects of stress on amygdala development in adolescent animals. Dan's showed that a coping behavior during stress ameliorates subsequent anxiety behavior in adult animals.

Danielle deCampo, an MD/PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Julie Fudge, has won a URMC CTSI Travel Award. Danielle will now be able to pursue training opportunities in performing laser capture microscopy and microarray analysis with collaborators at University of Pittsburgh. This is an opportunity to add to her "technical toolbox" as she tries to characterize specific neuronal populations that may play a role in mood disorders.

Julie Fudge, M.D., Associate Professor of Neurobiology & Anatomy and Psychiatry has co-authored an article in Nature Reviews Neuroscience with Walter Kaye and Martin Paulus. Fudge's lab studies the anatomy and neurochemistry of brain regions associated with symptoms in major psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and mood disorders.

A report in the Washington Post cites Dr. Julie Fudge's comments that some people, thanks to their genes, are more susceptible to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder than others.

Crystal McClain, an undergraduate Neuroscience student in the laboratory of Dr. Julie Fudge has received her BS with research distinction.