Sen. Conrad to greet participants at UND Neuroscience Symposium

The nationally recognized Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) neuroscience group at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences is hosting a neuroscience symposium titled “Building Better Brains,” which will be held at the Memorial Union Oct. 14–15. Senator Kent Conrad will greet the participants of the Friday, Oct. 15, session at 9:45 a.m.

The COBRE neuroscience group is led by Jonathan D. Geiger, chair of Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics, and interim chair of Anatomy and Cell Biology. This is the sixth neuroscience symposium since the group received initial grant funding from the National Center for Research Resources, a division of the National Institutes of Health, in 2002.

Members of the COBRE grant’s external advisory board, themselves extremely well-known neuroscientists, will attend the symposium and provide welcome feedback to the UND group.

“This is an excellent opportunity for all of us to learn from each other with the expressed interest in discovering underlying causes of and possible treatments for a number of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury and epilepsy” Geiger said.

The symposium will highlight the work conducted at UND as well as the work of three highly regarded neuroscientists from across the country. The researchers will discuss their work on Alzheimer’s disease, Down’s syndrome, epilepsy, neural repair, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and stroke.

Frank M. LaFerla is Chancellor’s Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior and director of the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (MIND) at the University of California–Irvine. The goal of the institute, according to its website, is “Adding life to years . . . by enhancing the quality of life for the elderly by identifying factors and lifestyles that promote successful aging.” In recent years, LaFerla has been at the forefront of research into understanding Alzheimer’s disease, which he will address in his talk, “Animal Models of Alzheimer’s Disease: Translational Successes and Challenges.”

Roxanne A. Vaughan is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. At UND, she investigates how the human body’s self-regulatory systems affect dopamine transport. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain that plays important roles in behavior and cognition. Her research is important in addressing Parkinson’s disease and drug abuse. She will discuss “Homeostatic Mechanisms in Regulation of Dopamine Transport.”

John R. Sladek is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Neurology at the University of Colorado–Denver. He is a leader in neural repair and regeneration. Since 1974, he has maintained a laboratory funded by the National Institutes of Health, studying neural repair mechanisms for Parkinson’s disease and Down’s syndrome. Sladek will speak about “Stem Cell Therapeutics for the Brain.”

For more information, please see the Neuroscience Symposium web site at www.neuroscience.und.edu/symposium/. Registration for the symposium is now closed.

— Denis MacLeod, assistant director, Office of Alumni and Community Relations, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 777-2733, denis.macleod@med.und.edu.