Upcoming Seminars

• 14Feb

  "Metabolic Control of Methylation Alters Llipogenesis and Responses to Stress" by Amy Walker

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Thurl Harris, Amy K. Walker, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA The Walker lab uses worms, cells and mice to study how metabolites like the methyl-donor SAM or the methylated phospholipid PC regulate gene expression, the activity of the lipogenic transcription factor SREBP-1 and how bacterial metabolites can affect lipid accumulation in multicellular animals.

• 28Feb

  "Phospholipase A2, Lipidomics, and Lipid Mediators in Inflammation" by Edward Dennis

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Ku-Lung(Ken) Hsu, Edward Dennis, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Chemistry & Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA The Dennis laboratory is leading the national NIGMS LIPID MAPS Glue Grant Consortium which is developing LC/MS based lipidomics analysis to map the lipidome by detecting and quantizing the numerous molecular species of lipids in the murine macrophage. We are determining the lipid changes upon cell stimulation by various agonists such as TLR receptor agonists. Our laboratory is focused on identifying the known and discovering new fatty acids and eicosanoid metabolites (prostaglandins and leukotrienes) in these cells and using LC/MS to follow their production upon cell stimulation and determining lipid metabolite fluxes at the cellular level.

• 07Mar

  Pharmacology Seminar by Savraj Grewal

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Michelle Bland, Savraj Grewal is an Associate Professor in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Grewal lab is a member of the Clark Smith Center, a Brain Tumor Research Program at the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute in Calgary, Alberta. The lab are also members of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Calgary. Research focus: Studying the control of growth Understanding how cells grow and divide is a fundamental problem in biology. During animal development the proper regulation of cell growth is essential for controlling organ and organism size. While in cancer, deregulated cell growth is often an early event in tumor formation. We use a combination of molecular and genetic approaches to study cell, tissue and body growth, using Drosophila as a model system.

• 28Mar

  Pharmacology Seminar by Huiping Zhou

  Where: Pinn 1-17
  Hosted by Kevin Lynch, Huiping Zhou, PhD, is a Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA Research Focus: S1PRs, Immunology and Diabetes

• 04Apr

  "Secrets and Lyase: New Roles of S1P in the Immune System" by Susan Schwab

  Where: Pinn 1-17
  Hosted by Kevin Lynch, Susan R. Schwab is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, Skirball Institute, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY Schwab Lab studies lymphocyte migration, with an emphasis on three questions: What determines how long a lymphocyte stays in a given location--surveying for antigens or fighting infection--before it moves on? How are the gradients that direct immune cell migration established? How do the trafficking requirements of normal and leukemic T cells differ, and can these differences be targeted therapeutically? Much of our focus has been on how the residence time of T cells in lymphoid organs is determined. We have established that a gradient of the signaling lipid sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) is required to guide T cells out of lymphoid organs. We have also identified many of the key cells and enzymes that control this gradient, and we have developed novel tools to map it. Future work will assess how S1P gradients are regulated during an immune response.

• 11Apr

  Pharmacology Seminar by Sayeepriyadarshini (Sayee) Anakk

  Where: Pinn 1-17
  Hosted by Irina Bochkis, Sayeepriyadarshini "Sayee" Anakk, is an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL The Annak Lab focuses on understanding liver metabolism in normal and diseased state. It's goal is to investigate how bile acids and nuclear receptors maintain metabolic homeostasis, and contribute to liver diseases, including cancer using cell-based systems and genetically engineered mouse models. Liver is a major organ that regulates metabolism of triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, amino acids, heme, xenobiotics and many more substances. One of the salient features of the liver is to make bile! Bile acids are amphiphilic detergents synthesized in liver to facilitate absorption of dietary lipids. Biliary homeostasis is critical and defects/dysfunctions in this pathway lead to several liver diseases including liver cancer.

• 25Apr

  Pharmacology Seminar by Nigel Pedersen

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Steve Abbott, Nigel Pederson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. In the Pedersen Epilepsy and Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, we study the systems neuroscience of wakefulness and epilepsy in humans and animal models. There are two main streams of research. The first centers on the neurobiological basis of consciousness and the underlying wake-sustaining mechanisms upon which it depends (1-6); another group of projects examines brain networks in epileptic seizures, including the modulatory effects of sleep-wake circuits and networks through which seizures propagate. We study large-scale brain circuits underlying wakefulness and sleep. Using a variety of genetically encoded technologies in mice, we have recently described a new component of the brain circuit that maintains wakefulness, the supramammillary hypothalamus (3). This region exerts control over both the hippocampal network (important for certain kinds of memory formation) as well as the wake network and cerebral cortex. A unique and interesting feature of this neuronal group is the presence of a subpopulation of neurons that we described to release both inhibitory GABA and excitatory glutamate on to a key population of hippocampal neurons - dentate granule cells (3). These neurons are sparsely firing neurons that...

• 09May

  Brain Initiative and Beyond-Neuroscience Funding Priorities from the NIH" by Edmund Talley

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Pharmacology (Douglas Bayliss) , NGP/Neuroscience and the Brain Institute, Edmund Talley, PhD, is the Program Director, Channels, Synapses and Circuits, NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Bethesda, MD Edmund (Ned) Talley joined the NINDS in 2005 as a Program Director for Channels, Synapses and Circuits. His program at the NINDS is focused on basic research in synaptic transmission and neuromodulation. Dr. Talley received his Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of Virginia, where he studied the physiology and pharmacology of motor neurons involved in respiration. After his Ph.D., he remained at UVA as a Research Assistant Professor, and initiated investigations into the CNS functions of two-pore-domain potassium channels, with an emphasis on their modulation by neurotransmitters and clinically important drugs. His work on these channels included extensive mapping of their CNS expression patterns, identification of molecular bases for their modulation using mutational and biochemical analyses, and investigations into their functions in vivo by generating knockout mouse lines.