Category: Seminars

Graeme Mason will speak on “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Brain Metabolism of Glucose, Acetate, and Ethanol” at 3:30pm Thursday, December 3 in Room 175 of the Paul D. Coverdell Center.

Dr. Graeme Mason develops experimental models and methods for studies of brain metabolism using 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry in conjunction with 13C isotopic labeling invivo, in cell preparations, and other systems. His work began during his graduate studies at Yale where he used a rat model for the experimental determination of brain glucose transport kinetics, energetics, and neurotransmitter metabolism. Dr. Mason received further training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he guided the group’s 13C-labeling studies of the human brain in vivo in the 4.1T whole-body MR system.

Dr. Mason currently studies metabolism and neurotransmission in the brain in vivo, including effects of psychiatric disorders and substances such as alcohol and nicotine. Dr. Mason examines healthy subjects and patients to investigate relationships among GABA, glutamate, and glutamine concentrations and their rates of synthesis and release in the brain, in particular with regard to effects of alcohol with acute and chronic use.

This seminar is co-sponsored by the Neuroscience Division of the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute as well as The Paul D. Coverdell Neuroimaging Training Program & Fellowship from the John and Mary Franklin Foundation.

If you are faculty member interested in meeting with Dr. Mason during his trip, please complete this Doodle Poll: http://doodle.com/poll/4w5tcduz67tuv2da or contact Dr. Jesse Schank.

Speaker: Paul Katz, PhD

Distinguished University Professor, Neuroscience Institute
Director, Center for Neuromics
Georgia State University

Paul Katz presents, “The Evolution of Swimming Behaviors and their Neural Circuits in Nudibranch Sea Slugs” on May 7, 2015 at 2:00pm in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Main Building, Room 311.

Paul S Katz graduated from Northwestern University in 1982 and received his PhD in 1989 from Cornell University, where he worked on the stomatogastric ganglion of crabs in the laboratory of Dr Ronald Harris-Warrick. He began his work on nudibranchs as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston in collaboration with Dr William Frost. He moved to Georgia State University in 1997, where he is currently a Distinguished University Professor in the Neuroscience Institute and Director of the Center for Neuromics. He served as Co-director for the Neural Systems and Behavior course at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA, as Associate Editor for the Journal of Neurophysiology, and as President of the International Society for Neuroethology.

About Dr.Katz’s Research
Research is focused on understanding how neuronal circuits operate.Sea slugs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Heterobranchia, Nudipleura) are primarily used because they have fairly simple brains and simple behaviors. Katz works out the neural mechanisms for these behaviors at the cellular level. Furthermore, because there are many species with similar nervous systems, the results can be compared to the neural circuits in these species to learn about the evolution of neural circuits and behavior.

Sponsored By: University of Georgia Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute

Speaker: Susan Fagan, PhD
Assistant Dean, College of Pharmacy, Georgia Regents University

Dr. Fagan presents, “Angiogenesis as a target for recovery after stroke” on April 2, 2015 at 2:00pm in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Main Building, Room 311.

Dr. Susan Fagan has been a professor of pharmacy at the University of Georgia and adjunct professor of neurology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia since 1999. In 2007, she became associate department head and assistant dean for the UGA pharmacy program at MCG. In August of 2008, Dr. Fagan was appointed Albert W. Jowdy Professor of Pharmacy Care.

About Dr. Fagan’s Research
The next five years will be focused on determining the mechanisms of accomplishing vascular protection after acute ischemic stroke and the impact of vascular protection on functional outcome. The specific goals are:to determine the contribution of acute blood pressure lowering to recovery after ischemic stroke; to determine the impact of vascular protection on neuronal survival; to determine the contribution of premorbid vascular health to recovery after ischemia and reperfusion.

Sponsored By: University of Georgia Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute

Join us for a public lecture by  Brett Clementz, PhD, Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Georgia.

February 5, 2015 @ 2:00pm
College of Veterinary Medicine Main Building,
Room 311
University of Georgia, Athens, GA

About Dr. Clementz’s Research
Understanding neural circuitries that support sensory processing as a function of context in both health and disease. This involves discerning how neural activities in a “controlled” system (e.g. sensory cortices) are influenced by a “controlling” system (e.g. prefrontal cortex). With EEG, MEG, and eye movement paradigms, this work investigates sensory registration, ability to bias sensory input given situational demands, attentional selection, and ability to appropriately manipulate sensory information to select context-appropriate responses. Primary focus is deviations in brain functioning associated with psychosis.

This seminar is a apart of the Neuroscience Spring 2015 Seminar Series.  For more information, contact Jesse Schank at jschank@uga.edu.

Sponsored by University of Georgia Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute