It is my pleasure to provide a description of this year’s proceedings of the M. R. Bauer Foundation Colloquium Series, Scientific Retreat, and Distinguished Guest Lecturer Series at Brandeis University’s Volen National Center for Complex Systems. The foundation has supported these activities for thirteen years, and your generosity has allowed the Volen Center to present emerging knowledge in the rapidly evolving field of neuroscience to a broad audience in the scientific community. In the 2006–2007 academic year, we had the privilege of organizing outstanding and informative lectures and informal interactions that showcased leading-edge research in neuroscience. On behalf of my colleagues at Brandeis University, I would like to express our extreme gratitude to the M. R. Bauer Foundation for its long-standing commitment to the Volen Center and neuroscience at Brandeis.
The 2006–2007 M. R. Bauer Colloquium Series included eight scientists who are highly regarded for their work in neuroscience and who conduct innovative research at prestigious universities, medical schools, and research institutes. S. Murray Sherman, PhD, chairman of the Department of Neurobiology, Pharmacology, and Physiology at the University of Chicago, spoke on the topic “The Role of the Thalamus.” Dr. Sherman’s laboratory studies issues of thalamic functional organization and thalamocortical relationships. Dr. Sherman and his colleagues use a broad interdisciplinary approach, attempting to answer the same or closely related questions with several different techniques that involve neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and behavioral methods. Adrian Bird, PhD, of the Wellcome Trust Center for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh, delivered a talk on “DNA Methylation and Disease.” The talk focused on Rett Syndrome (a severe inherited neurological disorder that affects girls), and whether it is irreversible. Dr. Bird’s research group is interested in the structure and function of the mammalian genome, and in particular the role of DNA methylation. The third Bauer Colloquium speaker was Gordon Fain, PhD, Department of Physiological Science at UCLA. Dr. Fain discussed “Light, Calcium, and the Death of Photoreceptors.” This talk featured his laboratory’s research on calcium as a second messenger in photoreceptor adaptation. David Lewis, MD, director of the Translational Neuroscience Program at the University of Pittsburgh, discussed the pathogenesis of schizophrenia in his talk “Dissecting the Disease Process of Schizophrenia: the Role of Cortical GABA Neurons.” The Translational Neuroscience Program aims to understand the neurobiological basis for complex human cognitive and emotional functions. The program also examines the manner in which alterations in the brain give rise to the types of disturbances in these functions that characterize certain psychiatric disorders.
The fifth Bauer Colloquium speaker was Larry Benowitz, PhD, director, Laboratories for Neuroscience at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The title of Dr. Benowitz’s talk was “Rewiring the CNS after Injury,” and he spoke about the implications of spinal cord injury, stroke, and damage to the optic nerve. He noted that, when properly stimulated, mature CNS neurons can switch into an active state and regenerate their axons in vivo. Dr. Benowitz’s research focuses on restoring nerve function lost as a consequence of stroke or injury. Julie Kauer, PhD, Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology at Brown University, presented on “LTP at GABAergic Synapses in the Reward Pathway.” Dr. Kauer’s laboratory focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms involved in information storage and modulation of excitability in the brain, using electrophysiological techniques in brain slices. These efforts are concentrated in two brain regions: the hippocampus and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The final colloquium speaker was Mark Bear, PhD, Picower Professor of Neuroscience and director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. Dr. Bear is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He discussed “Mechanisms for Visual Cortical Plasticity,” offering insights on how synapses in the brain change and on identifying general principles of cortical plasticity. Dr. Bear’s laboratory seeks to understand how synapses in the cerebral cortex are modified by experience.
Now in its ninth year, the M. R. Bauer Distinguished Guest Lecturer Series included two elite scientists, Richard Tsien and Tobias Bonhoeffer, who came to campus for extended visits. Richard Tsien, PhD, Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology in the School of Medicine at Stanford University, spoke on the topic “Deciphering Fundamental Units of Neural Communication.” Dr. Tsien’s laboratory studies how the location and identity of presynaptic calcium channels are regulated. Voltage-gated Ca2+ channels provide the critical link between the firing of a presynaptic nerve terminal and its release of neurotransmitters. The Ca2+ channels must be positioned very close to sites of vesicle fusion, and they come in diverse forms with distinct activity dependence; responsiveness to GABA, dopamine, acetylcholine, and other neuromodulators; and susceptibility to neurological disorders such as migraine, ataxia, or dystonia. Dr. Tsien’s working hypothesis involves molecular “slots” for particular types of channels. Slots regulate the mix of channel types and also help explain how defective channels might displace normal ones in genetically dominant disorders. Tobias Bonhoeffer, PhD, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, focused his presentation on “How Activity Changes Synapses in the Mammalian Brain.” Dr. Bonhoeffer’s laboratory investigates the fundamental principles of synaptic plasticity at a number of different levels, ranging from molecular approaches to studies of the intact nervous system. Recent results from his lab have shown that synaptic plasticity is accompanied by structural changes of dendritic spines. They have demonstrated the importance of neurotrophins in synaptic plasticity and have revealed the detailed structure of functional maps in the visual cortex.
The 2007 Volen Center Scientific Retreat focused on “Expanding Horizons” and took place at the Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts. The event was attended by some one hundred faculty members, staff members, and students, including visitors from other institutions. Five emerging young scientists from Brandeis University spoke about topics that ranged from cryo-electron tomography to human behavior. Daniela Nicastro, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, discussed the principle of electron tomography and this concept’s limitations, in her talk “The New Ice Age: Cryo-Electron Tomography.” Douglas Theobald, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry, presented ongoing research that involves superpositioning of biological structures in his presentation “Procrustes Meets Theseus: Maximun Likelihood Superpositions.” In addition, Michael Hagan, PhD, assistant professor of physics, focused on dynamical processes in organisms, as well as what features of capsid proteins make virus assembly robust. His talk was titled “Dynamical Pathway for Viral Capsid Assembly.” Paul Garrity, PhD, associate professor of biology, provided an insightful presentation, “Feeling the Heat: Thermosensory Behavior in Drosophila,” on the molecular mechanisms by which animals detect temperature and on how animals have evolved sophisticated thermosensory systems. The final talk was given by Angela Gutchess, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, on “Memory Specificity with Age.” Dr. Gutchess spoke about her research regarding the effect of age and adult aging on memory and cognition.
The Brandeis and broader scientific communities have greatly benefited from the M. R. Bauer Foundation programs. In the past thirteen years, the colloquium and scientific retreat have drawn eminent neuroscientists who share the results of their cutting-edge research with students and faculty alike. The M. R. Bauer Distinguished Guest Lecturer Series, over the past nine years, has included internationally respected scientists who are promoting discussion and exchange of ideas to advance the study of neuroscience. The publication of these proceedings is a critical component of the Volen Center’s attempts to encourage scientific collaboration and conversation. I would like to extend my deep appreciation—and that of my colleagues—to the M. R. Bauer Foundation.
Arthur Wingfield, PhD
Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Neuroscience and
Director, Volen National Center for Complex Systems
