University of
Delaware studies on the effects of traumatic stress in women and how
connections in the brain help adults control their impulses are two of
the projects supported by a new federal grant to the Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research.
The five-year, $10.9 million grant from the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) will support the continued work of the center, which is a
partnership between the University of Delaware and Delaware State
University (DSU), where it is housed.
The center was established in 2012 through a similar NIH grant to the
Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at DSU, which is the
lead institution. With that Phase I grant completed last year, the new
funding for Phase II will continue to 2022.
Researchers at UD and DSU have worked on a variety of projects
through the center, developing the states capabilities in advanced
brain imaging and training graduate students in neuroscience.
During the second phase of the grant, investigators expect to use
non-invasive imaging techniques to explore brain function in living
humans and laboratory animals.
The overarching goal of our neuroscience center is to bring together
and support neuroscientists working at multiple scales, from human
subjects to rodent and invertebrate models, to improve our understanding
of the dynamic function of the brain, said Melissa Harrington, DSU
professor of biology and director of the Center for Neuroscience.
Jeffrey Rosen, professor of psychological and brain sciences at UD
and co-principal investigator with Harrington of the grant, said the
center will build on the success its already had and expand its reach.
Five years ago, our goal was to mentor young faculty [in the
beginning stages of their research] and build interactions and
collaborations, he said. For Phase II, the focus is still on support
for junior faculty but also on facilitating infrastructure development.
Funding in the second phase will help new faculty members prepare to
pursue grant funding to establish their individual research programs,
and will support the purchase of research instrumentation for UDs Center for Biomedical and Brain Imaging.
Investigators who will be part of Phase II are Michael Gitcho and Y.
Hwan Kim, in DSUs Department of Biological Sciences, and Dayan Knox and
Naomi Sadeh, in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at UD.
Knox conducts research on the effects of traumatic stress on women,
who are more likely than men to develop anxiety disorders after exposure
to such stress.
He uses a rat modelwhere the impact of stress tends to be the
opposite from humans, with a stronger effect in males than femalesto
try to understand how different ovarian hormone cycles can confer
resilience or susceptibility to stress.
Sadeh examines how the brain allows individuals to control their
impulses in challenging situations, such as times of strong negative
emotions and mental fatigue, when self-control can be difficult. Her
research seeks to understand how different regions of the brain work
together in networks to promote this self-control.
The results of the research, Sadeh said, could be used to pinpoint
what goes wrong with these brain connections in cases of mental illness
and harmful behavior such as violence and substance use.
At DSU, Kim is studying Parkinsons disease and working to develop
potential combination therapies to treat it. Gitcho investigates how
age, stress and changes in metabolism contribute to such diseases as
Alzheimers and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
At an event this month celebrating the launch of Phase II, officials
said the center is beneficial to researchers, students and the public.
This NIH grant will allow our in-state institutions to continue
their work at the Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research, and prepare
the next generation of innovators, researchers and
biomedical professionals, said Gov. John Carney. The two universities
have an impressive capacity for collaboration and innovation, he said.
U.S. Senator Tom Carper called the research critical. Not only will
this First State collaboration advance the study of the brain, but it
will also attract talented students and scientists to our state, he
said.
Overall, Knox said, the grant award is a win-win. Investing
resources in a state like Delaware will help fund the next best ideas in
neuroscience, he said.
Earlier work at the neuroscience center
In 2012, Phase I established the Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research.
Over the next five years, it supported the projects of 13
investigators at the two universities and the renovation of a research
facility at DSU. Some 85 journal articles were published by faculty
affiliated with the center.
Also under Phase I, the two universities have established a mentoring
program and an external advisory committee, and faculty members from
both institutions have twice-yearly conferences and monthly meetings at
which research is presented and critiqued, Rosen said.
In addition, he said, an agreement allows graduate students to take
courses at either universityUDs focus is more on behavioral research
while DSUs is more in the area of cell biologyexpanding their
educational opportunities.
Article by Ann Manser; photo by Evan Krape
