Basic Research in Neuroscience
In 2002 the Tula Foundation provided $2.75 million over 5 years to the Brain Research Centre at the University of British Columbia to help recruit young investigators in neuroscience. We stipulated that the Centre recruit exceptional basic scientists, whether or not their research promised immediate and obvious benefit to human health. We are very pleased with the quality and diversity of the recruits.
Doug Allen works on neuronal specification during nervous system development in the fruit fly Drosophila. Before being recruited to UBC he was at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. (lab)
Shernaz Bamji studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the formation, stability, and elimination of CNS synapses, using cultured hippocampal neurons as a model system. Before being recruited to UBC she was at the University of California at San Francisco. (lab)
Kalina Christoff studies human thought, reasoning and problem solving; prefrontal cortex function and organization; neural principles of complex cognition, as revealed by functional neuroimaging. Before being recruited to UBC she was at Stanford University. (lab)
Kurt Haas studies dendrite growth in the optic tectum in tadpoles of the toad Xenopus, and how it is influenced by visual activity. Before being recruited to UBC he was at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. (lab)
Chris Loewen uses yeast as a model organism to study how the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and other organelles communicate. Because ER membrane contact sites are present in all eukaryotes, the genes he identifies in yeast will likely be conserved in humans. For example, one of the proteins he studies has recently been found to cause a form of ALS. Before being recruited to UBC he was at University College London. (lab)
Jeremy Seamans uses a variety of electrophysiological techniques and computational modeling to study how interconnected networks of neurons in the prefrontal cortex process sensory and mnemonic information, and how these networks are affected by the neuromodulator dopamine. Before being recruited to UBC he was at the Medical University of South Carolina. (lab)
Living neuron in the developing optic tectum of the tadpole brain, imaged with two-photon microscopy in vivo, following single-cell electroporation delivery of plasmid DNA encoding the fluorescent protein GFP. Photo by Kurt Haas.