Neuroscience News Update 8/15/02

Congratulations to the following alumni on their new publication! *denotes WSU Alum.

*Churchill, J. D., *Gerson, J. L., *Hinton, K. A.,* Mifek, J. L., *Walter, M. J., *Pokorny (aka Winslow), C. L. and Deyo, R. A. (2002). The nootropic properties of ginseng saponin Rb1 are linked to effects on anxiety. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, 37(2): 85-102.

Note to Gerson, Hinton, Mifek, Walter and Pokorny; please contact Dr. Deyo. He has your reprint copies and needs your latest address to send you your copies.

Congratulations to Dr. Jessie Peissig, Ph.D.

She finished her Ph.D. (Dec. 2001) at the University of Iowa and recently started a post doc at Brown University. She is working with David Sheinberg doing behavioral and electrophysiological research with monkeys, and Michael Tarr doing human psychophysics research, both in the area of visual cognition (see http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/gauthier/PEN/index.html). She will also be presenting a paper this fall at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Congratulations to Dr. James (Jay) Churchill, Ph.D.

He has completed his post doc at the University of Illinois and is now starting his first "real job" (Fall 2002). He will be an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO).

Congratulations to Dr. Donald Skifter, Ph.D.

He has completed his Ph.D. (March 2002) at the Univerisity of Nebraska and has started a post doc at MIT.

The Cut-ups in the Neuroanatomy Lab Get New Vibratome Microtome and Cryostat for Fall 2002

The Neuroanatomy lab obtained a new Vibratome microtome/cryostat to replace our aging Miles unit that served us well for the last 10 years, but finally wore out this year. Most of you probably learned how to prepare and cut sections on the Miles. The new unit allows us to cut from 2 to 120 µM and is fully automated. The new unit will allow students to learn important histological skills in neuroscience while learning to use the latest technology. Some important advances include reduced specimen preparation time (now 5 minutes down from 60 minutes), thicker sectioning (easier for students to learn- if you used the miles you were cutting at 20 microns- so if you run into one of our new students you can say... "back in the old days we had to cut sections that were 60% thinner than yours...and we had to do it... barefoot....in the snow.... "

Dr. Deyo obtains MNSCU leverged Equipment Grant

We will have new multimedia equipment in the Neuroscience labs this fall thanks to a grant from GW Pharmaceuticals and a matching grant from MNSCU. The new equipment will allow for better integration of existing resources into the laptop classroom and provide more resources for student independent studies. For example, it will now be possible for students to photograph their slides in Neurosicence lab and transfer the images directly into their laptop (you probably remember creating the videotape of your slides), or burn a DVD of their behavioral experiments. A new camera for the lab was also obtained to produce new demonstration experiments/films for the class room.

Current research at WSU

This fall marks start of the second year of work on testing antidepressant, antispastic and antinociception candidtates for GW Pharmaceuticals. Research on neuroleptics and nootropics continues. We should be posting some new publications here soon.