UAB celebrates neuroscience center, research activities

Pioneers in the field of neuroscience were on hand October 29 and 30 to celebrate the remarkable advances made in neuroscience research, patient care, and education at UAB. Their participation, along with UAB’s own neuroscience investigators, at the UAB Neuroscience Symposium, “Neuroscience Frontiers in the 21st Century” garnered approximately 300 registrants from around the southeast including undergraduate and graduate students from Auburn University, Mississippi State University, Tulane, and Emory University.

“The purpose of this symposium was to celebrate the establishment of the UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center and to showcase the exciting neuroscience research activities of our invited scientists and the UAB neuroscience community,” said Dr. Kevin Roth, director of the UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center.

According to Roth, the number of NIH funded grants awarded to UAB neuroscience investigators has increased by 25% over the last two years, a feat made even more impressive given that national funding cuts have made obtaining grants all but impossible.

“The total neuroscience-related NIH funding to UAB in 2007 is approximately $43 million,” said Roth. “This is a big operation, and, hopefully, it will continue to expand.”

One source of pride for the Comprehensive Neuroscience Center is its collection of varied investigators from a wide range of departments on campus; it is not an effort made only through the medical school.

“When we developed the Comprehensive Neuroscience Center we envisioned bringing together researchers from many disciplines who share the common goal of finding more effective therapies for people with neurological disorders and diseases. This means that researchers from fields such as neurology, psychiatry, basic sciences and biostatistics can come together to work on what many consider to be the fastest growing unmet medical need in the United States. Having this symposium on campus is one measure of our commitment to making this happen,” said Carol Z. Garrison, UAB President.

This sentiment is well illustrated in the UAB Department of Psychiatry, where Dr. James H. Meador-Woodruff, Professor and Chair of the department, plans to recruit 20 to 30 more faculty in the future to study schizophrenia, suicide prevention, and depression.

“I would like to recruit more people so that we can perform laboratory research and carry it through to patient care,” he said. “In this way, we can study large-scale outcomes and epidemiology.”

Other speakers at the symposium included the highly-anticipated Dr. Eric Kandel, a Nobel laureate from Columbia University, who was introduced as “one of the most prominent founding fathers of modern neurobiology” by Dr. J. David Sweatt, Professor and Chair of the UAB Neurobiology Department. His presence moved faculty and students alike.

“The greatest moment I had was hearing Eric Kandel speak and then interacting with him later,” said Jennifer Larimore, a UAB graduate student. “His level of science and his drive to discover more inspires me to achieve great things no matter what I pursue. His curiosity and genius in how he approaches a problem is amazing.”

Kandel, likewise, enjoyed answering questions and giving advice to up-and-coming neuroscientists.

“Neuroscience has an enormous future,” he said. “Just look at the area of psychiatry in which we are only beginning to investigate human activities and how these originate from the mind. We are attempting to bridge the humanities and sciences and will continue to explore mind processes such as how a person interprets a work of art.”

Symposium participants were also afforded the opportunity to share their own research findings at two poster sessions.

“The poster session not only gave me a chance to present my research and to receive feedback, but also gave me a chance to exchange ideas and brainstorm with other investigators,” said Tania Roth, a UAB postdoctoral scholar. “And of course, this poster session has helped me in preparing to share my findings at two national meetings I am attending later this week (International Society for Developmental Psychobiology and Society for Neuroscience annuals meetings).”

Overall, attendees were impressed by the symposium and anticipate the next one.

“I thought the symposium was excellent on so many levels,” said Tania, “Foremost, I was impressed by the quality of research presented, by both UAB investigators and invited investigators. Second, it was a terrific opportunity to learn about cutting-edge clinical and basic research taking place, both on our campus and at other research institutions. And third, the structure of the symposium was such that it provided ample opportunity to form and potentiate scientific collaborations.”

Published in the UAB Kaleidoscope on November 6, 2007