Christine Snyder

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on July 5, 2011. Filed under Uncategorized. Tagged . No comments.
Even exercise can damage your muscles. Muscle cells then need to regenerate to keep you healthy. This month, we talk with Christine Snyder, a graduate student in the lab of Frank Naya at Boston University who studies how muscle regrowth is regulated. Her work in the Naya lab focuses on a transcription factor (a protein that [...]

Allan Basbaum

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on July 1, 2011. Filed under Diseases, Inqueries, Research. Tagged , , , . No comments.
Pain helps us avoid potentially harmful situations and is necessary for survival. While most of us only experience acute pain while the painful stimulus is present, some people unfortunately suffer from constant pain that persists long after the stimulus is removed. Our guest this week, Allan Basbaum, a professor and chair of the Department of [...]

Loren Frank

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on June 1, 2011. Filed under Uncategorized. Tagged , , . No comments.
The brain’s capacity to remember experiences to guide future decisions is an essential and fascinating ability. Our guest this month Loren Frank, an associate professor in the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at UCSF, is working to understand this process. Dr. Frank studies how the hippocampus, a brain structure required for [...]

David Kleinfeld

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on May 2, 2011. Filed under Inqueries, Research, Techniques. Tagged , , , . No comments.
David Kleinfeld is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. In this month’s episode, Dr. Kleinfeld talks about the different, important questions his lab is addressing. One part of his lab is trying to understand how the brain uses sensory input to process information about the environment. The [...]

Jason Triplett

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on April 1, 2011. Filed under Uncategorized. No comments.
Auditory and visual cues are crucial for perceiving the environment. Within the brain, both auditory stimuli and visual stimuli are organized topographically. In the visual system this means that neighboring spots on the retina project to neighboring spots in the brain. Likewise, areas along the basilar membrane in the cochlea which are sensitive to increasing [...]

Andrew Huberman

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on March 3, 2011. Filed under Uncategorized. No comments.
Our guest this month is Andrew Huberman, an assistant professor in the department of neurobiology at UCSD. Dr Huberman is interested in a classic question in development—how do the eyes connect to the brain? Cells known as retinal ganglia cells (RGCs) receive information from photoreceptors in the retina and carry this [...]

David Van Vactor

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on December 31, 2010. Filed under Inqueries, Research. No comments.
Your brain is composed of a tremendous number of neurons that make very specific connections with each other.  The formation of this extremely complex circuit requires that each neuron find its appropriate target.  Dr. David Van Vactor and his lab at Harvard University study the cellular machinery that help motor neurons [...]

Ulrike Heberlein

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on December 10, 2010. Filed under Diseases, Observations, Research, Techniques. No comments.
In this week’s episode we talk to Dr. Ulrike Heberlein, a professor in the department of anatomy at UCSF and baseball aficionado.  This year, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors that can be awarded to an American scientist. Dr. Heberlein is interested in the genes that underlie alcoholism [...]

Michael Shadlen

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on October 4, 2010. Filed under Observations, Research. Tagged , . No comments.
Our guest this week is Michael Shadlen, a professor at Washington University, HHMI investigator, and avid jazz guitarist. Some neurons in our brain help us sense our environment while others help us move our body parts. Dr. Shadlen is interested in the neurons that link sensory information with behavior—the neurons that help us think [...]

Ben Cheyette

Written by jackcoathanger. Posted on October 4, 2010. Filed under Diseases, Research. Tagged , . No comments.
Click here to download mp3 or press the play button to listen directly. — Dr. Ben Cheyette is an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at UCSF. Ben and his lab focuses on signaling proteins that help neurons develop and communicate with each other. In this week’s episode Dr. Cheyette explains how these signaling pathways [...]