News
Chris Donnelly, PhD, whose recent study helps explain a problem that occurs with neurons controlling motor function, is focusing on the deadly disease process and compounds holding potential to treat or prevent it. Learn More
Yan Xu, PhD, and colleagues have created a computer model of a network of neurons that suggests that a sudden breakdown in the network's ability to transmit information mimics the brain wave changes that accompany anesthesia. Learn More
Pitt has earned international recognition as a premier center for treatment of and research into hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), a rare genetic disorder that can cause sudden, catastrophic internal bleeding and stroke. Learn More
Newsweek cites a Pitt study that finds no evidence of later depression or other mental illness in adults who smoked marijuana during adolescence. Learn More
The Brain Institute has recruited four highly talented young investigators with home departments in Psychology, Bioengineering, and Neurobiology. Learn More
Michael S. Gold, PhD, Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology's Center for Pain Research, will receive the 30th F.W.L. Kerr award for Basic Science Research at the annual scientific meeting of the American Pain Society, to be held in Austin, TX, from May 11-14, 2016. The award recognizes individual excellence and achievements in pain research and is presented to a pain researcher whose total career achievements - innovative research, skilled mentorship and exceptional service - make outstanding contributions to the field. Dr. Gold will be honored for his early work characterizing the role of voltage-gated Na+ channels in the initiation and maintenance of both inflammatory and neuropathic pain, as well as his more recent investigations into mechanisms of migraine and persistent inflammation. Dr. Gold employs a "reverse translation" strategy in his lab, working back from clinical problems to identify mechanistic underpinnings. Learn More
Researchers have identified in an animal model the molecular mechanisms behind resilience to noise-induced tinnitus and a possible drug therapy that could reduce susceptibility to this chronic and sometimes debilitating condition. Learn More
Nearly 30 leading concussion researchers will meet here to propose and create guidelines for state-of-the-art treatment of concussions. Learn More
Karl Kandler, PhD, and colleagues have discovered that the precise pattern of the inner ear's "drumbeat" is what tells a young brain how to form the right connections for hearing and processing sounds. Their study in Neuron has implications for children born with good hearing but who have difficulty interpreting the meaning of sounds. Learn More
A new study links exposure to fine particulate pollution in pregnancy or during infancy and early childhood to autism. Learn More
Stanford psychiatrist and neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth will be awarded Pitt medical school's highest honor this fall. Learn More
Menopausal women who experience more hot flashes, particularly while sleeping, are more likely to have brain changes reflecting a higher risk for cerebrovascular stroke and other brain blood flow problems. Menopausal women who experience more hot flashes, particularly while sleeping, are more likely to have brain changes reflecting a higher risk for cerebrovascular stroke and other brain blood flow problems. Learn More
That’s the view of a growing number of researchers developing new psychological treatments that aim to directly target the particular brain dysfunctions and cognitive and emotional processes understood to underlie depression.The approach is to think of a brain region that goes awry as “more like a muscle that is atrophied,” says Greg J. Siegle, director of the Program in Cognitive Affective Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “The solution to an atrophied muscle is to rehab it.” Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2015. Learn More
The Brain Institute has recruited Christopher Donnelly, PhD, who has joined the faculty to conduct fundamental research to reveal the etiology and pathophysiological mechanisms of action of this devastating disorder. Dr. Donnelly was a postdoctoral fellow with world-renowned ALS expert Jeffrey Rothstein, MD, PhD, at Johns Hopkins University, where he used a variety of approaches to reveal the molecular mechanisms that underlie neural injury in ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Learn More
According to the Sunday Book Review, Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs’ biography, Jonas Salk: A Life, is “science writing at its best.” Salk’s public acclaim after developing the polio vaccine at Pitt “struck a sour note in much of the scientific community, “ David Oshinsky notes, “where feelings of resentment and jealousy ran high.” Learn More