Bonni to lead anatomy and neurobiology department

Azad Bonni, MD, PhD, currently professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, will be the next head of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Bonni becomes the Edison Professor and head of Anatomy and Neurobiology in October 2012. Larry J. Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, made the announcement.

“The Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology has a very distinguished history of leadership and innovation in its field,” Shapiro says. “We are confident that Dr. Bonni, who has produced many remarkable insights into brain development, will support and expand those traditions.”

Bonni studies how the brain is built at the level of individual connections between nerve cells. Key areas of his research include studies of the mechanisms that regulate the development of nerve cells and their ability to connect with each other in the brain. His lab is currently focused on the role of transcriptional and ubiquitin signaling in these processes. He also investigates how those mechanisms can contribute to neurological diseases when they go awry.

“The opportunity to lead the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine is a great honor,” Bonni says. “Research at Washington University has had a lasting impact in the establishment of neuroscience as a discipline, and the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology has played a central role.”

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Alzheimer's trials

Grant to fund first clinical trials aimed at Alzheimer's prevention

 

The School of Medicine has received nearly $4.2 million from the Alzheimer’s Association to accelerate the launch of the first clinical trials to prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The award is the largest research grant in the history of the 32-year-old association.

Randall J. Bateman, MD, principal investigator of the grant and director of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network (DIAN) Therapeutic Trials Unit at Washington University, will lead the trials, which will determine if the disease can be halted or delayed before problems in memory and other brain functions become apparent.

The research will be conducted through the DIAN, an international research partnership focused on understanding inherited forms of Alzheimer’s. DIAN is headed by John C. Morris, MD, the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Professor of Neurology. Bateman and Morris treat patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

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Supporting life sciences

Doctoral students named first Monsanto graduate fellows

Washington University has received a $930,000 grant from the Monsanto Co. to support graduate student research in life sciences. The grant, to be distributed over the next seven years, will establish a Monsanto graduate fellowship program.

Each year, two graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees in the university’s Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS) will be selected as fellows. Life sciences include plant sciences, microbiology, biochemistry, immunology, genetics and other specialties.

Jordan K. Teisher, a doctoral student in evolution, ecology and population biology, and Jeremy D. King, a doctoral student in plant biology, have been named the first Monsanto graduate fellows.

“Through this fellowship program, Monsanto is giving Washington University graduate students a unique opportunity to be exposed to the breadth of research in life sciences,” says Stephen M. Beverley, PhD, the Marvin A. Brennecke Professor of Molecular Microbiology and chair of the executive council of the DBBS.

As fellows, the students will be taught how to run laboratory research programs. They also will have the opportunity to interact with Monsanto scientists to gain experience in a corporate research environment.

Washington People: Rochelle Smith

DBBS Staff Member Rochelle Smith is featured in this week's RECORD:

Rochelle Smith (second from left) talks with students (from left) David Cotter, Paige Cooper and Donell Carey, all graduate students in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, about volunteer opportunities.

Rochelle Smith has a knack for recruiting underrepresented graduate students in the sciences to Washington University.

In the past five years, the number of minority students entering graduate programs each year in the biomedical sciences has almost tripled, as have the number of students entering the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences’ (DBBS) summer research programs for undergraduate students. She travels the country to recruit students and finds ways to bring them to the university so they can see it firsthand.

Smith is director of diversity, summer programs and community outreach for DBBS. She is known for her magnetic personality that puts students, faculty and staff at ease.

“Rochelle represents the best of WUSTL,” says Brian Sullivan, executive director of the university’s MSTP. “She balances her commitment to excellence and effectiveness with a concern for the individual, which results in changes not only to structures but also to hearts and minds.”

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Natural compound helps reverse diabetes in mice

Researchers (from left) Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, Jun Yoshino, MD, PhD, and Kathryn Mills showed that a natural compound, NMN, helps to treat symptoms of diabetes in mice. Photo by: Julia Evangelou Strait

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have restored normal blood sugar metabolism in diabetic mice using a compound the body makes naturally. The finding suggests that it may one day be possible for people to take the compound much like a daily vitamin as a way to treat or even prevent type 2 diabetes.

This naturally occurring compound is called nicotinamide mononucleotide, or NMN, and it plays a vital role in how cells use energy.

"After giving NMN, glucose tolerance goes completely back to normal in female diabetic mice,” says Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, associate professor of developmental biology. “In males, we see a milder effect compared to females, but we still see an effect. These are really remarkable results. NMN improves diabetic symptoms, at least in mice.”

The research appears online Oct. 4 in Cell Metabolism.

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DBBS Faculty Member wins prestigious Presidential Early Career Award

The White House announced Sept. 27 that Lan Yang, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

The early career award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. This year, there are 94 recipients.

“It is inspiring to see the innovative work being done by these scientists and engineers as they ramp up their careers — careers that I know will not only be personally rewarding but also invaluable to the nation,” President Barack Obama said in the award announcement. “That so many of them are also devoting time to mentoring and other forms of community service speaks volumes about their potential for leadership, not only as scientists but as model citizens.”

“I am pleased that the President has honored Lan with this special award for her world-class record of achievement,” says Ralph S. Quatrano, PhD, dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

“She is a model for other assistant professors, and I have great confidence in her potential for continued future success. As only the fourth assistant professor at Washington University to receive this prestigious recognition since its inception 15 years ago, this award brings great visibility to Lan and her innovative work and to our school and university,” Quatrano says.


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Restoration as science: case of the collared lizard

In a time when a five-year grant is considered a long-term grant, Alan R. Templeton, PhD, a professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has managed to follow some of the species he studies for 10, 20 or even 30 years.


Early in his career he studied parthenogenesis, or virgin birth, in fruit fly populations at a dump and in cactus patches in Hawaii.

“Drosophilia have fast generation times,” he says, “but I studied them for 12 years. And because I followed them for 12 years, I saw patterns I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. In fact, had I not stuck with it so long, I often would have made incorrect conclusions.”

But the fruitfly study is a sprint compared to his lizard work, described in the cover story of the September 2011 issue of Ecology. The Ecology article covers more than 20 years of a 30-year followup monitoring the reintroduction of collared lizards on Ozark glades in 1984. (For the story in pictures, see the slideshow to the right.)

During this time, 1,662 lizards living on 139 glades on three mountains were captured or recaptured 4,545 times. The acknowledgements section of the paper thanks more than 20 people for their help in capturing lizards.

The major revelation of the work was that burning entire mountains and valleys, called landscape-level burning, undid ecological damage that was slowed but not stopped by smaller prescribed burns.

In fact, it allowed the lizards to undertake their own expanded restoration effort without the assistance of worried biologists.

Moreover, burning benefited many species besides the lizards, including a rare fen orchid and fen dragonfly, that were flying under the radar and would probably never have commanded labor intensive restoration efforts on their own.

In short, fire turned restoration from a time-consuming labor-intensive process to one that ran pretty much on its own.

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