The Emerging Caribbean Scientists Program (ECS) announces the visit of scientist Dr. Shelley Russek from Boston University. Dr. Russek will be presenting a Zoom research seminar titled “The STAT3 Response of Excitatory Neurons to Epileptogenic Brain Injury” at noon on Friday, Sept. 11.
Join the Zoom Meeting with this link: https://zoom.us/j/96738079066 (Meeting ID: 967 3807 9066).
Dr. Shelley Russek is a Professor of Pharmacology and the director of the university-wide Neuroscience Program at Boston University. Her research direction reflects a diverse training in Cognitive Psychology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Pharmacology, and Music. Her particular research passion stems from a strong interest in gene regulatory networks that underlie neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders, especially those where inhibitory neurotransmission is disrupted.
Much of her career has been spent developing novel ways to test mechanistically the relationship between transcription factors, the activity of neurotransmitter receptors, and the altered levels of their subunit mRNAs that occur in response to cellular signals such as the neurotransmitter GABA, the neurotrophins BDNF and NGF, and the neurosteroid pregnenolone sulfate.
Dr. Russek plays an important role in the epilepsy research community serving on multiple peer review committees including her regular membership in the NINDS CNNT study section.
To view her profile: http://www.bu.edu/neuro/profile/shelley-j-russek/
Her current research focuses on Alzheimer’s Disease and the progress she has made with her long-term collaborator Dr. Amy Brooks-Kayal, a pediatric neurologist, where they discovered that activation of the JAK/STAT pathway in excitatory neurons contributes to chronic epilepsy in animal models and the cognitive comorbidities associated with it.
For additional information, send an email to Aimee Sanchez at aimee.sanchez@uvi.edu.