Physiology “brown-bag” lunchtime seminars are normally held on selected WEDNESDAYS at noon in Applied Physiology Building, room 1253 (or as indicated). Special seminar dates/times outside of the regular schedule are indicated as such.
Contact Dr. Boris Prilutsky, boris.prilutsky@biosci.gatech.edu, to be considered as a future speaker, added to the e-mail distribution list, if you would like to meet with a speaker, or for other seminar-related inquiries.
For directions: Applied Physiology
SEMINAR: Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Title: Sensorimotor dysregulation after peripheral nerve injury and in disease
Travis M. Rotterman, PhD
School of Biological Sciences, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Abstract
While moving through our ever-changing physical world we rely on the recruitment of neural circuits throughout the central nervous system. Embedded among composite parts of the neuromotor system, the spinal cord plays intriguing roles exemplified by its independent capacity to generate complex movements like grooming and stumbling corrections. Regardless of origin, all neuromotor instructions for limb and torso movements funnel through spinal motor neurons, with so-called pre-motor interneurons in the spinal cord processing the penultimate instructions. Spinal networks also contribute to refining or compensating neural instructions needed to produce purposeful movement. The focus of my work is to advance our understanding of how spinal processing of somatosensory information produces biomechanically effective movements in healthy animals and how that processing goes awry and might be modified to correct movements following injury and disease. Specifically, in this talk I will focus on degeneration of propriosensor synaptic connections following peripheral nerve injury and in a disease model of peripheral neuropathy.
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BIO: Travis Rotterman received his Bachelor of Science in biological sciences from Wright State University (2007-2010) where he conducted his undergraduate honor’s thesis in the lab of Francisco (Paco) Alvarez. Upon completion of his undergraduate degree, he traveled to Emory University with Paco where he worked for a year as a research technician and eventually completed his Ph.D. in neuroscience under the guidance of Dr. Alvarez investigating neuroinflammatory mechanisms responsible for synaptic reorganization following peripheral nerve injury (2012-2018). Upon finishing his graduate work, Travis moved to Georgia Tech to work with Tim Cope where he obtained a NINDS F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Service Award and eventually a NINDS K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award investigating functional spinal motor circuit connectivity in injury and in disease. He is currently completing his postdoctoral training and applying to faculty positions across the United States. |
Host: Boris I. Prilutsky, PhD
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Location: 555 14th street NW, Atlanta 30318; Applied Physiology Building, room 1253; Zoom Link
SEMINAR: Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Circuit Mechanisms of Left-Right Coordination in the Mammalian Spinal Cord
Marie-Claude Perreault, PhD
School of Medicine, Emory University; Biomedical Engineering Program, Georgia Tech;
Children’s Center for Neurosciences Research, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Abstract
The ability to use the right and left side of the body in a coordinated manner (bilateral motor coordination) is critical to movement (e.g., dynamic posture stabilization, jumping, walking). Bilateral motor coordination is thought to be achieved by descending and sensory signals regulating the activity of interneurons with axons that cross the midline (CINs). In the spinal cord, CINs forms a heterogeneous population. This talk will focus on a subpopulation of CINs, called dCINs. I will discuss some of our recent findings suggesting that excitatory and inhibitory dCINs may integrate descending and sensory signals differently.
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BIO: Marie-Claude Perreault Ph.D. is a neurophysiologist working as an Associate Professor of Cell Biology at Emory University. She completed her graduate and postdoctoral studies at University of Montreal and University of Winnipeg in Canada. Dr Perreault worked at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and University of Oslo in Norway before she was recruited at Emory in 2011. Her research program is aimed at understanding how long-range connections between brainstem and spinal cord neurons in mammals develop and function to regulate motor and autonomic functions and how these connections may be affected in developmental disorders. |
Host: Boris I. Prilutsky, PhD
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Location: 555 14th street NW, Atlanta 30318; Applied Physiology Building, room 1253; Zoom Link