Molecular and Integrative
Neurosciences Department

Chairman's Overview

Tamas Bartfai, Ph.D.

In the past year, we experienced scientific successes as well as organizational and policy changes in the Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences Department. The scientific work of several faculty members resulted in high-significance, high-visibility publications and important new research grants and renewals of earlier grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Particularly noteworthy because of their immediate clinical usefulness are the findings of George Siggins and his collaborators in the Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders that the widely used antiepileptic compound gabapentin may be useful in treating alcohol addiction. Pietro Sanna published important findings on the molecular mechanisms of alcohol-induced adaptation of nerve cells. Friedbert Weiss expanded our knowledge of the pharmacologic potential of the subtype-selective antagonists that can block the endogenous anxiogenic stress signal corticotropin-releasing factor. Research by Cindy Ehlers in pharmacogenomics led to new conclusions about the genetic basis of vulnerability of Native Americans to alcohol addiction, and Donna Gruol added new data on the effects of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 in the brain. John Polich expanded his noninvasive studies on the human brain by using attentional tasks.

Bruno Conti made important findings about the role of the cytokine IL-18 in the regulation of feeding behavior and energy efficiency and through these mechanisms, the control of body weight. He also collaborated with Manuel Sánchez-Alavez and Iustin Tabarean, who uncovered a previously undetected night-eating phenotype in the commonly studied strain of mice that lack the gene for prostanoid receptor 3. These mice may be good models of night bingeing. Xiaoying Lu, Amanda Roberts, and I have added to the studies on galanin and galanin receptors in anxiety and in depressive behaviors.

The scientists of the department have engaged in many intradepartmental and interdepartmental collaborations. Numerous high-impact invited lectures and seminars were presented by the faculty nationally and internationally. For example, I was the keynote speaker at the largest drug development meeting (12,000 attendees) in Shanghai in June 2007. Despite a difficult economic climate, scientific progress in the department was good, and our educational goals for our graduate students and postdoctoral fellows were all successfully met. Several faculty and students received prestigous stipends.