NIH Awards UW $5 Million to Continue Neuroscience Research
Volume 13, Number 1 | Fall 2011
Share This Story:
Neuroscience research at the University of Wyoming has come a long way since the university received its first institutional Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant in 2000. The grant was renewed in 2005 and again this year for an additional $5 million.
The project's lead investigator, Professor Francis (Bill) Flynn, says that the impact of a decade of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on neuroscience research at UW has been immense. Five new faculty members in neuroscience were recruited, and investigators have been awarded a total of 12 research grants totaling more than $6 million from the NIH, National Science Foundation, and Department of Defense.
Among the notable research accomplishments cited by Flynn:
- Charles Woodbury, associate professor in the department of zoology and physiology, identified two major findings that impact our understanding of pain and how pain sensations are carried to the central nervous system.
- Jonathon Fox, associate professor of veterinary sciences, led a group that uncovered a number of important findings relating to the pathogenesis and treatment of Huntington's disease.
- Flynn has shown, for the first time, the time- and activity-dependent transport of a particular class of receptors in the brain directly to the nucleus of neurons where it interacts with chromatin, or DNA. While the research targets the basic issue of blood pressure, the finding has broad implications for understanding many disorders and how the functional properties of neurons may be regulated.