Posts classified under: M

Istvan Mody, Ph.D.

Biography

Synaptic Signaling in Health and Disease Our research focuses on 1) the physiology, pharmacology, and pathology of synaptic transmission in the mammalian brain, and 2) the regulation of intracellular calcium homeostasis. The two themes ultimately converge in our quest for understanding how long-term alterations in the excitability of nerve cells and circuits are responsible for offsetting the frail balance between excitation and inhibition. Tipping this balance, either acutely of chronically, results in the nervous system showing signs of abnormal activity leading to specific brain disorders. We study synaptic transmission and the activation of extrasynaptic receptors in the healthy and the diseased brain. We presently carry out research in animal models of epilepsy, Huntington’s disease, stress, alcoholism, PMS/PMDD, postpartum depression, while also recording from human brain tissue surgically removed for the treatment of epilepsies. By studying the fundamental mechanisms responsible for the altered synapses and circuits our studies will lead to novel therapies for a number of devastating neurological and psychiatric disorders. The experimental approaches we use include patch-clamp recordings (whole-cell, single channel and perforated patch) in brain slices, in acutely isolated animal and human neurons, or in cultured neurons/slices; chronic recordings in vivo to monitor long-term changes in the excitability of circuits; infrared and fluorescent video microscopy and simultaneous recordings in live brain tissue; various neuroanatomical and immunohistochemical techniques; measurement of intraneuronal calcium and the binding kinetics of calcium to various calcium-binding proteins; molecular biological approaches aimed at reducing or altering specific brain proteins as in genetic knockouts/knockins and various methods aimed at altering cellular protein levels.

Gary Mathern, M.D.

Biography

Dr. Mathern graduated from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1982. He completed his Rotating Internship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1983 and his Residencies in Surgery (1985) and Neurosurgery (1986-1991) at UCLA Harbor Medical Center and UCLA School of Medicine, respectively.  Dr. Mathern received his Board Certification in Neurological Surgery in 1996.  He currently practices medicine at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine and specializes in Neurological Surgery and Pediatric Neurological Surgery. Dr. Mathern is affiliated with both Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Nigel Maidment, Ph.D.

Biography

Professor Maidment received B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Universities of Reading, Southampton and Nottingham, U.K. His doctorate work was on in vivo voltammetry and microdialysis studies of the action of antipsychotic drugs on dopamine transmission in the laboratory of Prof. Charles Marsden. He received post-doctoral training at Stanford University in the laboratory of Prof. Jack Barchas where he developed microdialysis-radioimmunoassy procedures for studying neuropeptide transmission in the limbic system, joining the UCLA faculty in 1990.