FBI The Friedman Brain Institute is proud to present the 12th issue of the Informant. The Informant is a triennial newsletter highlighting announcements and events for basic and clinical neuroscience at Mount Sinai. The purpose of Friedman Brain Institute the Informant is to keep everyone abreast of all that is going on in and out of the labs and clinics that comprise the Friedman Brain Institute, as well as acknowledge those individuals responsible for its success. In addition to sharing the informant information, our hope is that the Informant can be used as a tool to inspire, congratulate, and support one another. Announcements Welcome the Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics Department Chair: Dr. Paul J. Kenny Chair of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics We are pleased to announce the appointment of Paul J. Kenny, PhD, as Chair of the Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Kenny has also been named Ward-Coleman Chair in Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Institute. A world-renowned researcher in the neurobiology of obesity and drug addiction, Dr. Kenny has helped to advance the understanding of the mechanisms behind addiction-like behaviors, which has led to the development of medications for these behaviors. His multidisciplinary research involves the study of behavioral paradigms, physiological analyses, and the molecular underpinnings of neurobehavioral disorders. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Kenny served as an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Departments of Molecular Therapeutics and Neuroscience at Scripps Research Institute, in Jupiter, Florida. He earned his PhD in neuroscience from King’s College London, and completed his postdoctoral work at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Appointment of Richard N. Rosenthal, MD We are pleased to announce that Richard N. Rosenthal, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will assume a new system-wide position as Medical Director of Addiction Psychiatry in the Mount Sinai Institute of Mental Health (MSIMH), effective January 21, 2014. Dr. Rosenthal will manage clinical operations for inpatient and outpatient addiction services, including inpatient detoxification and rehabilitation units, and opioid treatment programs. Dr. Rosenthal, a leading authority in addiction science, treatment, and policy, directed the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He also founded and directed the Addiction Psychiatry program at Beth Israel Medical Center, creating one of the first ACGME-approved Addiction Psychiatry Fellowships in the United States. MSIMH integrates psychiatric services across the new Mount Sinai Health System. Zou Lab (Neuroscience) Recent publications: • Finelli M, Murphy K, Chen L, Zou H. Differential Phosphorylation of Smad1 Integrates BMP and NGF Signaling by Regulating ERK/DUSP during Axon Development. Cell Reports. May. 2013. PMID: 23665221 • Finelli M, Wong J, Zou H. Epigenetic Regulation of Sensory Axon Regeneration after Spinal Cord Injury. Journal of Neuroscience. 2013. 1 1 Junqian Xu (Radiology / TMII) Recent publications: • Xu J*, Moeller S*, Auerbach E, Strupp J, Smith S, Feinberg D, Yacoub E, Ugurbil K. Evaluation of slice accelerations using multiband echo planar imaging at 3 Tesla. NeuroImage, 83, 991–1001, 2013 • Sotiropoulos SN, Moeller S, Jbabdi S, Xu J, Andersson JL, Auerbach EJ, Yacoub E, Feinberg D, Setsompop K, Wald LL, Behrens TEJ, Ugurbil K, Lenglet C. Effects of image reconstruction on fibre orientation mapping from multi-channel diffusion MRI: reducing the noise floor using SENSE. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 70, 1682-9, 2013 Sklar Lab (Psychiatry) Division of Psychiatric Genomics • Congratulations to Pamela Sklar, M.D., Ph.D. on being elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors in health and medicine. The IOM serves as a cohort of the brightest minds, in their respective fields. Schiller Lab (Psychiatry) • Congratulations to Dr. Collins for a successful thesis defense. • Dr. Schiller was awarded Kavli Frontiers of Science fellowship. Recent Publications: • Mendelsohn A, Pine A, and Schiller D (in press) Between Thoughts and Actions: Motivationally salient cues invigorate mental action in the human brain. Neuron. • Schiller D, Kanen JW, LeDoux JE, Monfils MH, and Phelps EA (in press) Extinction during reconsolidation of threat memory diminishes prefrontal cortex involvement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Schaefer Lab (Neuroscience) • Anne Schaefer received a Sinai Innovation Partners Technology Development Fund Award to further develop the " Novel miRNA-based Treatment of Severe Epilepsy ". • Mount Sinai filed a U.S. provisional patent application on " Novel miRNA-based Treatment of Severe Epilepsy ". Recent Publications: • Tan CL, Plotkin JL, Venø MT, von Schimmelmann M, Feinberg P, Mann S, Handler A, Kjems J, Surmeier DJ, O'Carroll D, Greengard P, Schaefer A. MicroRNA-128 governs neuronal excitability and motor behavior in mice. Science. Dec 6;342(6163):1254-8. 2013 Paisán-Ruiz Lab (Neurology) • The Paisan-Ruiz lab would like to welcome Elena Sanchez-Rodriguez who has recently been recruited as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neurology. Dr. Sanchez-Rodriguez received her B.S degree and PhD in Immunogenetics from the University of Granada (Spain) and continued her postdoctoral training at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (USA) as an Associate Research Scientist and King’s College London (UK) as a Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow. The focus of her work at Mount Sinai is to elucidate and understand the molecular basis underlying movement disorders. 2 2 Nestler Lab (Neuroscience) • We congratulate Elizabeth Heller who recently was awarded a 2013 Postdoc Recognition Award. Recent Publication: • Scobie KN, Damez-Werno D, Sun H, Shao N, Gancarz A, Panganiban CH, Dias C, Koo J, Caiafa P, Kaufman L, Neve RL, Dietz DM, Shen L, Nestler EJ. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Jan 21. [Epub ahead of print] Essential role of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation in cocaine action. Recent press releases: • http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/new-light-shed-on-role-of-epigenetics-in-cocaine-addiction/ 81249397/ Morishita Lab (Psychiatry) • The Morishita lab welcomes Milo Smith as a PhD student (co-mentors: Dr. Hirofumi Morishita and Dr. Joel Dudley) and Jenna Short as a master student. • Congratulations to Ayan Hussein (PREP student) who was awarded to the Gates Millennium Scholarship foundation which will cover her entire graduate study. • Congratulations to Dr. Morishita on receiving the Mindich Child Health & Development Pilot Grant (co-PI: Hirofumi Morishita & Joel Dudley) and a travel award to present at the 47th Winter Conference on Brain Research. Recent Publications: • Nabel EM, Morishita H. Regulating critical period plasticity: insight from the visual system to fear circuitry for therapeutic interventions. Front Psychiatry. 2013 Nov 11;4:146. Review. Hurd Lab (Psychiatry and Neuroscience) Recent Publications: • Tortoriello G, Morris CV, Alpar A, Fuzik J, Shirran SL, Calvigioni D, Keimpema E, Botting CH, Reinecke K, Herdegen T, Courtney M, Hurd YL and Harkany T. Miswiring the brain: Delta9- tetrahydrocannabinol disrupts cortical development by inducing an SCG10/stathmin-2 degradation pathway. EMBO Journal, in press. • Michaelides M, Anderson SA, Ananth M, Smirnov D, Thanos PK, Neumaier JF, Wang GJ, Volkow ND, Hurd YL. In vivo cell-specific mesocorticolimbic whole-brain circuit dissection in freely-moving animals. Journal of Clinical Investigations, 123(12):5342-50, 2013. • Anderson SAR, Michaelides M, Zarnegar P, Ren Y, Fagergren P, Thanos PK, Wang G-J, Bannon M, Neumaier JF, Keller E, Volkow ND, Hurd YL. Impaired Periamygdaloid-Cortex Prodynorphin is Characteristic of Opiate Addiction and Depression. Journal of Clinical Investigations, 123(12):5334-41 2013. • Karatsoreos I, Thaler J, Borgland S, Champagne F, Hurd YL, and Hill M. Food for Thought: Hormonal, Experiential and Neural Influences on Feeding and Obesity. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(45):17610-6, 2013. • Chadwick B, Miller ML, Hurd YL, Cannabis Use during Adolescent Development: Susceptibility to Psychiatric Illness. Front Psychiatry, Oct 14;4:129, 2013. • Kozlenkov A, Roussos P. Timashpolsky A, Barbu M, Rudchenko S, Bibikova M, Klotzle B, Byne W, Lyddon R, Di Narzo A, Hurd YL, Koonin E, Dracheva S. Differences in DNA methylation between human neuronal and glial cells are concentrated in enhancers and non-CpG sites. Nucleic Acids Research, Epub: Sep 20, 2013. • Hurd YL, Michaelides M, Miller ML, Jutras-Aswad D. Trajectory of Adolescent Cannabis Use on Addiction Vulnerability. Neuropharmacology. Epub: Aug 14, 2013. 3 3 Hof Lab (Neuroscience) • Dr. Hof was elected Member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. • Congratulations to Neha Uppal and Hannah Brautigam who successfully defended their PhD theses. Neha was co-mentored by Drs. Hof and Buxbaum and will continue her studies of autism as a postdoc at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine using functional brain imaging. Hannah was co- mentored by Drs. Hof and Gandy and will soon move on to a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she will pursue her studies of molecular pathology of Alzheimer's disease. Recent publications: • Kövari E, Herrmann FR, Hof PR, Bouras C. (2013) The relationship