Neuroscience Graduate Program

From the Labs interviewed Amanda Brown to learn about what drives her fascination with science, her interest in science communication and her future plans in academia. See the interview and read this article on recent about Brown’s work on the role of Purkinje cells in tremors.

Sudden episodes of confusion and seizures often are the first signs of a malignant brain tumor. Using glioma mouse models, researchers detected waves of ultra-slow depolarization arising from the tumor margin. In the current study, researchers detected the depolarizing waves earlier than previously found, during a reproducible progression of inhibitory cell loss, glutamate dysregulation and inflammation in the tumor margin, and found that this excitability progressed more slowly when the tumor grew in a host brain that is genetically resistant to seizures. 

BCM researchers and colleagues uncovered evidence about how glioma manipulates its environment in ways that favor its own growth. This research, published in Nature, suggests new strategies to treat patients with this condition, one of the most aggressive malignant primary brain tumors.

Understanding how Zika virus causes microcephaly would hint at possibilities for preventing this irreparable condition in newborns. Heading in that direction, a collaboration between Baylor College of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco has revealed interesting insights into the interactions between Zika virus proteins and host proteins, including human proteins.

Despite rapid advances in the field of neuroscience, only a limited number of cell types in the brain are known and well characterized. In this study, researchers described an innovative approach that identified novel cellular targets and genetic pathways involved in the wiring of adult-born neurons into brain circuits. Baylor graduate student Burak Tepe was one of the primary authors of this paper.

Baylor researchers have found the first direct evidence that the cerebellum does more than just control muscle activity. It also plays a role in cognitive functions.

The accuracy and reproducibility of research studies are a major concern of the scientific community. Baylor researchers are examining this problem in the field of multisensory integration to understand how it affects both basic research and the development of therapies.

When male and female mice eat the same high-fat diet, the males gain significantly more weight than the females. The reasons for this difference between sexes are not completely understood, but Baylor's Dr. Yong Xu and his colleagues propose that part of the answer may be in the brain.

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