Biological Seminars
Dr. Keith: The Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Diphenylmethoxypiperdines
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Dr. Keith's research is based on something that is very interesting to me, addiction. She does not only talk about and research addiction on a broad spectrum but more specifically, cocaine addiction. In one of her research techniques, she studied the fact that cocaine has a negative effect to the cardiovascular system, for those who abuse the drug. Cocaine also inhibits dopamine, a neurotransmitter, that acts in giving us a "good feeling", from turning off. In other words, it causes dopamine to be at an excess. Her research is attempting to find another compound that can do the same thing, with no effects on the heart, and ending this drug addiction. The only difference is the compound she found will not cause dopamine to be at an excess but inhibited. The name of this compound is diphenylpyraline, or DPP.
Dr. Frank Booth: Running from Disease: Molecular Mechanisms Associating Dopamine and Leptin Signaling in the Brain with Physical Inactivity, Obesity, and Type 2 Diabetes
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Dr. Booth really wanted to understand why it is that when you are young, you have so much energy and when you get older, all that energy is pretty much gone. Physical Inactivity is a primary contributor to diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Understanding the molecular factors that stimulate physical activity and physical inactivity, is imperative for the development of strategies to reduce sedentary behavior and in turn prevent chronic disease. Despite many well-known health benefits of physical activity, little is known about genetic and biological factors that may influence this complex behavior. The mesolimbic dopamine system regulates motivating and rewarding behavior, as well as motor movement. Obesity may mechanistically lower voluntary physical activity levels via dopamine dysregulation. He summarized that his findings suggested that obesity leads to central dopaminergic dysfunction, which in turn contributes to reductions in physical activity that often accompany obesity.
Dr. Logan: The Effects of PI3 Kinase Signal Transduction Pathways on Cardiovascular Function
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Dr. Logan graduated from Winston-Salem State University. His research interest is the neuro-control of blood pressure. Most people do not think of neuroscience when they think of the heart. He wants to understand what areas of the brain lead to increases of blood pressure. Hypertension is the leading cause of death world-wide. Lack of physical activity and diets can lead to hypertension. He wants to find a medicine that someone can use to end high blood pressure. The difference is that he wants to get a medicine that is only needed as an injection, one time per year or five years. Basically to become way cheaper because many people take these medicines on a daily basis and they can get expensive.
Dr. Dance: Research Talk - Cancer Biologist
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She began her seminar by stating "Students that participate in undergraduate research show improvements in: thinking independently and critically, putting ideas together, solving problems, analyzing data, analyzing literature, interpreting research findings, conducting ethical research, and giving presentations." She has a research lab and focuses on characterizing biological diversity of tumors, developing improved and more targeted therapies that are specific for tumor subtypes, genomics, molecular genetics, and cell biology. Her main research is more specifically breast cancer. She uses mice, injecting them with the cancer, allowing it to grow inside their cells. The therapeutic goals of her laboratory are the prevention of initiation, promotion, transformation, and progression. The main question she has is can Diallyl Disulfide (DADS), found in garlic, selectively inhibit the growth of basal-like breast cancer, without minimal harm to the normal cells.
Dr. Nickkholgh: Regulation of Protein Kinase D1, a tumor suppressor gene in prostate cancer
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Dr. Nickkholgh says that cancer is very common and kills many. In the United States alone, it was predicted that in 2018, there will be 2 million new cases of cancer. This is a very important problem and the most common cancers are breast, colon, prostate and lung. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Many get it by the age of 45 and later. This is three times more common in African Americans. This is because of genetics. Prostate cancer is very localized but soon it can spread into other organs such as the bladder, lymph nodes, bones, liver, and honestly anywhere else throughout the body it travels to. Taking out the whole prostate does not do the job sometimes, which is a challenge they are facing in cancer research. Giving patients treatments, can cause some cancer to become resistant and make cases worse. She only works on protein kinase D1 which phosphorylates. In the normal body, it is involved in gene transcription and has many other functions. In many cancers, this protein is down-regulated and expression is very low. She found a big protein complex used for protein kinase D1. Once it is down-regulated, it does not phosphorylate other proteins as it should. Feedback regulation shows that when it is down-regulated, the cancer has a positive feedback effect and uses it to survive.
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