CENTER FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH EXCELLENCE
(COBRE)
on
NEURAL MECHANISMS OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR
The University of South Dakota School of Medicine has been awarded an $ 8
Million research grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish
a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in the area of Neural
Mechanisms of Adaptive Behavior. During the five year term of this
grant, the Neuroscience Group, which is comprised of USD School of
Medicine and USD Department of Biology researchers, will be working on
several interrelated research projects which are designed to address the
general question of how the nervous system adapts behavior to changes in
the environment. Behavioral modifications in response to the environment
are an external manifestation of adaptive mechanisms that take place in
neuronal circuits in the brain. The main aim of our COBRE is to
understand how structural reorganization in neural pathways results in
adaptive behavioral responses to novel sensory-motor experiences.
Functional reorganization of neural circuits is fundamental to processes
that occur during learning and memory, development, and in the central
nervous system's response to stress, injury or disease. The grant
includes a number of pre- and postdoctoral fellowships, and funds to hire
and support four new tenure-track faculty positions in neuroscience.
Specific Projects of the Center:
Joyce Keifer, Ph.D. (Director): Synaptic mechanisms underlying in vitro
classical conditioning
Evelyn Schlenker, Ph.D.: Adaptation of the respiratory pattern generator in response to oxygen deprivation
Ken Renner, Ph.D., and Cliff Summers, Ph.D.: Steroid and monoamine effects on sex, stress and seizures
Robert Morecraft, Ph.D.: Mechanisms underlying focal cranial-cervical
dystonia
Timothy Clark, Ph.D.: Molecular mechanisms of
enhanced learning and memory associated with neurogenesis
The Center includes the following activities (click on links for more inforation):
Neuroscience Seminar series
Annual Symposia on a selected topic
Pilot research grants
Student/Faculty travel to nationally recognized courses (CSH, MBL)
Workshops
New positions:
PRE- and POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
are open immediately.
FOUR NEW TENURE-TRACK FACULTY POSITIONS
will be filled in the next five years.
Letters of application for postdoctoral positions should include a
Curriculum vitae, and names of three references; inquiries into
predoctoral positions should include a statement of research interests and
career goals. For further information contact the researcher of interest,
or:
J. Keifer, Ph.D., Neuroscience Group, Division of Basic Biomedical
Sciences, University of South Dakota School of Medicine, Vermillion, SD,
57069. E-mail: jkeifer@usd.edu
