NE UR OSCIENCE
University of Rochester | Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience Vol. 23 - 2024
The Grandmother of UR Neuroscience
How Carol Kellogg, PhD (’70), founded one of the first undergraduate programs in the country PG 4
ON THE COVER
Carol Kellogg, PhD, (’70), professor emeritus in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, stands where the original Center for Brain Research building once stood on the University of Rochester campus. Kellogg was once called a grandmother of neuroscience by a grateful father of a student from Korea for the pivotal role she played in their lives as a mentor.
(1963) Center for Brain Research on University of Rochester campus. It once stood northwest of the quad, adjacent to the buildings Lattimore and Morey.
(1977) Former UR President Robert Sproull takes first swing at former Center for Brain Research that would eventually be named the Morey Annex. By 1972, the CBR moved to the Medical Center campus, and Neurobiology became an approved graduate program in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the Medical Center. In the 1990s, it would eventually merge with Anatomy, one of the original departments that dates to 1925. Today, Neurobiology and Anatomy is known as the Department of Neuroscience.
(1991) Carol Kellogg, PhD (’70)
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK
The 2024/2025 academic year is in full swing with an abundance of groundbreaking discoveries. From mapping the brain of the fruit fly to new insights into neural connections in the brain of children with autism to a noninvasive method using bioluminescence to activate the brain, University of Rochester neuroscientists continue to provide new discoveries, questions, and directions to forge ahead in that will advance our understanding of the brain.
be remiss if I didn’t mention our former students, including Jeff Swarz, PhD (’77), who was the second speaker in our Legacy Series. Swarz is the co-founder and CEO of the Israeli biotech firm ATED Therapeutics and is a partner and managing director at M.M. Dillon & Company. We are grateful for his time and for sharing his career experience with our students. Thank you!
Director, Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience
Professor & Chair, Department of Neuroscience
Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience Executive Committee
John Foxe, PhD, Chair, Department of Neuroscience
Bradford Berk MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Cardiology
Robert Dirksen, PhD, Chair, Department of Pharmacology & Physiology
As we mark 100 years since the Anatomy Department opened labs at the Medical Center—it is the same department we know today as Neuroscience. There is so much to celebrate and reflect upon. There is a storied history of neuroscience at the University— we were one of the first places in the country to have an institute dedicated to brain research. In this issue, I am thrilled that you get to learn a bit more about our history and meet the founder of the undergraduate Neuroscience program, Carol Kellogg, who is also an alumnus of the University (pg.4).
Reflecting on our storied past, I would
We had a wonderful time in Chicago at the Society for Neuroscience Conference. There were over 50 posters presented by our faculty, postdocs, and students, who also gave several talks about their latest research. Over 130 neuroscience alumni and supporters of our work attended our social event, a terrific night of conversation and friendship. I am always proud to see Rochester research represented so well on the international stage, making waves, and shaping the field.
In Science,
John J. Foxe, PhD
Diane Dalecki, PhD, Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Jennifer Harvey, MD, Chair, Department of Imaging Sciences
Robert Holloway, MD, MPH, Chair, Department of Neurology
Paige Lawrence, PhD, Chair, Department of Environmental Medicine
Hochang (Ben) Lee, MD, Chair, Department of Psychiatry
Shawn Newlands, MD, PhD, MBA, Chair, Department of Otolaryngology
Webster Pilcher, MD, PhD, Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
Steven Silverstein, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Duje Tadin, PhD, Chair, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences
NEUROSCIENCE
Editor/Writer
Kelsie Smith Hayduk
Kelsie_Smith-Hayduk@ urmc.rochester.edu
Contributors
Mark Michaud
Kelly Webster
Feature Photography
John Schlia Photography
Jeff Swarz, PhD (’77), meets with Neuroscience graduate students.
John J. Foxe, PhD
Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Chair in Neuroscience
A revolutionary map of the fly brain could change how we study our brains
Researchers have developed a groundbreaking new resource—the FlyWire Connectome, described in the journal Nature—that maps every neuron and synaptic connection in the central brain of Drosophila melanogaster, or the fruit fly. Totaling over 130,000 neurons and 30 million synaptic connections, this revolutionary tool will expedite inquiry into how the brain works and expand the questions that can be asked.
“The importance of this cannot be understated, because it really just drastically changes the field,” said Gabriella Sterne, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Genetics and Neuroscience, who contributed to this research as a member of the FlyWire consortium, a group co-led by the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom, Princeton University, the University of Vermont, and the University of Cambridge. “The first time I saw the complexity of the connectome it literally blew my mind because we have been thinking of these circuits in a simplistic manner, but we can now appreciate that they are far more complex than we imagined.”
3D rendering of all ~140k neurons in the fruit fly brain. Data source: FlyWire.ai; Rendering by Philipp Schlegel, University of Cambridge/MRC LMB
Researchers can now use this resource to untangle complex brain connections and functions, accelerate findings, inform machine learning and artificial intelligence, and improve our understanding of the human brain.
Sterne worked with researchers at Max Planck Florida Institute using the connectome to understand more about the simple behavior of stopping. They identified two circuit mechanisms that fruit flies use to stop walking: the walk-off mechanism, which essentially turns off walking signals, and the brake mechanism, which increases resistance at the leg joints to produce a stable posture.
These latest findings suggest a generic circuit mechanism that may also trigger halting or stopping in humans. These insights could also inform the design of robots and inspire new computing architectures.
But Sterne cautions that there is still a long road until a fly can be booted up to fly inside a computer. “We’re not there yet because one thing this connectome lacks is information about how the motor neurons connect to physical features of the body like the muscles.”
Research finds neurons look different in children with autism
There is new evidence that the cells responsible for communication in the brain, may be structured differently in children with autism. Researchers discovered that in some areas of the brain neuron density varies in children with autism when compared to the general population.
Researchers, including John Foxe, PhD, director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience who is the senior author, used brain imaging data collected by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study from more than 11,000 children ages 9-11. They compared the imaging of the 142 children in that group with autism, to the general population and found there was lower neuron density in regions of the cerebral cortex. Some of these regions of the brain are responsible for tasks like memory, learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. In contrast, the researchers also found other brain regions, such as the amygdala—an area responsible for emotions—that showed increased neuron density. In addition to comparing the scans of children with autism to those of children without any neurodevelopmental diagnosis, they also compared the children with autism to a large group of children diagnosed with common psychiatric disorders like ADHD and anxiety. The results were the same, suggesting that these differences are specific to Autism.
Turning brain cells on using the power of light
University of Rochester researchers have demonstrated a noninvasive method using BL-OG, or bioluminescent optogenetics, that harnesses light to activate neurons in the brain. The ability to regulate brain activation could transform invasive procedures such as deep brain stimulation that is used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions.
The advantage of this new technique is that it can create brain activation without the use of an implanted device in the brain to deliver physical light, according to Manuel Gomez-Ramirez, PhD, an assistant professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the senior author of the study, which appears in the journal NeuroImage
FDA taps URMC to develop new digital measures for Huntington's disease
Developing digital tools to identify objective measures of Huntington’s disease will help accelerate the development of new therapies. Neurologist Jamie Adams, MD, is the principal investigator of the study funded by the Food and Drug Administration and will be led by the University of Rochester’s Center for Health + Technology (CHeT). CHeT has been studying digital health technologies in Parkinson's disease for a decade.
The FDA has tasked URMC and collaborators with demonstrating the reliability, validity, and meaningfulness of two key digital measures: daily living mobility (gait) and chorea, the involuntary muscle movements that are a hallmark symptom of the disease. Data will be captured remotely and continuously using wrist and trunk-worn digital sensors in individuals with early-stage Huntington's disease and controls. The study also includes qualitative work using an innovative symptom mapping approach to ensure the meaningfulness of the measures to people with Huntington’s disease.
New research offers hope for preventing age-related blindness
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the United States. Despite existing treatments, the underlying causes of this disease and effective therapies remain elusive. New research published in the journal Developmental Cell provides important insights into the cellular mechanisms behind AMD and offers potential avenues for new treatments.
The study led by Ruchira Singh, PhD, with the University of Rochester Flaum Eye Institute and Center for Visual Sciences, utilized human stem cells to model AMD, overcoming the limitations of previous research using animal models. By examining genes associated with both AMD and rarer inherited forms of blindness called macular dystrophies, the researchers identified a key protein involved in the early stages of the disease. They also developed a method that reduced deposits of lipids and proteins that are often early indicators of AMD, suggesting a possible pathway that could be a promising strategy for preventing AMD.
Comparing gene sequences across species to understand aging and dementia
A new grant partners longevity researchers and Alzheimer’s experts at Rochester to study the gene mechanisms that contribute to long and healthy lifespans. The new collaboration between leading longevity researchers, including Vera Gorbunova, PhD, Doris Johns Cherry Professor in the departments of Biology and of Medicine, and brain disease expert M. Kerry O’Banion, MD, PhD, professor of Neuroscience, will examine gene mechanisms responsible for long life, drawing on the latest findings to pursue novel interventions for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The five-year $18.5 million grant was awarded by the National Institute on Aging.
The Grandmother of UR Neuroscience
How Carol Kellogg, PhD ('70), founded one of the first undergraduate programs in the country
As the year 1960 came to a close, then-president of the University of Rochester, Dr. C. W. deKiewiet, announced the establishment of the Center for Brain Research (CBR). He declared that “brain research is going to be one of the most important areas of basic science in the coming decade and one that promises major advances in mental health and medicine in general.”
Three years later, construction would begin on one of the earliest interdisciplinary neuroscience centers in the country. The CBR building housed 20 research and training laboratories, and in 1966 a young and bright Carol Kellogg walked onto campus for the first time as a student. It would be the beginning of her part in the storied history of the science we know today as neuroscience, at the University of Rochester.
From left: Carol Kellogg, PhD ('70), stands with Renee Miller, BS ('97), PhD ('05), outside of Meloria Hall. Kellogg was Miller's mentor while she was a student in the program she now leads.
“The secret of success is to be ready when opportunity knocks,” said Kellogg, PhD (’70), professor emeritus in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. In 1972, she found herself back at the University as an assistant professor in Psychology and CBR, following a postdoctoral fellowship in Sweden in the lab of Arvid Carlsson, PhD. Carlsson would win a Nobel Prize for his work that discovered dopamine.
“There was an explosion of neuroscience happening in the 1970s. At the beginning of the decade, we knew about three, maybe four, neurotransmitters in the brain. But within that decade, we would learn about hundreds more.”
Students’ innovation paves way for new major
The brain research boom was not lost on the undergraduate students at the University. Kellogg took note of this as a member of the committee that approves applications for independent majors. “Students on campus were try-ing to create a major in neuroscience or neurobiology, so they were taking the courses they could find. But there weren’t any real courses in neuroscience.” Before the decade
was over, Kellogg submitted to add neuroscience as an undergraduate major at the University, and in 1979 it became official. From there, Kellogg, who was already teaching a neurochemistry course, began the neuroscience introductory course, and received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to begin a lab course.
The undergraduate Neuroscience program would be first listed in the University’s 1979-80 bulletin. Kellogg says the support of Garth Thomas, PhD, director of the CBR at the time, helped get the program up and running.
“The Center for Brain Research was sort of the catalyst for neuroscience at Rochester,” said Kellogg, who was the first chairperson of the Committee on Neuroscience. Wayne Hoss, PhD, assistant professor of CBR, Harry Whitaker, PhD, professor of Psychology and Neurology, Jerry Schwartzbaum, PhD, professor of Psychology, and Don Gash, PhD, assistant professor of Anatomy and Brain Research, were the inaugural faculty of the program, Robert Kreilick, PhD, professor of Chemistry, was on the steering committee, and William O’Neill, PhD, was brought
Behind CBR was Robert Doty, PhD, a formative neuroscientist whose research contributed to the understanding of the separate functions of the brain’s cerebral hemispheres. He spent his career at the University and would go on to help create the Society for Neuroscience , the largest professional society for brain and nervous system research in the world.
in by the CBR to help teach in the undergraduate program. Following official state approval in 1980, the program graduated 11 students.
“It was exciting, but it was also just a struggle to keep your head above water. It was kind of overwhelming in the beginning. Trying to start labs, keep the research going, keep the funding going, teach and start a whole new major,” said Kellogg.
Through the 1980s, the program continued to thrive, and science evolved. The study of cognitive processes and their neural underpinnings was accelerating, and a Cognitive Sciences Conference was held at the University in the summer of 1982. By 1985, Ernie and Kathy Nordeen moved to the University as faculty in Psychology and would eventually move to the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department.
“I think that one of the things unique about Rochester is that undergraduates have the Medical Center sitting right across the street,” said Ernie Nordeen, PhD, professor emeritus of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) who would become Kellogg’s successor as director of the undergraduate neuroscience
program. “This greatly expands the opportunities for undergraduate students to do laboratory research. In addition to opportunities in BCS, students often choose laboratories in the Medical Center to pursue research.”
Students like Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH, BS (’95), the current director of the Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology Program at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, came to the University from Bulgaria in 1991 with $200 in his pocket. “The kind of work that was going on was very cutting edge, very meticulous and thoughtful,” said Ianchulev who credits his academic and medical trajectory to the neuroscience
"The program has been instrumental in helping me grow as a young scientist."
– Emma Evereth, senior at the University of Rochester
program, and particularly Carol Kellogg and Peter Lennie, PhD, the founding chair of BCS and Jay Last Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science. “Her [Kellogg’s] approach was kind of a quiet, thoughtful leader who really pressure tested your thinking in a very deliberate way. She left a phenomenal impact that encouraged me to go into neuroscience. I eventually realized the part I really liked about neuroscience was ophthalmology.”
Keeping up with an evolving field
By the mid-1990s, a divide in research interests was becoming increasingly obvious among faculty, particularly in the Psychology department, so the University approved a new department, known today as Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
“Around 1995 we realized that interests in the department were diverging, and it probably made sense to think about forming a department among the natural science faculty within Psychology,” said Nordeen. “That included about 14 of us who were interested in understanding higher-level cognitive processes like language, perception, learning, and memory, from the point of view of underlying brain function."
During that time, Renee Miller, BS (’97), PhD (’05), professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, would become a student in the undergraduate neuroscience program. Under the mentorship of Kellogg, she would navigate her way toward research, and eventually emerge with a PhD in Neuroscience from the School of Medicine and Dentistry. Today, Miller is the director of the same undergraduate program she completed, and although the classes have evolved, the collaboration with the Medical Center continues.
“I’m very conscious about creating value for our students and their families, and teaching classes in a way that gives
(Left) Ernie Nordeen, PhD, professor emeritus of Brain and Cognitive Sciences with wife and colleague Kathy Nordeen, PhD, professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Neuroscience at the University.
Renee Miller, BS (’97), PhD (’05), professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, teaching the Introductory Lab in Neurobiology to second year students who intend to major in Neuroscience.
them skills that they can’t get from reading a book or taking a simpler version of a class,” said Miller, who introduced a new course in 2020 called Acquired Brain Disorders that puts students in lectures with Medical Center faculty and physicians where they listen to case studies and then shadow positions, ideally one in surgery and one in clinic. The students then must complete simulated cases based on actual patients and navigate scenarios in a real-time virtual environment. “I’ve been impressed with the willingness of those faculty to give their time to the undergraduate students, both in shadowing and teaching.”
The tradition of following students' interests continues nearly 45 years after Kellogg first took note of their desire for a neuroscience major. Greg DeAngelis, PhD, George Eastman professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, and Center for Visual Science, who was the department chair until 2019, has seen this as the type of courses offered to undergraduate neuroscience students have shifted during his tenure. “Students vote with their feet, and it is pretty clear that in addition to neurobiology courses, they want course work that connects content to the bigger picture, health,
health issues, and political issues,” said DeAngelis, who acknowledges the success of the program has been the
More than 1,200 students have graduated from the program since 1980.
faculty’s ability to adjust and change curriculum and create a culture of teaching from faculty to faculty. “It is like you are being mentored to be a good mentor. Kathy and Ernie Nordeen really taught me a lot about how the program worked. They and other faculty care deeply about the undergraduate mission and have really taken faculty under their wing and handed down responsibilities.”
The undergraduate neuroscience program is an example of the innovation of education at the University, fostering a decades-long relationship with Medical Center faculty and providing a solid foundation for a pre-med or research track student. “We’re not just having career academics teaching our students, and you really could not do that if you didn’t have the strong historical links between the two campuses,” said Duje Tadin, PhD, interim Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, and former chair of BCS. “To me, this is a really great example of coordinating our medical and educational mission and giving students a unique training experience.”
Greg DeAngelis, PhD, George Eastman professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, and Center for Visual Science, gives lecture to undergraduate students.
Undergraduate Neuroscience student, Showmick Paul, stands with his research poster at the annual Society for Neuroscience Conference, in Chicago. Paul is co-mentored by Ania Majewska, PhD, and Edward Brown, PhD, Neuroscience faculty at the Medical Center.
Q&A with Jamie Capal, MD
Jamie Capal, MD, is the division chief of Child Neurology, Frederick A. Horner, MD, Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Pediatric Neurology, and has appointments in Neurology, Pediatrics, Neuroscience, and the Center for Health and Technology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is also the co-director of the Human Clinical Phenotyping and Recruitment Core of the University of Rochester Intellectual Developmental Disability Research Center (UR-IDDRC). She received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Ithaca College and completed her medical degree at Albany Medical College. She completed her residency in pediatrics, neurology with special qualifications in child neurology, and neurodevelopmental disabilities at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She was most recently an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she helped lead efforts to create the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD) Clinical Trials Program.
Please summarize your research.
I focus on neurodevelopmental disabilities, diseasemodifying therapies, and really the understanding and treatment of neurodevelopment across the lifespan. I’m very involved in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and Angelman syndrome and am expanding to Fragile X and Rett syndrome. I have a pilot, non-pharmacologic treatment trial through the Department of Defense in kids and adolescents with TSC who exhibit associated neuropsychiatric difficulties such as emotion dysregulation. This is a two-site clinical trial with Cincinnati and now Rochester.
How did you become interested in your field?
When I was in college, I worked at a residential facility in Oneonta, New York. It used to be called Upstate Home for Children and Adults, and it’s now called Springbrook. I worked in the more medically intense home on the campus. I was a one-on-one aid to a boy with profound autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and Down syndrome. I really just loved working with the kids and was involved with all aspects of their lives. I got to go to school with them. I got to take care of all their daily needs. And I really got to interface a lot with the healthcare system and realized that care was extremely fragmented. When I went to medical school, I tried to find a specialty that fit the type of care that I was hoping to
provide these children. Partway through my medical school training the Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NDD) program was developed, and I contacted Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore and spent a month rotating through their program. The NDD program encompassed elements of developmental pediatrics, psychiatry, neurology, and others, which was exactly what I was looking for.
What brought you to the University of Rochester?
My entire family is from Malone, New York. I’d always hoped to move closer to home. The job opportunity came at a good time. While I interviewed, I really enjoyed all the people that I interacted with and realized that there’s a lot of potential to build on what I’m already doing. Being able to collaborate with Dennis Kuo, MD, and Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, and then the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center and the interest from John Foxe, PhD, around neurotherapeutics and rare disease is aligned with my interests as well.
What is your favorite piece of advice?
As far as advice goes, I think a lot of success is driven by being open to new opportunities. To give you an example, when I was a junior faculty in Cincinnati, I never thought about tuberous sclerosis, but my mentor walked into my office and asked if I had thought about being in the TSC clinic and I decided to give it a shot. It completely changed my career. I think having the courage to do things that are out of your comfort zone, and not being afraid to say yes to things—even if you don’t feel fully prepared in the moment—can lead to unexpected opportunities.
Evan Newbold
Evan Newbold is a fifth-year neuroscience graduate student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He received his undergraduate degree in neuroscience from Lafayette College where he was also a Division I swimmer. Newbold is currently in the Nedergaard lab where his research focuses on the glymphatic system, the brain’s waste removal system, and whether it could be used as a delivery system for therapeutics.
“The blood-brain barrier is a major challenge in terms of central nervous system therapeutic dosing, limiting many therapeutic opportunities,” said Newbold. “Cerebral spinal fluid is not subject to the blood-brain barrier, so if it can indeed reach every corner of the brain and bring material payload, or some sort of therapeutic to the spaces, you might think about cerebral spinal fluid as a route of administration to reach the global brain.”
The University of Rochester has long been a part of Newbold’s life. His father has a PhD in Chemistry from the University. But a 2013 paper in Science put Rochester, particularly the Nedergaard lab, on his radar while he was an undergraduate student. “From there, I kept track of the papers coming out [of that lab], and I thought they did great work,” said Newbold. “I think that was the major draw for me; this is work I am interested in and familiar with. I paid attention to it for a long time.”
That paper became a seminal moment in Newbold's scientific journey, and along with piquing his interest in the lab’s research, it was also an early experience of being able to read and understand a scientific paper. It is part of what has motivated him to become a student mentor. “I feel like there's a big barrier to entry for understanding scientific research papers, so I organized a journal club aimed at the lab’s techs and undergrads to read through, dissect, and understand the papers that came out of our lab, particularly those focused on the glymphatic system. We went back to 2012 and looked at the foundational research that Dr. Maiken Nedergaard and others in the lab published and walked through the papers together to bring everybody up to speed.” In 2024, he received the University’s Edward Peck Curtis Award for Teaching by a Graduate Student.
Growing up in a house where both parents were scientists put Newbold on the scientific trajectory at a young age, but
it is perhaps his sisters’ health that had the most influence on his field of study. “I have two younger sisters, both who have struggled with epilepsy throughout their lives,” Newbold said. “I spent a lot of time tagging along with my mom to their neurology appointments. That generated some interest in trying to understand what was happening to them and what was causing it.”
Married with a young son, Newbold enjoys spending time with his family, biking, using their fire pit, and playing board games when he’s not in the lab.
A GALLERY: Neuroscientists in color
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