NE UR OSCIENCE

Protecting the vulnerable, informing the future

How an unlikely team kept students with severe and complex disabilities safe and in school PG

John J. Foxe, PhD

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK

This issue, particularly our cover story, may seem a little different, and that’s because it is. I’ve been looking forward to sharing this work with our readers because it showcases what a strong multidisciplinary community like ours can do in a time of great need, even if the task is unlike anything we had ever been confronted with before.

right time, paving the way to make this project possible.

Professor & Chair, Department of Neuroscience

The NIH-funded project, RADx-UP, short for “Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics in Underserved Populations,” coalesced a team of faculty, staff, and leadership, from an array of backgrounds and expertise, to tackle one of the great challenges of our era. How do we keep children with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities and complex medical needs safe and in school as a pandemic rages? You will learn how an unlikely team came together to find solutions and how our partnership with the extraordinary people at the Mary Cariola Center has allowed us to inform national policy. It is a project we unknowingly spent years preparing for, and it is one that has left a considerable mark on all of us.

I’m grateful that the NIH designation of our University of Rochester Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (UR-IDDRC) came at just the

ON THE COVER:

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

Diane Dalecki, PhD, Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Jennifer Harvey, MD, Chair, Department of Imaging Sciences

Robert Holloway, MD, MPH, Chair, Department of Neurology

Our faculty has had another prolific few months. As you read on, discover the new advances in neuroscience that are shaping our understanding of eye-andhand coordination and neuropsychiatric disorders in teens. Our scientists have also created one of the most detailed 3D images of the synapse—the junction where neurons communicate with each other through an exchange of chemical signals. This 3D technology could transform our understanding of what happens at these connections.

This summer marks year three of the Neuroscience Diversity Commission’s NEUROCITY program. Nine undergraduate students from City College New York are working in our neuroscience labs this summer. We are grateful for the warm welcome and hospitality bestowed on them in their early days in Rochester as they were welcomed to the home of the President of the University for a picnic (see back cover). In Science,

John J. Foxe, PhD

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, Jim Miller

Feature Photography John Schlia Photography

Designer Beth Carr

Research continues to rule out brain’s immune system as key to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

Researchers found early alcohol exposure does not change the connection between the brain's immune system and neurons that send information related to functions like balance and memory. In the Majewska Lab at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester, researchers investigated the interaction between microglia and Purkinje neurons—the neurons responsible for sending information from the cerebellum. Published in Frontiers in Neuroscience their research found that mice exposed to ethanol during development had no differences in microglia movement or structure and only subtle changes in the interaction between microglia and Purkinje neurons.

The Majewska lab’s research initially poked holes in the idea that FASD is driven by damage caused in the brain by impaired microglia when it found no difference in microglia activity in the brains of mice exposed to alcohol early in development when compared to those who were not exposed.

One out of every 100 babies born in the U.S. is diagnosed with FASD, which occurs when a child is exposed to alcohol in the womb. Currently, there is no available treatment.

Researchers find possible target for treating neuropsychiatric disorders in teens

The onset of neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia often begins during young adulthood. Dysfunction of the dopamine system—necessary for cognitive processing and decision-making— begins during this point in development. Researchers in the Wang Lab at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester are coming closer to finding a possible target for treating neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and autism during this time of development that could affect the brain circuitry into adulthood.

By targeting underperforming neurons in the dopamine system that connect to the frontal cortex in mice, researchers found that they could strengthen this circuit and rescue structural deficiencies in the brain that cause long-term symptoms. This research, published in the journal eLife, suggests that increasing the activity of the adolescent dopaminergic circuitry can rescue existing deficits in the circuit and be long-lasting as these changes persist into adulthood.

Research finds prediction may be key to eye-and-hand coordination

Have you ever made a great catch—like saving a phone from dropping into a toilet or catching an indoor cat from running outside? Those skills—the ability to grab a moving object—take precise interactions within and between our visual and motor systems. Researchers in the Wang lab at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester have found that the ability to visually predict movement may be an important part of the ability to make a great catch or grab a moving object.

The research, published in Current Biology, used multiple high-speed cameras and DeepLabCut—an AI method that uses video data to find key points on the hand and arm to measure movements—to record where the primate is looking and the movement of the arm and hand as it reaches and catches moving crickets. Researchers found an 80-millisecond delay in the animal’s visuomotor behavior—the moment when vision and movement click and work together to direct the hand toward the target. Despite this measurable delay, the primates still grabbed the crickets, meaning that it had to predict the cricket’s movement. Using data of both the primates and the crickets the researchers were able to build a detailed model of vision-guided reaching behavior.

A chance observation finds potential hearing biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease

A Neuroscience graduate student in the White Lab at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester was reviewing data for one project but instead discovered that the location of plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the brain may contribute to hearing loss. During hearing tests on mice with amyloid beta, the main component of protein plaques and tangles found in Alzheimer’s, the student found that for one model, called 5xFAD, the older mice had hearing changes similar to what is found in people with Alzheimer’s disease. The other model did not demonstrate these hearing changes, nor did younger mice in the 5xFAD group.

The research, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, found that the brains of older mice from both models had plaques in the hippocampus and auditory cortex. But the brains of mice with hearing changes also had a small amount of plaque on the auditory brainstem, suggesting this area may be sensitive to disruption from plaque found in Alzheimer’s. Researchers discovered that the plaque reduced the brainstem’s ability to coordinate responses to sound.

AI helps show how the brain's fluids flow

A new artificial intelligence-based technique for measuring fluid flow around the brain’s blood vessels could have big implications for developing treatments for neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s, small vessel disease, strokes, and traumatic brain injuries. The perivascular spaces that surround cerebral blood vessels transport water-like fluids around the brain and help sweep away waste.

A multidisciplinary team of mechanical engineers, neuroscientists, and computer scientists led by University of Rochester Associate Professor Douglas Kelley, PhD, developed novel AI velocimetry measurements to accurately calculate brain fluid flow. The results are outlined in a study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This technique allowed researchers to effectively measure things that have not been measured before.

New images capture unseen details of the synapse

Scientists have created one of the most detailed 3D images of the synapse, the juncture where neurons communicate with each other through an exchange of chemical signals. These nanometer scale models will help scientists better understand and study neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease and schizophrenia.

The study appears in the journal PNAS and was authored by a team led by Steve Goldman, MD, PhD, co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen. The findings represent a significant technical achievement that allows researchers to study the different cells that converge at individual synapses at a level of detail not previously achievable, and holds the potential to advance our understanding of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases in which synaptic function is disturbed.