Episode 308 - Punam Pokam, PhD

On May 8, 2025 we met with Kevin Bieniek to talk about the nature of brain injury seen in chronic traumatic encephalopathy in athletes and others who experience repeated concussion. Kevin explained the commonalities and unique features of those injuries compared to neurodegenerative diseases.Guest:Kevin Bieniek, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director of the Brain Bank at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio.Participating:Melanie Carless, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music

On April 17, 2025 we met with Nicholas Priebe to describe developments in the study of neuronal representations of the visual world. We discussed the origin of variability the temporal patterns of responses, and the possibility that responses are influenced by non-visual pathways.Guest:Nicholas Priebe, Department of Neuroscience, University of Texas at AustinParticipating:Todd Troyer, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

On April 10th (I said April 4th, but it was the 10th), 2025 we spoke with Punam Pokam about the molecular mechanisms that control osmotic balance of neurons and glia, and their changes after brain injury. She also explained the pathological membrane potential changes and ionic currents that are associated with injury and their relation to cell swelling.Guest:Punam Pokam, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Texas A&M School of MedicineHostCharles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music

On April 3, 2025 we met with Lorena Saelices to talk about what we know about the structure of amyloids, how they form by misfolding and aggregation of proteins, and how they damage cells and tissues in a range of disorders (including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases). Guest:Lorena Saelices, Assistant Professor, Department of Biophysics and the Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the UT Southwestern Medical School.Participating:Chris Gamblin, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson , Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music

On March 27, 2025, we spoke with Nace Golding about the auditory pathways in the brainstem and midbrain. We focused on the inferior colliculus, and on identifying the key cell types that make up that essential but mysterious midbrain auditory nucleus. Guest:Nace Golding, Professor, Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Learning and Memory, University of Texas at Austin.Participating:Marina Silveria, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to Jim Tepper for original music

On March 20, 2025 we spoke with the speakers at our annual UTSA Neuroscience Symposium for 2025, entitled "Prefrontal Cortical Functions Beyond Fear". The panel talked about the contribution of medial prefrontal cortex in fear, threat and safety learning, cognitive flexibility, psychiatric disorders, recent and remote memory, and some other things. GuestsAnthony Burgos-Robles, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSALaura Denardo, Department of Physiology, UCLA School of MedicineJason Keller, HHMI Janelia Research CampusDavid Morilak, Department of Pharmacology, UT Health San AntonioHostCharles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

On February 27, 2025 we were joined by Xue Han about using genetically expressed fluorescent voltage sensors to measure transmembrane voltage simultaneously in multiple neurons in the brain of awake behaving animals over days or weeks. She explained how the genetic sequences for the voltage sensor molecules are found and perfected, how they are delivered to the neurons of interest, the challenges of measuring voltage by changes in fluorescence, and the kinds of questions whose solutions are waiting for this technology. Guest:Xue Han, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston UniversityHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to Jim Tepper for original music

On February 13, 2025 we met with Yin Shen to discuss the contribution of cis-regulatory non-coding DNA sequences in controlling gene expression, and how variation of these regions in microglia may be risk factors in idiopathic brain diseases.Guest:Yin Shen, Professor in the Department of Neurology and the Institute for Human Genetics in the Weill Institute for Neurosciences at the University of California San Francisco School of MedicineParticipating:Melanie Carless, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to Jim Tepper for original music

On January 30, 2025 we spoke with Ekaterina (Katya) Likhtic about the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and the circuits responsible for fear conditioning and extinction. She informed us about the special contribution of the amygdala to emotion and emotional learning, and we discussed the special place of fear conditioning as a model for learning generally. Guest: Katya Likhtic, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Hunter City University of New York. Participating: Tony Burgos-Robles, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA. Itamar Lerner, Department of Psychology, UTSA Host: Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA.

On December 13, 2024 we spoke with the speakers at our annual UTSA Neuroscience Symposium, on the Basal Ganglia Circuitry. Topics of discussion included the heterogeneity of cells and connections, the usefulness of the idea of cell types (or lack thereof), and the relationship between neuromodulators and fast synaptic transmission. Sorry about the sound quality on this one. Guests: Charles Gerfen, Senior Investigator, National Institute of Mental Health Joshua Goldberg, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Hebrew University Zayd Khaliq, Senior Investigator, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke Tianyi Mao, Senior Scientist, Vollum Institute, Oregon Health & Science University Gilad Silberberg, Professor | Docent, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute D. James Surmeier, Professor, Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Host: Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA