By Dalton N. Hughes, Andreia Ribeiro, Swarnalatha Balasubramanian
Jennie B. Leach, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

UC Ballroom  |  10:00-12:30 PM

Neurons grow and develop in the three-dimensional (3D) environment of the developing embryo. Previous work from our group has demonstrated that culturing embryonic neurons in 3D matrices allows the cells to respond in a way that more closely resembles natural development than traditional two-dimensional (2D) culture. Cells interact with their extracellular matrix and sense the dimensionality of their surroundings via integrin receptors on the cell surface that bind to matrix molecules, initiate intracellular signaling cascades and affect changes in cell shape and function. Our work focuses on elucidating the signaling events that regulate these changes in cell response. We hypothesize that 3D environments impose changes in matrix-ligand organization and alter neuronal behavior by modulating β1-integrin cytoskeleton signaling. PC12 cells, a neuronal cell model, were cultured on 2D and within 3D collagen substrates and probe the signaling response by inhibiting several key signaling molecules involved in regulating neuron morphology: β1-integrin, Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK), and an activated form of FAK that is phosphorylated at tyrosine 397. The results of this study will identify the key signaling mechanisms in 3D neuronal culture and provide a biological basis for testing new biomaterial-based therapeutics.

*This research was supported in part by a grant to UMBC from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through the Precollege and Undergraduate Science Education, an Undergraduate Research award from the UMBC Office of Undergraduate Education, NIH-NINDS R01NS065205 (JBL), the Henry-Luce Foundation (JBL), and Wyeth Fellowship at UMBC (AR).

You are invited to attend an Open House at the UM School of Pharmacy!  This is an opportunity to learn more about the PharmD curriculum, review the admissions process, and talk with current students, alumni, and faculty about the School of Pharmacy.

This Open House is a program format and will begin at 10am.  Attendees also have the opportunity to take a campus tour.

Upcoming Open Houses

Date: Saturday, April 14, 2012

Time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
        Registration begins at 9:30am with light breakfast

Location: Pharmacy Hall
               20 N Pine St.
               Baltimore, MD

  Friday, April 6, 12:00 - 1:00pm PUP 367
    
    James Bessen is a scholar who studies the economics of
    innovation and patents. He has also been a successful innovator and CEO of a software company. Currently, Mr. Bessen is Lecturer in Law at the Boston University School of Law and Fellow at the Berkman Center on Internet and Society at Harvard.
    
    Bessen has done research on whether patents promote
    innovation, how and why innovators share new knowledge, and
    on how firms developed new skills and technical knowledge
    during the Industrial Revolution. His book, Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk (Princeton 2008) with Michael J. Meurer, highlights the problems caused by poorly defined property rights (“patent notice”).
    
    In 1983, Bessen developed the first commercially successful
    “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” PC publishing program, founding a company that delivered PC-based publishing systems to high-end commercial publishers. Intergraph Corporation acquired the company in 1993.
    
    Get in on this opportunity to "chat" with James about the things he learned in business that seemed at odds with what he learned in the classroom (patents, sharing knowledge, the high cost of learning on the job, etc.)  He'll also discuss his recent research on this topic.