He will work with Kimford Meador, M.D., a professor of neurology and director of the epilepsy and clinical Alzheimer's programs, and Frank Bova, Ph.D., a physicist and professor of neurosurgery, to use new fMRI techniques to literally "watch" activity inside the brains of human volunteers as they respond to memory-related tasks.
While Loring and colleagues hope to pinpoint the regions of the brain that contribute to successful memory formation and develop a technique to test the effectiveness of drugs used to fight memory loss, Moroz is attempting to determine why some brain cells age more quickly than others.
Answers may come from the inconspicuous sea slug Aplysia californica. This ocean creature has the largest neurons in the animal kingdom, creating a simple memory-forming network that is easily studied.
Analyzing the biochemical products that result when the genes of Aplysia neurons express themselves may reveal markers for human memory function and provide information regarding a neuron's "life span." Moroz wants to know how neuron longevity affects memory and why specific neurons age at different rates.
"We have all the tools in our hands; the problem is combining the right people with the right cells to answer the question of what kind of genes contribute to long-term memory formation," Moroz explained. "Nobody really understands on the level of specific cells how many genes work together. We are excited because this is the first time we will be able to monitor all genes in specific neurons."
Results from Moroz's research could mean new drugs to target specific cells in the brains of those suffering from age-related memory loss.
"We want to know, do different neurons learn differently, and if they do, do they age differently? Put the
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Contact: John Pastor
jpastor@vpha.health.ufl.edu
352-273-5815
University of Florida
30-Nov-2005