FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               

For more information, contact:

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Sheila Champlin – (901) 448-4957, schampli@uthsc.edu or

Dena Owens – (901) 448-4072, dowens10@uthsc.edu

 

 

Professor Detlef Heck of

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Receives $371,723 Grant to Study Brain Activity

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Memphis, Tenn. (October 21, 2011) – Detlef Heck, PhD, professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has received a grant award for $371,723 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a subsidiary of the National Institutes of Health.  The grant will be used to develop his study on brain activity.  His research titled, “Manipulation and Imaging of Synchronous Population Activity in the Neocortex,” will be funded over a two-year period.  Dr. Heck and his research team are examining how millions of neurons in the brain coordinate their activity. 

“We are particularly interested in the neocortex – the part of the brain that allows us to perform higher level cognitive tasks – in terms of planning, judging or speaking, and how this neocortex might malfunction in brain disorders,” says Dr. Heck.  “We now know that such complex cognitive processes are performed through the coordinated collaboration of millions of neurons and that these collaborations are highly dynamic.”

In order to investigate these fast dynamic processes, cutting-edge imaging technology is required.  The grant award will allow the research team to purchase a state-of-the-art imaging system that they will use to investigate the coordination of neuronal activity in normal and diseased mouse brains.  While mouse brains are much smaller than human brains, in many respects, both function in the same capacity.  Using genetic manipulations, human brain disorders can be reproduced in mice.  The imaging technology will aid the research team in gaining new insights into the probable causes of cognitive deficits in different brain disorders such as autism.

                The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases.  For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

As the flagship statewide academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service.  In 2011, UT Health Science Center celebrates its centennial: 100 years advancing the future of health care.  Offering a broad range of postgraduate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy.  The UTHSC campus in Knoxville includes a College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, and an Allied Health Sciences unit.  In addition, the UTHSC Chattanooga campus includes a College of Medicine and an Allied Health Sciences unit.  Since its founding in 1911, UTHSC has educated and trained more than 53,000 health care professionals on campuses and in health care facilities across the state.  For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.

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