higher education : Innovation + Job News

The Baltimore Community Foundation (BCF), an umbrella organzation for a range of Baltimore-based non-profit groups, handed out $112,500 in scholarship awards to 67 Maryland students. The awards ranging in amount from $500 to $10,000 were awarded to graduating members of the Class of 2010 as well as former recipients currently attending college.

"A well-educated workforce is crucial to our goal of a Baltimore with a growing economy where all have the opportunity to thrive, and BCF is proud to support this vision by helping young people realize their dreams of attending college. Today we celebrate BCF's scholarship recipients, as well as the generous donors who helped make it all possible," says Tom Wilcox, BCF president.

Hilary Bowman, a graduating senior at Digital Harbor High School, recieved the $10,000 One Step Up Scholarship. The scholarship, established by Jonnie-Kay McLean and her husband Norman Morrison, was created to enable young women who have overcome significant challenges and displayed leadership qualities to go to college.

"I've been in education for 40 years and when I went to school, I was the only girl in my high school to go. I had no money at all, no way of getting money and had to work every single minute of the day. That made it really hard. So when I retired, we decided we wanted to do something for young women in Baltimore. We specifically wanted to do something for students who had to work [in high school or take on other roles] to help support their family," McLean explains.

The couple wasn't looking for the valedictorians, but students who were "solid citizens with real moral values who had done an awful lot in terms of leadership within their family, church, school or community. And someone we thought that with this chance would have a significant impact on their families, themselves and their community."

Bowman, ranked fourth in her class, was selected because of her dedication to her family and her studies. "She has helped her family pay bills, is one of the most active students in her school and has been involved in mentoring the younger children in her community. She has taken care of the community's 4- and 5-year olds through athletics and the community parks and recs program there, even though she has to work nearly full-time for her family," McLean says.

 Bowman, who will attend Maryland's Loyola University this Fall, will receive $10,000 for her first year in college; $5,000 for the second year and $3,000 for the third year. She plans to major in business marketing.

"I want to go into business marketing and create a non-profit company that will cater to young people, helping them to get out of the bad situations around them," says Bowman.

Here's a complete list of the scholarships awarded.

Sources: Jonnie-Kay McLean, Hillary Bowman
Writer: Walaika Haskins

TheUniversity of Maryland School of Medicine has received $12.3 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to renovate research laboratories of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and to build core facilities � centralized areas of technology and expertise � that will provide key support services to cancer researchers. The funds are part of $1 billion in funding made available by the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for construction or renovation of research facilities.

The NIH's National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) has awarded a $5 million C06 construction grant to renovate laboratories on the eighth floor of the School of Medicine's Bressler Research Building at 655 W. Baltimore St. Another $7.3 million G20 Core Renovation, Repair and Improvement grant will be used to consolidate existing core laboratories and build new facilities on the sixth and seventh floors of the Bressler Building.

These new core laboratories will provide "shared services" to cancer researchers and other scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and other professional schools at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Many of these support services benefit the cancer center, which is part of the School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center.

"These NCRR grants will enable us to build new, modern laboratory facilities for our researchers that hopefully will pave the way for major breakthroughs in cancer research. We are continually expanding our research program, and constructing state-of-the-art laboratories is critical to that effort," says Kevin J. Cullen, M.D., director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and professor of medicine and director of the Program in Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

"Our cancer center has been recognized by the National Cancer Institute for its scientific excellence, and our faculty members conduct some of the most innovative and promising cancer research in the nation. These new laboratories will not only facilitate this work but also will help us to recruit more top-tier scientists to our cancer center," says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., acting president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The newly renovated space will be used by individual molecular and structural biology researchers and will also house core labs for confocal microscopy, proteomics, flow cytometry, tissue-culturing and tissue-related services such as histology and immunohistochemistry, as well as the Genomics Core Facility, which provides cutting-edge genomic support for researchers.

The renovation on the eighth floor of the Bressler Building is scheduled to begin in November and will be completed in August 2011. The construction on the sixth and seven floors will begin upon completion of the eighth floor renovations and be finished by August 2012.


Source: University of Maryland Medical School
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has announced a $73 million plan that will cut its carbon dioxide emissions by more than half from projected levels by 2025.

The $73 million investment will be used in both conservation and efficiency measures that will reduce emissions caused by facilities operations by an initial 81,000 metric tons a year, which is more than halfway -- technically 57 percent -- to reaching the overall goal of cutting 141,000 metric tons from the 276,000 a year in emissions it would otherwise be generating 15 years from now.

The university will adopt new technologies as they become available in the next 15 years to achieve the remainder of the reduction. It will also encourage members of the university community to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact.

The emissions goal is part of a newly revealed broad, multi-faceted Implementation Plan for Advancing Sustainability and Climate Stewardship. The multi-pronged approach comes at the problem through several avenues, including research, education and community outreach in addition to greenhouse gas reduction.

"Global climate change is one of humanity's greatest challenges," says Ronald J. Daniels, JHU president. "The earth's rising temperatures will, over decades to come, affect where and how we live, the ecosystems we inhabit, our quality of life and even our health.

"Facing this challenge head-on is our shared responsibility, especially as residents of the developed world," Daniels continues. "But universities have a special role in our society and a special responsibility. We are institutions that discover, that educate and that, often, set an example. When it comes to global climate change, Johns Hopkins will be a leader in all three."

In addition to the sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, the plan calls for the creation of an Environment, Sustainability and Health Institute, bringing together faculty members from across the university. Under the auspices of the newly created Institute the faculty members will be able to collaborate on research as well as on teaching climate change science and sustainability, to students including those participating in the university's new undergraduate major and minor in global environmental change and sustainability and new master's degree in energy policy and climate. Institute faculty members also will focus on applying science to environmental policy, to public health initiatives and to practical measures that individuals, organizations and businesses can take to fight global warming.

"Just as Johns Hopkins medical researchers move their discoveries off the lab bench to the patient's bedside to save lives," Daniels says, "this institute will take a bench-to-real-world approach: We will use discoveries to get things done."

The plan also includes establishment of a Sustainability House in a to-be-renovated building on North Charles Street at the university's Homewood campus that will serve as the headquarters for the university's Office of Sustainability and student environmental groups. The location will also act as a showcase and laboratory for energy conservation techniques and technologies. The design team, with students and faculty members participating, will be directed to include cutting-edge sustainability features and to meet aggressive goals, such as zero net carbon emissions, storm water capture and reuse, and organic maintenance of the grounds.

Another key component of the plan will put Johns Hopkins knowledge to work contributing to sustainability and climate change efforts in Baltimore City and the state of Maryland. One such effort, announced late last month, is a $190,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-funded collaboration with Baltimore City; Johns Hopkins students will be trained to conduct audits at nonprofit organizations in the city and help them determine how to cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

The implementation plan is the result of months of detailed follow-up work on the March 2009 report of the university's President's Task Force on Climate Change. That report was the culmination of a year's work by Johns Hopkins faculty, administrators, students and trustees, as well as representatives of the Baltimore business, government and environmental communities.

"In response to a serious issue, we have taken a typically serious and thorough Johns Hopkins approach," Daniels said. "We have devoted the time and effort required to do this right: comprehensive data gathering, careful analysis and systematic planning."

The plan includes a building-by-building, campus-by-campus list of HVAC, electrical, and lab equipment improvements; lighting fixture and control upgrades; measures to make buildings more airtight; window replacements; installations of solar power panels and solar hot water equipment; water conservation measures; and other steps.

It targets laboratory research buildings in particular; often referred to as "heavy breathers," these buildings consume significant amounts of air that must be heated or cooled to satisfy temperature and humidity requirements.

Additional significant savings in carbon dioxide emission � 32,000 metric tons a year � and in energy costs will come from cogeneration plants being built on both the university's East Baltimore and Homewood campuses. The plants will burn relatively clean natural gas to produce both electricity and steam heat more cheaply and efficiently.

The final, and perhaps most important, aspect of the plan is an aggressive, sustained campaign to encourage students, faculty and staff to reduce energy consumption at work and at home. The university also will launch a parallel effort to find and implement new conservation opportunities in its energy-intensive information technology infrastructure, including desktop and mainframe computers, printers and monitors, and server farms. The IT professionals who will lead this effort will also look for other creative ways to improve the university's technology capability while reducing energy consumption.

Source: Johns Hopkins University
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Funded by a $3.2 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation's Plant Genome Research Project, which supports research on plants seen as having economic and agricultural importance, researchers Gary Coleman, Ganesh Sriram and Jianhua Zhu of College Park and George Ude of Bowie State are using the recently completed poplar genome to look for ways to improve the tree's nitrogen processing capability, which would enhance its growth rate and feasibility for use in fuel production.

Although corn has long been the crop of choice for biofuel production in the U.S.,  though it is renewable, home-grown (unlike foreign oil) and plentiful, it may not be the best solution.

"We need to develop an alternative crop that we use exclusively for biofuels and not food," says Sriram, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering.

Enter poplar trees (also known as cottonwood or aspen), which is already commonly cultivated for the production of paper and timber.

"What we want are trees like poplar that grow fast and efficiently so they can become the raw material for cellulosic [fiber-based] biofuel," Sriram says. "The carbon found in poplar could be converted into fuels just like the sugars we extract from corn."

Coleman, lead researcher and an associate professor of plant science and landscape architecture in the university's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources says there are many advantages of a poplar crop over traditional biofuel sources.

"Growing trees doesn't eat into farmland, and trees don't require a lot of maintenance during their growth cycle," he explains. "A dedicated energy crop like poplar would contribute to the development of a sustainable and renewable energy system."

While the hybrid trees would be grown on plantations and harvested without affecting existing woodlands, simply growing acres of poplar trees to convert into biofuel isn't enough to solve current fuel problems. Researchers already know how to make ethanol from fibrous plants, but for poplar to be truly effective as a biofuel source, its growth cycle needs to speed up and become more efficient. One of the keys to doing so is to understand how it stores and cycles nitrogen, since nitrogen is an important factor in the growth and productivity of trees and crops.

The fertilizers that help produce big harvests are rich in nitrogen, but are expensive and must be reapplied each year. Poplar is a perennial plant, capable of pulling nitrogen from its leaves, storing it through the winter, and redistributing it in the spring. And while a crop like corn must be replanted each year, a poplar tree is capable of regrowing itself from its roots after being cut, and may go through several cycles of growth and harvest throughout its life before a new tree needs to replace it.

"Both the growth in the spring and regrowth from roots after the stems are harvested depend on the availability of stored nitrogen," Coleman says. "The data we collect will allow us to understand mechanisms of nitrogen cycling, determine how to increase the rates of the cellular reactions, and identify the genes that play a crucial role in the process. Eventually, we should be able to breed a variety of poplar with a more efficient nitrogen process, optimized for growth and rapid maturity."

Source: University of Maryland College Park
Writer: Walaika Haskins

CCBC will use the funds to train almost 2,000 students for employment in allied health and nursing fields with persistent workforce shortages. The funds will make it possible for the community college to train an additional 1,012 students for health care degrees or certificates and another 855 students for employment in the health care. Maryland currently needs an additional 2,300 registered nurses to address health care needs in the state.

"This is about jobs, jobs, jobs. It's about giving people the tools they need to keep the jobs they have and it's about preparing people who need jobs for jobs that are available in Maryland today," says Sen. Barbara Mikulski. "With these funds CCBC will train a new pipeline of workers to fill jobs in health care fields that are needed now and will be needed even more in the future. This is a win-win opportunity to help save lives, transform lives and transform communities."

CCBC will partner with Baltimore County hospitals, like St. Agnes and Kernan, Baltimore County Public Schools and the county's Office of Workforce Development to recruit students and administer training. The focus will be on training those who are looking for a job, individuals with low incomes, and employed workers seeking better pay and careers.

"This grant is a significant investment in future jobs in the health industry, an industry in which Maryland is already a national leader," says Sen. Ben Cardin. "While we are in the midst of an economic downturn, we have a labor shortage in many parts of the health industry. This Recovery Act grant is targeted to eliminate that shortage by ensuring that the Community College of Baltimore County provides the training and skills that are needed so that more Marylanders can find jobs in the growing health industry."

The grant is 1 of 55 grant awards worth more than $225 million by the DoL that will be used to train 15,000 people in job skills needed to access careers in health care, IT and other high growth fields across the country. Through existing partnerships with local employers, the recipients of the grants have already identified roughly 10,000 job openings for skilled workers that likely will become available in the next two years in areas like nursing, pharmacy technology and information technology. The grants range in value from $2 million to $5 million.

CCBC is the only grant recipient in Maryland.

"This grant comes at a time in our nation when jobs are at a premium, but when healthcare providers are badly needed," Rep. Elijah Cummings says. "As the Recovery Act nears its one year anniversary, this is another example of the Act creating opportunities for high-paying jobs here in Baltimore County. These are jobs that will stay here in America and which will help put Marylanders back to work."

The DoL grant program, known as the Health Care Growth and Emerging Industries Grants program, addresses current and forecasted workforce shortages, and provides workers with training to enter a career in a high growth or emerging industries.

The Health Care and High Growth and Emerging Industries Grants program will:

• Develop a pipeline of credentialed healthcare workers;

• Support local partnerships in executing integrated job placement and training strategies and,

• Support training with accredited institutions that lead to industry-recognized, portable credentials.

Source: Department of Labor
Writer: Walaika Haskins

According to the report, of the estimated 3 million students who graduated from U.S. public schools in 2009, more than 479,000 (15.9 percent) earned an AP Exam score of at least a 3 on one or more AP Exams during their high school tenure, up from 15.2 percent in 2008 and 12.7 percent in 2004.

"This positive trend is encouraging, and I commend students and educators for their hard work and success," Caperton said. "Credit goes to educators at all levels and policymakers whose diligence has ensured more students are able to take AP courses and do well on the exams."

The report also highlights the seven states with the highest five-year gains: Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Maine, Colorado, Vermont and Florida. Additionally, Maryland, New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, Connecticut, California and Colorado all saw more than 20 percent of their public school students graduate from high school having earned an AP Exam score of 3 or higher. AP achievements for each state's class of 2009, class of 2008 and class of 2004 are detailed in the report.

"It should be noted that initiatives that provide instruction as early as middle school are helping students build skills and confidence," Caperton says. "These initiatives are preparing students for strong academic careers that culminate in college success and open doors to a lifetime of opportunity."

The report, however, notes that an equity and excellence gap appears when traditionally underserved students -- such as African American, Latino or American Indian students -- constitute a smaller percentage of the group of students experiencing success in AP than the percentage these students represent in the overall graduating class. Although the gap has been closed in some places, inequity in preparation and access continues to exist in many states across the country. This means that despite strides that have been made by educators to provide traditionally underrepresented students with access to AP courses, more work remains.

Sixteen states have successfully closed the equity and excellence gap for Hispanic or Latino students, and as of 2009, two states � Hawaii and Montana � have eliminated the gap for African American students. While 18 states have closed the gap for American Indian or Alaska Native students, no state with a substantial student population in this demographic has eliminated the gap.

Additionally, 15 schools lead the nation in the number of African American and/or Latino students succeeding in particular AP subjects, and the report celebrates the example these schools are setting in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan and Texas. (See "Schools with the Largest Numbers of African American and Latino Students Experiencing Success in AP," page 12, and the corresponding Table 3, page 13, for details.)

"For the well-being of our nation, we must do all we can to reach the nation's long-term education goals," Caperton says. "This is the time to build on our momentum and renew our focus, reaching out to every student along the way."

Source: The College Board
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Ecologists from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Baylor University in Texas have developed a new method for measuring the impact of human-caused environmental degradation on biodiversity that is much more precise than those currently used and has revealed a dramatically lower ecological "tipping point" at which species are threatened.

The new method of statistical analysis appears online in the Feb. 1 issue of the British Ecological Society's new journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution and includes a free download of a program to apply the analysis, created by co-author, and UMBC geography and environmental systems professor, Matthew Baker.

Environmental scientists have increasingly begun to rely on statistical methods for determining thresholds, or "tipping points," beyond which ecological systems are damaged by changes to the environment. More recently, ecologists have asked whether biological communities show similar responses � the proverbial "canary-in-the-coal-mine" test.

"This particular method came about because my colleague and I were trying to evaluate whether biological communities show a "tipping point response to environmental disturbance and degredation, mostly caused by human development near streams. We were looking for measures to do that - response measures that would characterize that - but found that existing measures weren't very sensitive. They might show huge changes but didn't show subtle changes," Baker explains.

"Scientists aren't really convinced, even though ecosystems can be shown to show tipping points in terms of their physical and chemical characteristics, it's not entirely clear that biological communities show that same response," he continues.

Accurately measuring these tipping points is important for protecting threatened species and better understanding how ecosystems respond to major changes such as global warming, coal mine leaching, agricultural pollutants or water-runoff from highly developed areas, says Baker, who with Ryan King, a biology professor from Baylor University, used stream invertebrate samples collected from Maryland tributaries by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and data from Florida's Everglades in their analyses.

"

According to Baker the precision of their new method is significantly greater than methods that have been widely used for the past 40 years.

" They took a tool that already existed in their toolbox and rather than developing an entireely new technique, people started to evaluate the existing measures we had. Depending on the measures used, you found some weak evidence or no evidence of a tipping point. They find evidence of degredation but it's more like a linear decline. They aren't really focused on species-specific responses. They focused on the aggregate or entire community response," he says.

For example, a decade-old analysis widely-cited by environmental professionals and policymakers suggests that it takes up to 10-15 percent of impervious surface  -- that is surface that does not absorb water, including roads, roofs, or parking lots -- or about 20 to 30 percent developed land in a given area before local water-systems no longer sustain normal aquatic life. Baker and King's new method demonstrates that aquatic life actually shows significant loss of biodiversity with only 1 to 3 percent developed land in a watershed.

A common practice by state and federal environmental protection agencies (U.S. EPA) is to rate the health of streams by comparing overall biotic life with data from "reference" streams using indices that combine various measures to provide a general scoring of health. This approach does a good job distinguishing highly degraded and relatively pristine systems, but isn't as clear about what happens when conditions fall in between, Baker says.

"What we do instead -- and is more intuitive and makes more common sense -- is we analyze every species seperately and look for a signal in the species responses. Then to understand what the community is doing we aggregate the signals of the species rather than using an aggregate measure to look for a signal," he says.

"It's not that the species are disappearing entirely, but that our actions are impacting the abundance of affected species. One-third of the biodiversity of a stream is impacted with just 2 to 3 percent of development. We used to think that development was benign, but now we see that it's not," Baker adds.


Source: Matthew Baker, UMBC
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Innovate!, which is funded by a National Science Foundation grant to The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is a 12-month program led by successful serial entrepreneurs that will take a class of 15 business professionals and 15 postdocs through evaluation of a technology's commercial viability, preparation of a business case based on the technology, and launch of the business. The businesses will be based on technology from NIH, Johns Hopkins University, the University System of Maryland, and other research institutions and federal agencies.

"The Innovate! program is perfect for professionals who have thought about starting their own technology company and are looking for a supportive, structured environment to help make it happen," says Yash Gupta, dean, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

"We're extremely excited to have the Innovate! program on our campus because it fits so well with the County's economic development goals," says Elaine Amir, executive director, Johns Hopkins Montgomery County. "The County recently released its Biosciences Task Force report, and one of the reports five key objectives was to 'enhance the environment for entrepreneurship and the creation of new life sciences companies.' It's great that Johns Hopkins can help advance that goal."

The Innovate! program is based on the highly successful ACTiVATE® program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which has led to the formation of more than 25 companies since its inception in 2005.

Partners for the Innovate! program include Rockville Economic Development, the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, and the National Institutes of Health.

Source: Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The program provides funding -- $300,000 dollars annually for up to five years -- to enhance College Park's ability to prepare students for government service and leadership positions in the Intelligence Community.

The designation further aligns Maryland's flagship research university with the state's cyber security strategic plan recently announced today by Governor Martin O'Malley.

As a Center of Academic Excellence, the university will strengthen its curriculum as well as create new educational opportunities and internships in a broad range of areas, from information and cyber security to foreign language acquisition, cross-cultural studies, mathematics, physical sciences and engineering.

The first class affected by the program will begin this month: Intelligence as a National Security Instrument.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence coordinates the Centers of Academic Excellence program, and particularly seeks to encourage minority students to pursue careers in national security professions.

"The growing challenges and expanding mission of the Intelligence Community, plus the 'graying' of the federal workforce adds up to an increased need for government workers with the requisite critical skills, diverse backgrounds and language and cultural capabilities," says professor William Nolte, who directs the program. Nolte formerly served as chancellor of the National Intelligence University System and as a senior Intelligence Community officer.

"For years, the University of Maryland has provided an excellent entr�e into national security service, and with this new funding stream we can build on that," Nolte adds.

The program will be based in the School of Public Policy, but will include participation across campus and from other parts of the University System of Maryland. Its funding will:

Source: University of Maryland College Park
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Undergraduates in the University of Baltimore's Simulation and Digital Entertainment programhave come up with a novel way to help state legislators and the governor balance the budget -- educating the public.

The students have designed a Web-based videogame that will help ordinary citizens learn how Maryland's budget works�including the all-important and legally-required task of balancing it�as part of a public education effort by the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute.

The "Maryland Budget Game" was unveiled by the institute on Monday, Jan. 18 and is be available online and at no cost to the user.

According to the institute, "Maryland Budget Game" players assume the role of the governor in making decisions to balance the state budget. Players travel to different locations to view budget options related to different policy areas: the schoolhouse for education, a clinic for health and so on. Based on the player's decisions, the state's near-term and long-term budget status improves or deteriorates. At the same time, 10 different simulated interest groups react to the players' every decision.

"Our students developed this project with the classic learning-game goal in mind: to provide an experience that replicates much of what goes in the real world, and do it so that it stays with the player in tangible ways," said Stuart Moulthrop, professor and director of the Simulation and Digital Entertainment program in UB's School of Information Arts and Technologies.

Source: University of Baltimore, School of Information Arts and Technologies
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The University of Maryland School of Medicine  has received a $30 million grant to create a center that will coordinate the research of national experts in stem cell research. The university's Michael L. Terrin, MD, CM MPH, professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine was pegged by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to lead the coordinating center, dubbed the NHLBI Profenitor Cell Biology Consortium, for a consortium of our nation's most prominent scientists in the field of stem cell research.

"This consortium was developed to bring together the best and brightest researchers from around the country, in the new and rapidly advancing field of stem and progenitor cell biology. They come from several specialties -- cardiology, hematology and pulmonary medicine. All are doing cutting edge research in this exciting new field," says Terrin.

Stem cells are uncommitted cells that can change into many types of mature functional cells and can divide indefinitely. Once stem cells start to commit to a cell type, they create progenitor cells. They are partially committed in terms of the types of cells they can become and how many times they can divide.

One major goal of this research consortium is to use these stem and progenitor cells as regenerative therapy to replace damaged tissues and organs.

The researchers will share their strategies and techniques to identify and characterize how these cells differentiate. Together they will address the challenges of discovering new potential therapies.

The NHLBI believes that by sharing information and working together across traditional boundaries, consortium members will advance the field of stem cell and progenitor cell biology at a faster pace and realize the potential for new clinical therapies that much sooner.

Terrin and his on campus colleagues  will organize the collaborative efforts of the nine different research hubs in the Consortium, dividing the responsibilities of the Administrative Coordinating Center into three areas: general administration; computer systems; and biological information science.

"Our team of nationally known experts, and the facilities at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, made our proposal to coordinate this consortium unique," Terrin says. "The resources here are wonderful. I know of no other university or medical school that I would rather have behind my efforts on behalf of this important project."

The research coordination team led by Terrin is composed of individuals who will assure that the information put in the system, as well as records of samples and tissues put into registries (both physical and virtual), will be maintained. They will also ensure that important information from sources outside the Consortium is continually updated.

In addition, Terrin's team will coordinate conference calls, meetings and funding for their research projects and help the investigators publicize their results of their research.

Source: University of Maryland, Baltimore
Writer: Walaika Haskins

A neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins has unlocked the mystery of how mammals control their brain circuitry by combining a truly old school research technique with modern molecular genetics. The technique dates back 136 years and when applied to modern molecular genetics technology Dr. David Ginty has been able to see how a mammal's brain shrewdly revisits and reuses the same molecular cues to control the complex design of its circuits.

Details of the observation in lab mice, published Dec. 24 in Nature, reveal that semaphorin, a protein found in the developing nervous system that guides filament-like processes, called axons, from nerve cells to their appropriate targets during embryonic life, apparently assumes an entirely different role later on, once axons reach their targets. In postnatal development and adulthood, semaphorins appear to be regulating the creation of synapses, those connections that chemically link nerve cells.

"With this discovery we're able to understand how semaphorins regulate the number of synapses and their distribution in the part of the brain involved in conscious thought," says Dr. Ginty, a professor in the Neuroscience Department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "It's a major step forward, we believe, in our understanding of the assembly of neural circuits that underlie behavior."

Because the brain's activity is determined by how and where these connections form, Ginty says that semaphorin's newly defined role could have an impact on how scientists think about the early origins of autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

The discovery came as a surprise finding in studies by the Johns Hopkins team to figure out how nerve cells develop axons, which project information from the cells, as well as dendrites, which essentially bring information in. Because earlier work from the Johns Hopkins labs of Ginty and Alex Kolodkin, Ph.D., showed that semaphorins affect axon trajectory and growth, they suspected that perhaps these guidance molecules might have some involvement with dendrites.

Kolodkin, a professor in the Neuroscience Department at Johns Hopkins and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, discovered and cloned the first semaphorin gene in the grasshopper when he was a postdoctoral fellow. Over the past 15 years, numerous animal models, including strains of genetically engineered mice, have been created to study this family of molecules.

Using two lines of mice -- one missing semaphorin and another missing neuropilin, its receptor -- postdoctoral fellow Tracy Tran used a classic staining method called the Golgi technique to look at the anatomy of nerve cells from mouse brains. (The Golgi technique involves soaking nerve tissue in silver chromate to make cells' inner structures visible under the light microscope; it allowed neuroanatomists in 1891 to determine that the nervous system is interconnected by discrete cells called neurons.)

Tran saw unusually pronounced "spines" sprouting willy-nilly in peculiar places and in greater numbers on the dendrites in the neurons of semaphorin-lacking and neuropilin-lacking mice compared to the normal wild-type animals. It's at the tips of these specialized spines that a lot of synapses occur and neuron-to-neuron communication happens, so Tran suspected there might be more synapses and more electrical activity in the neurons of the mutant mice.

The researchers tested this hypothesis by examining even thinner brain slices under an electron microscope.

The spines of both semaphorin-lacking and neuropilin-lacking mice were dramatically enlarged, compared to those of the smaller, spherical-looking spines in the wild-type mice. In wild types, Tran generally noted a single site of connection per spine. In the mutants, the site of connection between two neurons was often split.