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| PILOT
GRANT RECIPIENTS |
The University of California, Davis Alzheimer's
Disease Center (UCD ADC) invites applications for pilot
research grants with support from the National Institute
on Aging (NIA) Alzheimer's Disease Center (ADC)funds.
During Academic Year 2003-2004 the UCD ADC intends to
award funds for Alzheimer's disease-related research,
in the amount of two $20,000 grants(direct costs) for
one year of funding each.
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PI:
Robert H. Fairclough & Tsung-Yu Chen
Investigators:
Robert H. Fairclough, Tsung-Yu Chen, Tony Chuang
Title:
A study of b-Amyloid(1-42) activation of a-nAChR
Description:
This proposal represents a combination and synthesis of
a new research interest for each of the two principal
investigators. It combines. Dr. Chen’s electrophysiological
and recombinant DNA expertise with Dr. Fairclough’s acetylcholine
receptor (AchR) structural experience. The two investigators
share a common interest in how the neuronal a7 nicotinic
acetylcholine receptor is activated by the b-amyloid peptide(1-42),
and how this peptide interacts with the a7 receptor. We
hope to identify parts of the b-amyloid peptide critical
for binding to and activating the receptor as well as
the parts of the receptor interacting with the peptide.
We hope that this work will lead to a better understanding
of and therapies for, Alzheimer’s disease
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PI:
Charan Ranganath
Investigators:
Charan Ranganath
Title:
Neural Substrates for Specific Characteristics of Episodic
Memories
Description:
One of the earliest manifestations of Alzheimer’s
Disease (AD) is an impairment in the ability to form and
retrieve memories for recent events (episodic memories).
Numerous studies suggest that regions in the medial temporal
lobes (MTL) are critical for episodic memory. Accordingly,
research on how MTL regions contribute to memory should provide a relevant foundation for new diagnostic and therapeutic
approaches to AD. At present, little is known about the
functional organization of the MTL and how different MTL
subregions might contribute to memory. For example, behavioral
research has supported the idea that the experiences of
familiarity and recollection (e.g., recognizing a face
as familiar versus recalling the associated name) might
be supported by distinct representations, but we know
little about how computations in distinct MTL subregions
might relate to these forms of memory. The current project
will utilize converging evidence from two methods—functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) —to precisely characterize
the differential contributions of two MTL subregions—the
hippocampal region and the parahippocampal region—
to familiarity and recollection. The proposed experiments
will be directed toward the aims of identifying how different
MTL regions contribute to familiarity and recollection
by examining activity in these regions during the formation
and retrieval of memories for newly learned information
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Locations
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