Congratulations to Molly Abraham on receiving an IBRO (International Brain Research Organization) World Congress Travel Grant Award to attend the 10th IBRO World Congress. It is taking place in Daegu, South Korea in September.
This is an international grant given only to a handful of applicants from around the world. It is a very prestigious grant and a reflection of the great work Molly is doing with Justin Dean and her team.
Image above: Molly Abraham
Jennifer (Junru) Song passed her oral exam at the end of last year and handed in her final copy of her thesis at the end of February this year and will graduate in the May graduation. Her thesis for the Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Science, Neuroscience was: GABAA Receptors in the Amygdala: Distribution in the Normal and Alzheimer’s Disease Human Brain. Her supervisors were Associate Professor Henry Waldvogel and Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull.
For her PhD studies Jennifer carried out a detailed investigation of the neurochemical profile of the human amygdala, a region in the brain that is key in emotional processing and is one of the first brain structures to undergo degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. Her results have furthered our understanding of neuronal circuits in the amygdala, and revealed that in Alzheimer’s disease, the amygdala undergoes specific neurochemical changes which could underlie the changes in emotional processing seen in Alzheimer’s disease. The images are examples of GABAA receptors on the surface membranes of neurons in the normal human amygdala.
Image above: Jennifer (Junru) Song