Welcome to The Department of Biological Sciences!

The department consists of a lot of people: faculty, administrative staff, technical staff, and graduate research/teaching assistants. One strong thing bonding us together is that we are working hard at things we really like, advanced biological education and research.

There is a lot to see on this website, so look around. You can get a very good overview of our research endeavors by visiting the web pages of the individual faculty members and their research labs. If you are a current or prospective undergraduate student, you will find detailed descriptions of our various majors, information about our courses and undergraduate research, and links to interdisciplinary opportunities. If you are looking around for opportunities at the graduate level, peruse the pages describing our doctoral programs in molecular cell biology, biochemistry, and integrative biology and neuroscience, or our highly focused master's program in molecular biology that is exclusively by distance.

If you have questions about any aspects of our department, feel free to e-mail any faculty member or post-doctoral scientist, or any member of our administrative or technical staff. Anyone will be glad to answer your questions or put you in touch with someone who can.

Brad Walters photo by Harry Rusli

Brad Walters is a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Colin Saldanha, where he studies the actions of local estrogen provision in the brain.  Specifically, Brad’s work focuses on the potential neuroprotective and regenerative roles played by glial aromatase after injury.  In the ovary, and in neurons of certain parts of the brain, estrogens are synthesized by the enzyme aromatase.  However, after a stroke, or traumatic brain injury, non-neuronal cells known as astroglia rapidly upregulate aromatase expression, and thus provide a mechanism for localized estrogen provision at the injury site.  This local provision of estrogen has been shown to prevent cell death secondary to the initial injury, thereby minimizing the extent of brain damage.  Additionally, circulating estrogen and exogenous estrogen administration have been correlated with increased proliferation of neural cells.  In order for these new cells to have any potential for repairing damaged areas, however, they must not only proliferate, they must also migrate to the site of injury and differentiate into the appropriate types of cells.  Currently, evidence suggests that local aromatization after injury can increase the number of newly divided cells in the brain, however, whether or not local aromatization also affects migration and/or differentiation remains an open question. 

In a recent publication, Brad and Dr. Saldanha described an effect of glial aromatase on the expression of bone morphogenetic protein-2, a factor that is important in neuronal and astroglial differentiation during vertebrate nervous system development.  Brad’s current work is focusing on understanding where this BMP2 is expressed after injury and whether or not it may be mediating some of the effects of glial aromatase in the injured brain.  Understanding the factors involved in neural cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation could provide the means to manipulate endogenous neural stem cells toward repair of brain damage caused by stroke, trauma, or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.  To find out more about Brad’s work, or the Saldanha lab in general, please click here.

Dr. Saldanha’s research is funded through a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Department of Biological Sciences
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