麻豆传媒

Dr. Rita Cowell is Fellow and Chair of the Neuroscience Department within the Drug Discovery Division. In this role, she maintains an independently-funded research program, while overseeing the Neuroscience Department with the mission of discovering novel, mechanism-based approaches to treat individuals with neurodegenerative disorders. The research in the Cowell Lab aims to determine how intrinsic transcriptional programs underlying neuronal heterogeneity give rise to selective vulnerability in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson鈥檚 Disease, Huntington Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease. Her research group is comprised of postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate trainees who are affiliated with Southern Research鈥檚 partner institution, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The lab is currently supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson鈥檚 Research.

Cowell received her undergraduate degree in biology in 1997 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Ph.D. in neuroscience in 2002 from the University of Michigan, where she also completed her postdoctoral work. She began her independent research laboratory as an assistant professor at UAB in 2006, rising through the ranks to associate professor. She also served as co-director of the Neuroscience Graduate Theme for the Program in Biomedical Sciences at UAB and associate director for Communications and Outreach for the Civitan International Research Center before joining Southern Research in 2017.  

Using a think tank-like model, she now directs the Neuroscience Department, utilizing its collective expertise in mechanisms of cell death/dysfunction and animal models of disease to identify and prioritize novel targets for small molecule identification using the unique high throughput capabilities of the Drug Discovery Division. Beyond these efforts to the institution, she actively facilitates interactions with local, national, and international groups interested in drug discovery and development in the neurosciences by serving as a liaison and consultant for extramural collaborations. Ongoing collaborations exist with scientists from UAB, HudsonAlpha in Huntsville, Alabama, and numerous other institutions, universities, and companies across the world. Cumulatively, her goal is to lead transformation of drug discovery in the field of neurodegeneration and to improve the lives of those suffering from these diseases.

Nien-Pei Tsai is an  at the  and a researcher at the . 
An imbalance in neuronal and synaptic excitability is a common abnormality observed in patients with various psychiatric and neurological disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. The dysregulation of excitability is thought to exacerbate disease symptoms. Identifying and understanding the mechanisms underlying the dysregulation of excitability could reveal novel therapeutic targets for these diseases. To achieve this goal, we utilize various approaches including molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, electrophysiology, and mouse genetics to understand the regulation of excitability homeostasis at synaptic, neuronal, network and system levels, and how the deficits of those affect behavior in diseases. 
Research Interests:


Neurobiology


Synaptic transmission


Learning and memory


Neurological and behavioral disorders


 
Current focuses of Tsai's lab include:
1. Studying activity-dependent translational control in fragile X syndrome
2. Exploring novel transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators in neurodevelopment 
3. Determining the role of cellular stress response in neuronal plasticity
4. Characterizing the molecular mechanisms contributing to comorbid seizures in Alzheimer's disease
 
Education


B.S., National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2002


M.Sc., National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2004


Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2009