SLU Center for Neuroscience Featured in Missouri Medicine
09/17/2021
The work of researchers at the Saint Louis University’s Henry and Amelia Nasrallah Center for Neuroscience was recently spotlighted in the July/August 2021 issue of Missouri Medicine.
The publication, the journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, featured the Center on its cover under the tagline “Frontiers of Neuroscience.”
Missouri Medicine devoted seven articles to the Center — the first an introductory article written by William Beaumont Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D. The article, “Center for Neurosciences Responsive to Jesuit Catholic Mission of Saint Louis University,” explains the goals and focuses of the center.
Endowed in 2018 with a gift from Henry Nasrallah, M.D., former chair of SLU's Department of Psychiatry, and his wife, Amelia, a research psychologist, the Center aims to bring together researchers and clinicians throughout SLU who share a common interest in neuroscience. The Center has more than 100 members across six schools and 23 departments, institutes and centers at SLU. Salvemini serves as the director of the Center.
Together, members of the Center work to foster multidisciplinary neuroscience research ranging from molecular to clinical studies and promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate neuroscience education. Some of the Center’s work focuses on how pain is sensed and perceived and how to develop safer and more effective non-opioid pain medications. Another focus is to understand age-related dementia, genetic disorders of the nervous system, and injuries due to trauma or stroke cause pathology.
Salvemini said the goals of the center align directly with the Jesuit Catholic mission of SLU — to serve the least fortunate and most vulnerable.
Six research articles connected to the Center also were included in the publication:
- “Novel Non-Opioid Based Therapeutics for Chronic Neuropathic Pain” by Timothy M. Doyle, Ph.D.; Kathryn Braden, Caron M. Harada, Fatma Mufti, Rachel M. Schafer, and Salvemini.
- “Current and Future Immunotherapies for Multiple Sclerosis” by Jessica Bourque and Daniel Hawiger, M.D., Ph.D.
- “RNA-Based Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases” by Yuna M. Ayala, Ph.D.; and Andrew D. Nguyen, Ph.D.
- “Hydrogel-Based Spheroid Models of Glioblastoma for Drug Screening Applications” by Joey Burns and Silviya Petrova Zustiak, Ph.D.
- “The Deductive Reasoning Strategy Enables Biomedical Breakthroughs” by Gina L. C. Yosten, Ph.D.; Grant R. Kolar, M.D., Ph.D.; Salvemini, and Willis K. Samson, Ph.D.
- “Novel Neuroscience-Informed Approaches to Trauma Care in Community Clinical Settings’ by Andrew Oberle, MHA; Whitney Postman, Ph.D.; and Carissa van den Berk-Clark, Ph.D.
Another SLU research article also was spotlighted in the issue. In the Science of Medicine section, Missouri Medicine published, “Plastic Bronchitis in Adult and Pediatric Patients: A Review of its Presentation, Diagnosis, and Treatment” by Niel Patel, Mayur Patel, Ravali Inja, Armin Krvavac, M.D., and Andrew J. Lechner, Ph.D.