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Basic Neuroscience Program
The Division’s basic neuroscience research is primarily conducted within the Brain Research Center at the UBC Campus. Areas of research include neuroimmunology, neurovirology and neurochemistry.
Dr. Wang's Laboratory:
The long-standing research interest in Dr. Yu Tian Wang’s laboratory has been on understanding fundamental mechanisms controlling synaptic transmission among neurons in the brain, and the dysfunction of these mechanisms in the pathogenesis of brain disorders such as epilepsy, stroke and learning deficits. Dr. Wang and collaborators have developed an NR2B-derived peptide as an anti-excitotoxicity based stroke therapy and has recently completed phase 1 of the trial. The results showed that the predicted efficacy dose of the peptide was well-tolerated by human subjects. The second phase 2A started in the fall of 2008 and is expected to be completed within two years.
Beyond the research on stroke, the Wang lab also continued their investigations on the pathogenesis of epilepsy. Following the initial electrophysiological characterization of GABAAR alpha1 mutation (A322D) identified in patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (Nat Genetics, 31:184-9, 2002), they further found that in addition to the compromised receptor stability, the mutation results in a significant reduction in the number of functional receptors due to the facilitation of GABAAR endocytosis, suggesting a rapid alteration of cell surface GABAAR expression in mediating the mutation-associated epileptic phenotype (J. Biol. Chem. 283: 22043–22050, 2008). Their investigation of learning and memory also led to several new discoveries, including the elucidation of underlying mechanisms and how alteration of these mechanisms contributes to some of the memory deficits caused by brain diseases or stress. (PNAS, 104:11471, 2007; Neuropsychopharmacology. 33: 2416–2426, 2008). These results are particularly relevant to memory deficits in humans following acute psychological stress and fear memory retention associated with post-traumatic syndromes.
Other Laboratories
The labs of Drs. Steven Pelech, Joel Oger, Lorne Kastrukoff, Neil Cashman, Peter Rieckmann, contribute to divisional reach in basic neuroscience research.