Department News

Saxton Receives a Merit Award
Judy Saxton, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and Lisa Morrow, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, received a Merit Award for their poster “Medical Co-Morbidity, Medication Use, Depression and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Primary Care Settings” at the International Neuropsychological Society annual meeting in February. The poster presented data from Dr. Saxton’s NIA-funded R01 grant “Cognitive Assessment of Elderly Primary Care Patients.”

Chen Recieves R01 Grant Renewal
Jun Chen, MD, Professor of Neurology and a researcher in molecular mechanisms of neuronal cell death associated with cerebral ischemia, has received a competing renewal of his R01 grant “Inducible DNA repair in cerebral ischemia” for another five years.

DeKosky Appointed Chair of the Executive Advising Committee of ISTAART
Steven T. DeKosky, MD, Professor and Chair of Neurology, has been appointed Chair of the Executive Advising Committee of the Alzheimer’s Association’s new International Society to Advance Alzheimer Research and Treatment (ISTAART). In his public statement Dr. DeKosky noted that the society is “the first collegial group that represents all areas of Alzheimer’s disease investigation. ISTAART will give researchers and other professionals a place to connect with each other and share the most current news and information about Alzheimer’s.” Information about ISTAART can be found at www.alz.org/ISTAART.

Department 9th in the Nation for NIH Funding
The Department of Neurology was ranked 9th in the nation for funding when the National Institutes of Health recently released figures for the 2006 fiscal year. Overall, the University of Pittsburgh ranked 6th in the nation.

Berman Featured Research Seminar Speaker
Sarah Berman, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, has been selected as one of 12 presenters for the 2008 Vice Chancellor’s Research Seminar Series. Dr. Berman’s topic for the October session will be Mitochondrial Dynamics in Neurodegenerative Disease.

DeKosky Featured in New York Times
Steven T. DeKosky, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology, was interviewed for a December 26, 2007 article about Alzheimer’s Disease in the NY Times.
(link to article)

Burton Awarded Grant
Edward Burton, MBBS, DPhil, Assistant Professor of Neurology, has received a grant for Phenotypic Characterization of Tauopathy Zebrafish from the Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

Kaniecki, Watson Accredited by UCNS
Robert Kaniecki, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Chief of the Headache Division, and David Watson, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, have passed the Headache subspecialty certification examination of the United Council of Neurologic Subspecialties.

Uchino Publishes Stroke Handbook
Cambridge University Press published Acute Stroke Care in spring 2007. The care manual was written by Ken Uchino, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, in conjunction with Drs. Jennifer Pary and James Grotta from University of Texas-Houston.