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Jennifer Forbes
Communications & Public Affairs
732-235-6356; jenn.forbes@rwjms.rutgers.edu
Communications & Public Affairs
732-235-6356; jenn.forbes@rwjms.rutgers.edu
Neuroscience Day Attracts 120 Presenters Highlighting Research Advancements
Neither the hot afternoon nor the threat of bad luck on Friday, June 13, discouraged researchers at Rutgers from learning about advances in neuroscience from colleagues across the university. Nearly 120 faculty members, graduate, postdoctoral and medical students, as well undergraduates, displayed research posters highlighting recent investigations at a symposium hosted by Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. With nearly 400 participants networking in the Great Hall on the medical school’s Piscataway campus, the event surpassed its goal–to bring together individuals with shared interests in basic and clinical neuroscience research and to foster the development of collaborative, translational and multi-disciplinary research teams or projects.
“Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is pleased to host the first in a series of research events that highlight the scientific acumen of students and faculty,” said Vicente Gracias, MD, dean (interim) of the medical school, as he welcomed guests to the symposium. “As part of the new healthcare model at Rutgers, it is one of the strategic goals of medical school to encourage interprofessional partnerships and innovation.”
Diverse fields of neuroscience were represented at the symposium including computational neuroscience; neural and behavioral plasticity; neural protection, regeneration and repair; neuraldevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders; and sensory processing, perception and sensorimotor integration.
“The research symposium proved an excellent venue at which we could promote discourse and collaboration on neuroscience research across disciplines and throughout the university,” said Celine Gelinas, PhD, interim senior associate dean of research and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “All of the exhibited research was connected with a focus on neuroscience – one of Rutgers strengths. We were very pleased with the amount of energy and enthusiasm with which clinical and basic science researchers, as well as social science investigators brought to the event.”
Dr. Gelinas noted that abstracts were submitted from throughout Rutgers, including from the schools of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Environmental and Biological Sciences, and Pharmacy; the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in Newark; the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; the School of Health Related Professions; New Jersey Medical School, School of Nursing and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. In addition, guests from the pharmaceutical industry, Children’s Specialized Hospital, the JFK-Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, the College of New Jersey and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, were among the day’s participants.
Neuroscience Day at Rutgers was the first Dean’s Research Symposium to be hosted quarterly by Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in a broad effort to encourage collaboration across disciplines. Each symposium will promote the recognition and advancement of a unique scientific topic.