Judy Shih-Hwa Liu is the Sidney A. Fox and Dorothea Doctors Fox Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at Brown University. She works on the cortical malformations that cause epilepsy.
Judy Shih-Hwa Liu is the Sidney A. Fox and Dorothea Doctors Fox Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at Brown University. She works on the cortical malformations that cause epilepsy.
Liu earned a Bachelor of Science at Yale University. She moved to New York for her graduate studies, and completed a PhD and MD at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After her MD she completed a medical internship in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She was appointed as a neurological resident at Beth Israel in 2001.
Liu studies epilepsy which arises from focal cortical dysplasia. [1] She investigates the surgically removed tissues and found that they are influenced by circadian rhythm. The protein CLOCK (Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput) is a transcription factor that is important in regulating circadian rhythm in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. [2] Liu analysed the transcriptome of surgically removed tissues and found differences in the RNA of CLOCK. [3] They created mouse models, one with neurons defunct in CLOCK and the other with neurons lacking inhibitory cells. [3] The mice without limited CLOCK suffered from epilepsy similar to humans. [3] In 2017 she was awarded a Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy award to study the molecular CLOCK and sleep-associated seizures. [4] She contributed to the 2012 book Jasper's Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies. [5]
She was awarded the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation NASRAD Young Investigator Award and a Whitehall Foundation grant to study the cell biology that underlies the development of axons. [6] [7] In 2013 she was awarded a grant to study the molecular mechanisms that prevent the initiation of seizures. [8] The grant looks to identify the changes in mRNA and microRNA in people who suffer from cortical dysplasia and tuberous sclerosis. [8]
Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is a congenital abnormality of brain development where the neurons in an area of the brain failed to migrate in the proper formation in utero. Focal means that it is limited to a focal zone in any lobe. Focal cortical dysplasia is a common cause of intractable epilepsy in children and is a frequent cause of epilepsy in adults. There are three types of FCD with subtypes, including type 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, and 3c, each with distinct histopathological features. All forms of focal cortical dysplasia lead to disorganization of the normal structure of the cerebral cortex. Type 1 FCD exhibits subtle alterations in cortical lamination. Type 2a FCD exhibits neurons that are larger than normal that are called cytomegalic dysmorphic neurons (CDN). FCD type 2b exhibits complete loss of laminar structure, and the presence of CDN and enlarged cells are called balloon cells (BC) for their large elliptical cell body shape, laterally displaced nucleus, and lack of dendrites or axons. The developmental origin of balloon cells is currently believed to be derived from neuronal or glial progenitor cells. Balloon cells are similar in structure to giant cells in the disorder tuberous sclerosis complex. Type 3 FCD is type 1 or type 2, associated with other lesions.
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a chronic disorder of the nervous system characterized by recurrent, unprovoked focal seizures that originate in the temporal lobe of the brain and last about one or two minutes. TLE is the most common form of epilepsy with focal seizures. A focal seizure in the temporal lobe may spread to other areas in the brain when it may become a focal to bilateral seizure.
Electrocorticography (ECoG), or intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), is a type of electrophysiological monitoring that uses electrodes placed directly on the exposed surface of the brain to record electrical activity from the cerebral cortex. In contrast, conventional electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes monitor this activity from outside the skull. ECoG may be performed either in the operating room during surgery or outside of surgery. Because a craniotomy is required to implant the electrode grid, ECoG is an invasive procedure.
Gray matter heterotopias are neurological disorders caused by clumps of gray matter located in the wrong part of the brain. A grey matter heterotopia is characterized as a type of focal cortical dysplasia. The neurons in heterotopia appear to be normal, except for their mislocation; nuclear studies have shown glucose metabolism equal to that of normally positioned gray matter. The condition causes a variety of symptoms, but usually includes some degree of epilepsy or recurring seizures, and often affects the brain's ability to function on higher levels. Symptoms range from nonexistent to profound; the condition is occasionally discovered as an incidentaloma when brain imaging performed for an unrelated problem and has no apparent ill effect on the patient. At the other extreme, heterotopia can result in severe seizure disorder, loss of motor skills, and mental retardation. Fatalities are practically unknown, other than the death of unborn male fetuses with a specific genetic defect.
Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumour is a type of brain tumor. Most commonly found in the temporal lobe, DNTs have been classified as benign tumours. These are glioneuronal tumours comprising both glial and neuron cells and often have ties to focal cortical dysplasia.
Epileptogenesis is the gradual process by which a normal brain develops epilepsy. Epilepsy is a chronic condition in which seizures occur. These changes to the brain occasionally cause neurons to fire in a hyper-synchronous manner, known as a seizure.
George Ojemann is a professor emeritus of neurologic surgery in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His research focuses on the neurobiology of human cognition, particularly cortical organization for language and memory, which he investigates in the context of awake neurosurgery under local anesthesia. In order to study these aspects of cognition, Ojemann utilizes techniques ranging from electrical stimulation mapping to recording of activity of single neurons, which have resulted in methods for reducing the risk of cortical resections for epilepsy and tumors.
Steven M. Reppert is an American neuroscientist known for his contributions to the fields of chronobiology and neuroethology. His research has focused primarily on the physiological, cellular, and molecular basis of circadian rhythms in mammals and more recently on the navigational mechanisms of migratory monarch butterflies. He was the Higgins Family Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts Medical School from 2001 to 2017, and from 2001 to 2013 was the founding chair of the Department of Neurobiology. Reppert stepped down as chair in 2014. He is currently distinguished professor emeritus of neurobiology.
Epilepsy is the most common childhood brain disorder in the United States. Nearly 3 million people have been diagnosed with this disease, while 450,000 of them are under the age of 17. Fortunately, two thirds of the child population will overcome the side effects, most notably, seizures, through treatment during adolescence. Epilepsy affects all ages groups. But for children, a variety of issues exist that can affect one's childhood.
Michael Morris Rosbash is an American geneticist and chronobiologist. Rosbash is a professor and researcher at Brandeis University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Rosbash's research group cloned the Drosophila period gene in 1984 and proposed the Transcription Translation Negative Feedback Loop for circadian clocks in 1990. In 1998, they discovered the cycle gene, clock gene, and cryptochrome photoreceptor in Drosophila through the use of forward genetics, by first identifying the phenotype of a mutant and then determining the genetics behind the mutation. Rosbash was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003. Along with Michael W. Young and Jeffrey C. Hall, he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm".
John B. Hogenesch is an American chronobiologist and Professor of Pediatrics at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The primary focus of his work has been studying the network of mammalian clock genes from the genomic and computational perspective to further the understanding of circadian behavior. He is currently the Deputy Director of the Center for Chronobiology, an Ohio Eminent Scholar, and Professor of Pediatrics in the Divisions of Perinatal Biology and Immunobiology at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Arnold Eskin was a professor of chronobiology at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. He attended Vanderbilt University, where he received a degree in physics. He later attended University of Texas at Austin, where he received his Ph.D in zoology in 1969. He is recognized in the term Eskinogram, and has been a leader in the discovery of mechanisms underlying entrainment of circadian clocks.
Douglas G. McMahon is a professor of Biological Sciences and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. McMahon has contributed several important discoveries to the field of chronobiology and vision. His research focuses on connecting the anatomical location in the brain to specific behaviors. As a graduate student under Gene Block, McMahon identified that the basal retinal neurons (BRNs) of the molluscan eye exhibited circadian rhythms in spike frequency and membrane potential, indicating they are the clock neurons. He became the 1986 winner of the Society for Neuroscience's Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience for his work. Later, he moved on to investigate visual, circadian, and serotonergic mechanisms of neuroplasticity. In addition, he helped find that constant light can desynchronize the circadian cells in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). He has always been interested in the underlying causes of behavior and examining the long term changes in behavior and physiology in the neurological modular system. Recently, McMahon helped identify a novel retrograde neurotransmission system in the retina involving the melanopsin ganglion cells in retinal dopaminergic amacrine neurons.
Hal Blumenfeld is a Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery at Yale University. He is an expert on brain mechanisms of consciousness and on altered consciousness in epilepsy. As director of the Yale Clinical Neuroscience Imaging Center(CNIC) he leads multi-disciplinary research and is also well known for his teaching contributions in neuroanatomy and clinical neuroscience.
Hiroki R. Ueda is a Japanese professor of biology at the University of Tokyo and the RIKEN Quantitative Biology Center. He is known for his studies on the circadian clock.
Catherine S. Woolley is an American neuroendocrinologist. Woolley holds the William Deering Chair in Biological Sciences in the Department of Neurobiology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, at Northwestern University. She is also a member of the Women's Health Research Institute in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
Carla Beth Green is an American neurobiologist and chronobiologist. She is a professor in the Department of Neuroscience and a Distinguished Scholar in Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She is the former president of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR), as well as a satellite member of the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine at the University of Tsukuba in Japan.
Dragana Rogulja is a Serbian neuroscientist and circadian biologist who is an Assistant Professor in Neurobiology within the Harvard Medical School Blavatnik Institute of Neurobiology. Rogulja explores the molecular mechanisms governing sleep in Drosophila as well as probing how circadian mechanisms integrate sensory information to drive behavior. Rogulja uses mating behavior in Drosophila to explore the neural circuits linking internal states to motivated behaviors.
Lauren Orefice is an American neuroscientist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Orefice has made innovative discoveries about the role of peripheral nerves and sensory hypersensitivity in the development of Autism-like behaviors. Her research now focuses on exploring the basic biology of somatosensory neural circuits for both touch and gastrointestinal function in order to shed light on how peripheral sensation impacts brain development and susceptibility to diseases like Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Elizabeth Maywood is an English researcher studying circadian rhythms and sleep in mice. Her studies are focused in the SCN, a small region of the brain that controls circadian rhythms.
