Rae Silver

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Rae Silver
Alma mater Rutgers University

City College of New York

McGill University
Known forResearch on sleep-wake cycles and immune-nervous system interactions in the brain
Scientific career
Fields Neuroscience and Neuroendocrinology
Institutions Barnard College University of Columbia
Doctoral advisor Daniel S. Lehrman
Website http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/silver/ https://psychology.barnard.edu/profiles/rae-silver

Rae Silver is a Canadian behavioral neuroendocrinologist and neuroscientist best known for her research on the role of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus in generating circadian rhythms, the role of mast cells in the brain, the physiological mechanisms of parental behavior in ring doves. She is currently the Helene L. and Mark N. Kaplan Professor of Natural & Physical Sciences and is currently the Chair of the Neuroscience Program and Professor of Psychology at Barnard College. [1] [2] In addition, she is jointly appointed as a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University and in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology with the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. [2]

Contents

Education and career

Silver received her B.S. in Physiological Psychology from McGill University in 1966. [3] [2] She then received her M.A. in Biopsychology from City College of the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1970. [2] She then received her Ph.D. in Biopsychology from the Institute of Animal Behavior at Rutgers University-Newark. [2] [3] Her doctoral advisor was Daniel S. Lehrman.

After receiving her graduate degree, Silver was an assistant professor at Rutgers University-Newark from 1972–1974. [2] From 1974–76, she was an assistant professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York, as well as a research associate at The American Museum of Natural History. [2] She then joined the faculty at Barnard College in 1976 and became a full professor in 1982. [2] She has held her position as the Helene L. and Mark N. Kaplan Professor of Natural & Physical Sciences since 1990. [2]

In 2002, she served as co‐Chair of the Research Maximization and Prioritization Committee at NASA, which prioritized biological research for the International Space Station. [2] [3] From 2006–2007, she served as a senior advisor to the Office of the Director at the National Science Foundation. [2] [3] She was also a representative of the U.S. on the Council of Scientists for the International Human Frontier Science Program, an international science funding body, where she served as Chair from 2010–2012. [2] [3]

From 2017–2019, Silver served as the president of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. [4]

In 2015, Silver was awarded the Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, [5] an award named in honor of her doctoral advisor.

Silver is currently a receiving editor for eNeuro, [6] an open-access journal of the Society for Neuroscience, and is also a section editor for the European Journal of Neuroscience. [7]

Research

In her early research, Silver investigated the hormonal mechanisms of parental behavior in ring doves, which exhibit bi-parental care. Her early studies focused on the neural and hormonal mechanisms of behavior in male ring doves, in particular, as well as the sharing of parental responsibility and coordination between the male and female. She documented a number of changes in both members of the pair across the reproductive cycle, including in steroid hormones, luteinizing hormone, prolactin, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). Her interest in changes which occurred in the brains of ring doves during reproduction and parental behaviors, such as the timing of egg incubation bouts, led her to pursue questions related to circadian rhythms (daily cycles of activity and sleep). She and members of her lab then performed a number of fundamental experiments demonstrating on the mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms in both birds and mammals, including a series of experiments demonstrating that a hormonal signal from the SCN sustains circadian activity rhythms in golden hamsters. [8] [9] She has also conducted research on the role of mast cells, part of the immune system, on brain vasculature, hormone production, neuronal transmission, and behavior. Her current research areas focus on sleep-wake cycles and their neural bases, and on immune-nervous system interactions in the brain.

Awards and recognition

Media Appearances

Silver appeared on The Daily Show with John Stewart in 1997 [3] & 1999. [3] [13] [14] She has spoken publicly about the challenges of being a woman in science, including as a TEDx speaker in 2015. [3] [15] [16]

Notable publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suprachiasmatic nucleus</span> Part of the brains hypothalamus

The suprachiasmatic nucleus or nuclei (SCN) is a small region of the brain in the hypothalamus, situated directly above the optic chiasm. The SCN is the principal circadian pacemaker in mammals, responsible for generating circadian rhythms. Reception of light inputs from photosensitive retinal ganglion cells allow the SCN to coordinate the subordinate cellular clocks of the body and entrain to the environment. The neuronal and hormonal activities it generates regulate many different body functions in an approximately 24-hour cycle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vasoactive intestinal peptide</span> Hormone that affects blood pressure / heart rate

Vasoactive intestinal peptide, also known as vasoactive intestinal polypeptide or VIP, is a peptide hormone that is vasoactive in the intestine. VIP is a peptide of 28 amino acid residues that belongs to a glucagon/secretin superfamily, the ligand of class II G protein–coupled receptors. VIP is produced in many tissues of vertebrates including the gut, pancreas, cortex, and suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus in the brain. VIP stimulates contractility in the heart, causes vasodilation, increases glycogenolysis, lowers arterial blood pressure and relaxes the smooth muscle of trachea, stomach and gallbladder. In humans, the vasoactive intestinal peptide is encoded by the VIP gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Breedlove</span>

Stephen Marc Breedlove is the Barnett Rosenberg professor of Neuroscience at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. He was born and raised in the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri. After graduating from Central High School in 1972, he earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Yale University in 1976, and a Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA in 1982. He was a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley from 1982 to 2003, moving to Michigan State in 2001. He works in the fields of Behavioral Neuroscience and Neuroendocrinology. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the Biological Sciences section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. Sue Carter</span> American biologist and behavioral neurobiologist

C. Sue Carter is an American biologist and behavioral neurobiologist. She is an internationally recognized expert in behavioral neuroendocrinology. In 2014 she was appointed Director of The Kinsey Institute and Rudy Professor of Biology at Indiana University. Carter was the first person to identify the physiological mechanisms responsible for social monogamy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parental brain</span>

Parental experience, as well as changing hormone levels during pregnancy and postpartum, cause changes in the parental brain. Displaying maternal sensitivity towards infant cues, processing those cues and being motivated to engage socially with her infant and attend to the infant's needs in any context could be described as mothering behavior and is regulated by many systems in the maternal brain. Research has shown that hormones such as oxytocin, prolactin, estradiol and progesterone are essential for the onset and the maintenance of maternal behavior in rats, and other mammals as well. Mothering behavior has also been classified within the basic drives.

Michael Menaker, was an American chronobiology researcher, and was Commonwealth Professor of Biology at University of Virginia. His research focused on circadian rhythmicity of vertebrates, including contributing to an understanding of light input pathways on extra-retinal photoreceptors of non-mammalian vertebrates, discovering a mammalian mutation for circadian rhythmicity, and locating a circadian oscillator in the pineal gland of bird. He wrote almost 200 scientific publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas G. McMahon</span>

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. McMahon helped identifying a retrograde neurotransmission system in the retina involving the melanopsin containing ganglion cells and the retinal dopaminergic amacrine neurons.

Hitoshi Okamura is a Japanese scientist who specializes in chronobiology. He is currently a professor of Systems Biology at Kyoto University Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Research Director of the Japan Science Technology Institute, CREST. Okamura's research group cloned mammalian Period genes, visualized clock oscillation at the single cell level in the central clock of the SCN, and proposed a time-signal neuronal pathway to the adrenal gland. He received a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 2007 for his research and was awarded Aschoff's Ruler for his work on circadian rhythms in rodents. His lab recently revealed the effects of m6A mRNA methylation on the circadian clock, neuronal communications in jet lag, and the role of dysregulated clocks in salt-induced hypertension.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Champagne</span> Psychologist

Frances A. Champagne is a Canadian psychologist and University Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin known for her research in the fields of molecular neuroscience, maternal behavior, and epigenetics. Research in the Champagne lab explores the developmental plasticity that occurs in response to environmental experiences. She is known for her work on the epigenetic transmission of maternal behavior. Frances Champagne's research has revealed how natural variations in maternal behavior can shape the behavioral development of offspring through epigenetic changes in gene expression in a brain region specific manner. She won the NIH Director's New Innovator Award in 2007 and the Frank A. Beach Young Investigator Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology in 2009. She has been described as the "bee's knees of neuroscience". She serves on the Committee on Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development Among Children and Youth in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William J. Schwartz</span> American neurologist and scientist (born 1950)

William Joseph Schwartz is an American neurologist and scientist who serves as Professor and Associate Chair for Research and Education in the neurology department at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. His work on the neurobiology of circadian timekeeping has focused on the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus. Schwartz demonstrated that the suprachiasmatic nucleus is rhythmic in vivo using a 2-deoxyglucose radioactive marker for functional brain imaging. As of 2014, he is editor of the Journal of Biological Rhythms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald W. Pfaff</span>

Donald Wells Pfaff is a professor and head of the Laboratory of Neuroscience and Behavior at The Rockefeller University in New York City.

Elizabeth Adkins-Regan is an American comparative behavioral neuroendocrinologist best known for her research on the hormonal and neural mechanisms of reproductive behavior and sexual differentiation in birds. She is currently a professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Harvey Hastings</span> British neuroscientist

Michael Harvey Hastings is a British neuroscientist who works at the Medical Research Council MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK. Hastings is known for his contributions to the current understanding of biological clocks in mammals and marine invertebrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin M. Gibson</span> Glial and circadian biologist

Erin M. Gibson is a glial and circadian biologist as well as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine at Stanford University. Gibson investigates the role of glial cells in sculpting neural circuits and mechanistically probes how the circadian rhythm modulates glial biology.

Randy J. Nelson is an American neuroscientist who holds the Hazel Ruby McQuain Chair for Neurological Research and the founding chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. Much of his research has focused on the contribution of circadian and seasonal rhythms on physiology and behavior.

Liisa Ann Margaret Galea is a Canadian neuroscientist who is a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. She is a member of the Centre for Brain Health and Director of the Graduate Programme in Neuroscience. Her research considers the impact of hormones on brain health and behaviour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sato Honma</span>

Sato Honma is a Japanese chronobiologist who researches the biological mechanisms of circadian rhythms. She mainly collaborates with Ken-Ichi Honma on publications, and both of their primary research focuses are the human circadian clock under temporal isolation and the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), its components, and associates. Honma is a retired professor at the Hokkaido University School of Medicine in Sapporo, Japan. She received her Ph.D. in physiology from Hokkaido University. She taught physiology at the School of Medicine and then at the Research and Education Center for Brain Science at Hokkaido University. She is currently the director at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Rhythm Disorders at Sapporo Hanazono Hospital and works as a somnologist.

Johanna H. Meijer is a Dutch scientist who has contributed significantly to the field of chronobiology. Meijer has made notable contributions to the understanding of the neural and molecular mechanisms of circadian pacemakers. She is known for her extensive studies of photic and non-photic effects on the mammalian circadian clocks. Notably, Meijer is the 2016 recipient of the Aschoff and Honma Prize, one of the most prestigious international prizes in the circadian research field. In addition to still unraveling neuronal mechanisms of circadian clocks and their applications to health, Meijer's lab now studies the effects of modern lifestyles on our circadian rhythm and bodily functions.

Martha Ulbrick Gillette is a chronobiologist and neurobiologist with research focusing on the effects of circadian clocks on integrative brain functions metabolism and the molecular mechanisms involved in signaling pathways. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Martin R. Ralph is a circadian biologist who serves as a professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Toronto. His research primarily focuses on circadian rhythmicity in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and endocrinology. His most notable work was has been on the suprachiasmatic nucleus, now recognized as the central circadian pacemaker in mammals, but has also investigated circadian rhythms in the context of time, memory, and light.

References

  1. ↑ "Rae Silver | Barnard Psychology". psychology.barnard.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Rae Silver C.V." (PDF).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Helmreich, Dana L. (9 December 2019). "Profiles of women in science: Rae Silver, Neuroscience Program and Psychology at Barnard College, and Department of Psychology at Columbia University, New York, NY USA". European Journal of Neuroscience. 52 (5): 3290–3294. doi: 10.1111/ejn.14604 . PMID   31648404.
  4. ↑ "Presidents of the SBN".
  5. 1 2 "Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology".
  6. ↑ "Editorial Board | eNeuro". www.eneuro.org. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  7. ↑ "European Journal of Neuroscience". Wiley Online Library. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  8. ↑ Lehman, Michael N.; Silver, Rae; Gladstone, W. R.; Kahn, Robert M.; Gibson, Marie; Bittman, Eric L. (1 June 1987). "Circadian rhythmicity restored by neural transplant. Immunocytochemical characterization of the graft and its integration with the host brain". The Journal of Neuroscience. 7 (6): 1626–1638. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.07-06-01626.1987 . PMC   6568867 . PMID   3598638. S2CID   15364778.
  9. ↑ Silver, Rae; LeSauter, Joseph; Tresco, Patrick A.; Lehman, Michael N. (August 1996). "A diffusible coupling signal from the transplanted suprachiasmatic nucleus controlling circadian locomotor rhythms". Nature. 382 (6594): 810–813. Bibcode:1996Natur.382..810S. doi:10.1038/382810a0. PMID   8752274. S2CID   4364531.
  10. ↑ "Society for Research on Biological Rhythms 2018 Award Winner List" (PDF).
  11. ↑ "Rae Silver". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  12. ↑ "Antman, Klein, Prince, Silver Are Elected Fellows of AAAS. Columbia University Record, November 14, 1997". www.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  13. ↑ Christina Ricci , retrieved 2020-01-30
  14. ↑ "Mannequin III - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Video Clip)". Comedy Central. 16 November 1999. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  15. ↑ Busting through the "Women's Entrance" | Rae Silver | TEDxBarnardCollege , retrieved 2020-01-30
  16. ↑ Baran, Nicole M. (2018-08-16). "How Women Came to Dominate Neuroendocrinology". Nautilus. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
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