About Brain Awareness Week
Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is an international campaign, launched in 1996, dedicated to advancing public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research and to convey the wonders of the brain and nervous system and the far-reaching influences and outcomes of neuroscience research to the public. Founded and coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and its sister organisation, the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, BAW is now entering its fifteenth year as a catalyst for public understanding of brain science. The Dana Alliances are joined in the campaign by partners from around the world, including universities, hospitals, patient groups, government agencies, schools, service organisations, and professional associations. BAW has since evolved into a global initiative with more than 2,200 partners in 76 countries.
Programme
Date: 18th March 2010 (Thursday)
Time: 2pm to 5.30pm (Registration at 1.40pm)
Venue: Dalton Lecture Hall, Science Centre Singapore Moderated by A/P Soong Tuck Wah
Department of Physiology
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS
1.40pm Registration
2.10pm Brain Stomp! - Science Show by Science Centre Singapore
2.30pm Brain Repair and Stem Cells by Dr. Eyleen Goh
3.30pm A Functional Magnetic Resonance Approach to Understanding Brain Function by Dr. Fatima A Nasrallah
3.45pm The Science of Emotions by A/Prof Suresh Jesuthasan
4.45pm Refreshments
Synopsis of Science Show Brain Stomp!
Science Centre Singapore
Brain Stomp! is an engaging and unique science show, using simple interactive demonstrations that will not only interest the audience in learning more about some functions of the human brain, and will also challenge the capabilities of their brain “power”. The audience will begin to understand the brain is not just a simple ball of fats and cholesterol after all. Your mind will never stop expanding!
Synopses of Talks
Brain Repair and Stem Cells Assistant Professor Eyleen Goh Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Research Interests:
Dr. Eyleen Goh is interested in studying neuroregeneration of the adult brain.
Neurological disease and impairment in the adult central nervous system (CNS) are devastating due to their inability to regenerate or to generate replacement cells upon the demise of existing ones. Her lab is interested in addressing problems in CNS neuronal regeneration using two different approaches:
A Functional Magnetic Resonance Approach to Understanding Brain Function Dr. Fatima A Nasrallah
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, A*Star Biomedical Institutes
To date, there is still only a rudimentary understanding of the brain as it functions in its entirety making the brain the most complicated of organs in the human body. How the brain functions as a system and how it relates to underlying neuronal activities is still poorly understood.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging has emerged as one of the most promising tools for studying brain function non-invasively and mapping various networks in the working brain. This presentation will highlight the potential of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a means to study normal brain function and how this can be applied to the understanding of brain dysfunction in dementia and neurodegeneration.
About the Speaker
Dr. Nasrallah’s research interest is to understand how the brain functions, especially when dominated by inhibitory responses. She has been involved in studying the neurochemistry of the GABAergic system and what effect modulation of inhibitory activity has on brain metabolism. She aims to unravel many of the intricacies in the brain in normal and diseased conditions in order to be able to devise therapeutic and diagnostic strategies. She is also interested in the potential of brain imaging methods in the detection of the functional aspects of the brain in vivo and have this applied in a variety of mental and neurodegenerative disorders and relate it to the underlying biochemical and physiological processes.
Education:
• Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, A*Star, Singapore, April 2009- Present, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia, July 2005-Jan 2009, Philosophical Doctorate (PhD) in Neurochemistry.
• Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon, 2004-2005, Masters Degree in Biology
The Science of Emotions
Associate Professor Suresh Jesuthasan
A-star – Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Neuroscience Research Partnership
For centuries, attempts to understand human behaviour have been the domain of philosophers and poets. Now, neuroscience provides a different way of comprehending why people act the way they do. This talk will examine how emotions such as aggression and fear drive behaviour, and consider to what extent humans are similar to animals.
About the Speaker Education:
• Oxford University, 1990 - 1994, D. Phil. in Biological Sciences; Rhodes.
• Stanford University, 1986-1990, B. Sc. in Electrical Engineering, with distinction.
Career:
• 1995-1999: Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen - Postdoctoral Fellow
• 1999-July 2002: Institute of Molecular Agrobiology, Singapore - Senior Scientist.
• August 2002 - Jan 2009: Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL), Singapore - Principal Investigator
• Feb 2009 – present: A-Star/Duke-NUS Neuroscience Research Partnership. Research focus: fear
Booking Form for Brain Awareness Week Talk – 18th Mar 2pm-5.30pm
Please fill in the required details and fax back to 6561 6361 or e-mail
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* The talk is free but admission charges to Science Centre still applies.
