Arianna Maffei in her lab viewing a slice of brain that shows the mark of the infusion in the gustatory cortex (identified by the red and yellow). This is one of the images which helped the researchers confirm their study data. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook University
Study findings reveal a specific signal in one brain region that may hold the key
Researchers at Stony Brook University used genetic manipulation in a laboratory brain model to demonstrate that neurosteroids, signals involved in mood regulation and stress, can reduce the sensitivity and preference for sweet tastes when elevated within the gustatory cortex – a region in the brain most involved with taste. Their findings are published in Current Biology.
According to senior author Arianna Maffei, PhD, Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, studies in humans suggest that the preference for certain foods influences how much we eat and that decreased sensitivity to taste is often associated with overconsumption, which may lead to obesity. Currently there is limited knowledge of how brain activity contributes to the differences in taste preference.
Determining the relationship between brain activity, taste and eating habits is difficult in humans because available technology for measuring changes in brain activity does not have sufficient resolution to identify biological mechanisms. However, scientists can accurately monitor brain activity in lab mice while measuring their taste preferences.
As the biology of taste is very similar in all mammals, this approach can shed light on the human brain and taste.
In their murine model, the research team investigated neural circuits regulating the preference for sweet taste in adult brains. Their work focused on the effect of the neurosteroid allopregnanolone, which is known to be elevated in people affected by obesity.
This neurosteroid modulates brain activity by increasing tonic inhibitory circuits mediated by a specific type of GABA receptor. The team demonstrated that these GABA receptors are present in excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the gustatory cortex.
They infused allopregnanolone locally into the gustatory cortex of the mice to activate neurosteroid-sensitive GABA receptors. This manipulation reduced the model’s sensitivity and preference for sweet taste. Then they used genetic tools to remove neurosteroid sensitive GABA receptors locally, only in the gustatory cortex. This manipulation eliminated the preference for sweet taste over water.
“This reduced sensitivity and preference for sweet taste was even more prominent if the receptors were selectively removed only from inhibitory gustatory cortex neurons. Indeed, in this case mice were practically unable to distinguish sugared water from water,” explains Maffei.
Their approach confirmed that a specific type of GABA receptor is the target of neurosteroid activity and is essential for fine-tuning sensitivity and preference for sweet taste.
Maffei says their findings illustrate the fascinating ways the mammalian brain contributes to the taste experience and reveals a specific signal in a specific brain region that is essential for sensitivity to sweet taste.
Ongoing research with the models is exploring whether neurosteroids only regulate sweet taste sensation or contribute to the perception of other tastes, and/or how changes in taste sensitivity influences eating.
The research was supported by several grants from the National Institute for Deafness and Communication Disorder (NIDCD) branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was supported by NIH grants R01DC019827, R01DC013770, R01DC015234, F31 DC019518 and UF1NS115779.
The authors are members of Stony Brook University’s College of Arts and Science (Yevoo and Maffei) and of the Renaissance School of Medicine (Fontanini).
Pictured from left are David Lyons, Maggie Ramos and Michael Voltz of PSEG Long Island with John Tuke, Brandon King, Bruce Schadler and Steve Monez of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Photo courtesy of PSEG LI
PSEG Long Island recently commended Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) for its commitment to the environment. The lab completed several projects that qualified for rebates of nearly $280,000 through PSEG Long Island’s energy efficiency programs.
The renovations include replacing 5,700 lights with energy-saving LEDs, heating and cooling upgrades, and a sub-metering project, which will allow the lab to more effectively monitor and manage its energy usage.
CSHL is expected to realize nearly $300,000 in annual savings with the 1.7 million kWh of electricity these projects will save per year.
Pictured from left are David Lyons, Maggie Ramos and Michael Voltz of PSEG Long Island with John Tuke, Brandon King, Bruce Schadler and Steve Monez of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
These composite brain images from the study of WTC responders reveal evidence of amyloidosis. Areas shaded in red and yellow indicate regions of the brain with amyloid. Image courtesy of Sean Clouston, Stony Brook Medicine
By Daniel Dunaief
Even over 23 years after first responders raced to the smoldering site of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, many emergency crews continue to battle the effects of their exposure.
With a combination of toxic aerosolized particles infusing the air, first responders who didn’t wear personal protective equipment and who had the highest degree of exposure have suffered from a range of symptoms and conditions.
Sean Clouston
In a recent study of 35 World Trade Center first responders in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, lead author Sean Clouston, who is a Professor in the Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine, found evidence of amyloid plaques, which are often linked to Alzheimer’s Disease.
The paper links exposure to a neurodegenerative protein.
Research with World Trade Center first responders not only benefits those who worked tirelessly to try to find survivors and to restore the area after the attack, but also could help other people who inhale aerosolized toxins.
Indeed, such research could help those who are spending hours battling the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, which have been consuming forests and trees, homes and commercial buildings, at a furious and uncontrolled pace.
People have a feeling that fresh air is safe, but what scientists have learned from their studies of the World Trade Center first responders is that “just being six feet away from a pile of rubble that’s smoldering, even if you can’t see that it’s dangerous, doesn’t mean it isn’t,” said Clouston. “There is at least some risk” to human health from fires that spew smoke from burned computers and refrigerators, among others.
Given the variety of materials burned in the fires, Minos Kritikos, Senior Research Scientist and a member of the group in the collaborative labs of Clouston and Professor Benjamin Luft, suspects that a heterogeneity of particles were in the air.
People in Los Angeles who are inhaling these particles can have them “linger in their circulation for years,” said Kritikos. “It’s not just a neurological issue” as the body tries to deal with carrying around this “noxious” particulate matter. Since most neurons don’t regenerate, any toxicity induced neuronal death is irreversible, making damage to the brain permanent.
Even in non-emergency situations, people in polluted cities face increased health risks.
“There is a recognition that air pollution is a major preventable cause of Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias, as noted by the latest Lancet Commission,” Clouston explained.
Two likely entry points
People who breathe in air containing toxic chemicals have two likely pathways through which the particulates enter the body. They can come in through the nose and, potentially, travel directly into the brain, or they can enter the lungs, circulate through the body and enter the head through the blood-brain barrier. The olfactory route is more direct, said Kritikos.
Minos Kritikos in front of Stony Brook Hospital.
The amyloid plaques in these first responders was found primarily in the area near the nose, which supports the idea that maybe inhaling the dust was the problem, Clouston said.
Once these chemicals enter the brain, Clouston and his team believe the body engages defenses that are designed much more for viruses than for toxic compounds. The immune system can encapsulate these chemicals in amyloid plaques.
Amyloid plaques, in moderation and under conditions that protect the brain against pathogens, are a part of a protective and helpful immune response. Too much of a good thing, however, can overwhelm the brain.
“When there’s too much plaque, it can physically disturb neuronal functions and connections,” said Kritikos. “By being a big presence, they can also molecularly and chemically react with its environment.”
A large presence of amyloid can be toxically necrotic to surrounding neural tissue, Kritikos added.
What the scientists believe they are tracking is the footprint of an adaptive response that may not help the brain, Clouston added.
Clouston cautioned that the plaques and cognitive decline could both be caused by something else that scientists haven’t yet seen.
The findings
The research, which used positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans to search for evidence of amyloid plaques, found evidence that doesn’t look like old age Alzheimer’s, explained Clouston. Usually these levels of plaques are not located in one spot, but occur throughout the brain during Alzheimer’s.
The immune response may be causing some of these plaques.
The amount of amyloid plaque doesn’t look like Alzheimer’s Disease and does not appear abnormal in the traditional way of testing, but with careful analysis of the olfactory system, the researchers can find elevated levels.
“I was surprised by how little amyloid was necessary to show this association,” said Clouston.
Researchers at Mt. Sinai have examined the effect of exposure to these same particulates in mice.
“The answer is very much similar to what we see in humans,” said Clouston. “That supports this work.”
To be sure, Clouston and Kritikos are hoping to build on this research. They are particularly interested in following up with participants to measure the rate of change in these plaques from the observed amyloid signals they measured at baseline.
“Doing so would enable us to calculate the rate of amyloid buildup allowing us to assess our responders more precisely, opening doors to possible therapeutic interventions such as the recently approved anti-amyloid therapies,” Kritikos explained.
Additionally, they hope to expand on the study beyond the 35 people who participated.
It is unclear whether tamping down the immune system could make patients better or worse. By reducing amyloid plaques, scientists might enable the harmful dust to cause damage in other areas of the brain. Alternatively, however, a lower level immune response with fewer plaques might, in the longer term, be better for the brain.
This study “does open the door for some of those questions,” Clouston said. Kritikos and Clouston plan to study the presence of tau proteins and any signs of neurodegeneration in the brains of these first responders.
“More research needs to be done,” Clouston said, which specifically targets different ways of measuring exposure, such as through a biomarker. He’s hoping such a biomarker might be found that tracks levels of exposure.
Future research could also address whether post traumatic stress disorder affects the immune response.
“It’s certainly possible that PTSD is playing a role, but we’re not sure what that might be,” said Clouston.
The researchers are continuing this research as they study the effects of exposure on tau proteins and neurodegeneration.
“We are hopeful that this will be an important turning point for us,” Clouston explained
From the Medditerranean to the Atlantic
Born and raised in Cyprus, Kritikos comes from a large family who are passionate about spending time with each other while eating good food.
He earned his doctorate from the University of Bristol in England.
Kritikos met his wife Jennifer LoPresti Kritikos, who is originally from Shirley, New York, at a coffee shop in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he was doing postdoctoral research.
LoPresti, who works at Stony Brook as the Department Head Administrator for Biomedical Engineering, and Kritikos live in Manorville and have an eight year-old daughter Gia and one-year old son Theseus.
As for his work, Kritikos is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to research with Clouston and Luft, who is the Director of the Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program.
“I’m happy to be in a position whereby our large WTC team (the size of a small village) is constantly pushing forward with our understanding for how these exposures have affected” the brain health of WTC first responders, Kritikos explained. He would like to continue to uncover mechanisms that underly these phenomena, not just for WTC responders but also for similarly exposed populations.
Lawrence Martin and Patricia Wright. Photos courtesy of SBU
Stony Brook University’s Charles B. Wang Center Theater, 100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook will host the university’s February Provost Lecture, featuring distinguished anthropologists Patricia Wright and Lawrence Martin on Tuesday, Feb. 11 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Each will each give a brief lecture about their work and its significance followed by a reception with light refreshments. The lecture and reception are free and open to the public.
See press release below for more information:
Did you know that Stony Brook University has important African research and scientific discovery centers? The Turkana Basin Institute (TBI) in Kenya and Centre ValBio in Madagascar are both university Institutes and Centers and co-founded by members of university faculty.
Two SUNY Distinguished Service Professors, Anthropology Lawrence Martin, PhD, co-founder and director emeritus of the TBI and Patricia Wright, PhD, founder and executive director of the Centre ValBio will be speaking about their centers and the impact of thir own research to the local and university community at the upcoming Provost’s Lecture Series. The series, hosted by university Provost Carl Lejuez, showcases Stony Brook faculty who have earned the rank of SUNY Distinguished faculty. The distinguished rank is the highest honor available to faculty in the State University of New York 64-campus system.
About Lawrence Martin: Professor Martin is an expert on the evolution of apes and the origin of humans. He worked with the late world-renowned paleoanthropologist and conservationist Richard Leakey to build a bastion for research on human evolution, Stony Brook’s Turkana Basin Institute, which he directed for 17 years
About Patricia Wright: Professor Wright founded Centre ValBio, the modern research campus in the rainforest of Madagascar where she has combined her research with efforts to preserve the country’s endangered forests and the many species of plants and animals they harbor. She was the driving force behind the creation of Ranomafana National Park, a 106,000-acre World Heritage Site there, which is home to many endangered species, including several species of lemur that she works to save from extinction.
WHEN
Tuesday, February 11, 2025 from 3:30 – 5 p.m., ET (reception to follow lecture)
WHERE
Wang Center Theater, West Campus, Stony Brook University directions
The DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory doesn’t just provide educational opportunities for students; it can also inspire their teachers.
That was the case for PhD graduate Alexandra Nowlan, who worked in the lab of Professor Stephen Shea.
When Nowlan met her required teaching component at the center as a part of the graduation requirement for her doctorate, she found educating the next generation inspiring.
“It’s very rewarding to get kids excited about science,” said Nowlan.
Alexandra Nowlan giving a talk at CSHL. Photo from Constance Brukin
Indeed, Nowlan, who did her postdoctoral work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, has taken a job as assistant teaching professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the same institution. She is teaching two neuopsychopharmacology classes and is preparing for an advanced molecular pharmacology class in the fall.
“I was really drawn to outreach opportunities and put more of my focus into teaching,” she said. “The opportunity presented itself, so I jumped at it. I’m having a really good time.”
Established in 1988, the DNA Learning Center was the first site to focus on genetic education for the public, offering classes to students in 5th through 12th grades.
The Learning Center, with sites in five different locations in New York, provides classes and labs for 30,000 students each year.
Amanda McBrien, Assistant Director of the DNA Learning Center, observed Nowlan in action.
“She had a magnetic energy about her,” said McBrien. “She came in and was young, enthusiastic and cool all wrapped into one.”
During a Fun with DNA course in the summer offered in conjunction with Women in Science, Nowlan was the “perfect role model,” McBrien added, who proved to be “utterly approachable” and enthusiastic, making her an engaged presenter.
Students can find information about these classes through the DNA Learning Center and can register for summer courses starting this week.
Recent publication
In addition to her professional journey into teaching, Nowlan recently published the results of a study she conducted in the journal Current Biology based on research conducted at CSHL.
Working with Shea and other scientists who followed her in Shea’s lab, Nowlan studied the way the mouse brain processes sensory signals such as odor and sound as a part of a pup retrieval process.
Important in the behavior of mothers and of surrogates who care for the young, pup retrieval helps ensure that developing mice stay closer to their mothers or caretakers.
“Pup retrieval is one of the most important things for mothers or caregivers,” Shea said in a statement. “It requires the ability to smell and hear the pup. If these things are both important, that may mean they merge somewhere in the brain.”
Indeed, during pup retrieval, neurons from an area of the brain called the basal amygdala carry smell signals to the auditory cortex, which is the brain’s hearing center. The basal amygdala is involved in learning and processing social and emotional signals, linking perception with emotion and social learning.
When Nowlan and others blocked the ability of maternal mice to access smell signals, the micedidn’t provide their customary parental pup retrieval.
Shea and his lab suspect that what’s reaching the auditory cortex is being filtered through social-emotional signals from basal amygdala neurons.
“We’ve known that pup odor is important,” said Nowlan. “People have eliminated odors and seen deficits.”
Deficits in vocalizations also can affect this behavior.
“The pathway that would allow olfactory signals to reach the auditory cortex was unknown and we’ve identified a pathway that is functionally capable of linking those two senses,” Nowlan explained.
A winding path
Nowlan, who grew up in Williamstown, Massachusetts, played rugby in college at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. While three concussions encouraged her to search for a non-contact sport, it also piqued her interest in neurology.
After she graduated, she worked for four years in the laboratory of Sandeep Robert Datta at Harvard Medical School, where she learned about the importance of the olfactory system.
At the Datta lab, she worked with then postdoctoral researcher Paul Greer, who let a flier on her desk about Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s graduate program.
“The umbrella program appealed to me,” she said. “You could get an education not only in the subject you’re interested in but you also had an opportunity to learn about cancer biology and plant genetics, which was exciting.”
Nowlan attended courses and meetings, interacting with top scientists across a range of fields.
The first year she lived in a house on campus near the water, where she and her fellow graduate students could see the lights of all the buildings at night.
“My classmates and I felt like we were at Hogwarts, this magical science camp,” she said.
Postdoctoral transition
When she was writing her PhD thesis, Nowlan became interested in motivated behaviors.
She had been following reports about the opioid epidemic and knew it was affecting Berkshire County, where she grew up.
She was curious about how opioid use disrupted noradrenaline signaling, which plays an important role in motivation, rewarding and the body’s stress response.
“I wanted to explore how these motivational circuits can get disrupted in examples where drugs that are commonly misused are involved,” she said.
She and others in the lab of Zoe McElligott at the Bowles Center were trying to understand various brain circuits as people undergo the painful experience of addiction withdrawal.
More information about these processes could reduce the negative experience and lead to better and perhaps more effective treatments.
Born on the same day
Nowlan met her husband Craig Jones, a Long Island native, through a dating app.
“I joked when we first met that the algorithm” from the app that brought them together was lazy, she said. They were both born on the same day, just hours apart.
Jones, who works as a user experience designer for fitness company Zwift, is “older and he won’t let me forget it,” said Nowlan.
As for her current teaching role, Nowlan is hoping to emulate the inspirational approach of Enrique Peacock-López, a college professor at nearby Williams College. In addition to coaching a soccer team with his daughter and Nowlan, Enrique-López took time to share chemistry demonstrations in primary school and to bring high school students into his lab.
Nowlan appreciated how Peacock-López connected with students.
“The way he made science exciting and accessible to members of the community is really inspiring,” said Nowlan.
Peacock-López has known Nowlan for decades.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction that I may have contributed a little bit with my grain of salt in their careers,” said Peacock-López. When he teaches, he seeks ways to motivate students to solve problems.
For younger children as a starter experiment, he works with reagents that reveal considerable color or that has fumes.
“They love to hear sounds or see colors,” he said.
Peacock-López’s advice to future teachers is to “interact with students” and get to know them.
A native of Mexico, he promised himself when he started teaching that he would treat students the way he would want to be treated.
As for Nowlan, she is eager to continue the teaching tradition.
“It makes me want to keep giving back and provide opportunities to educate the public about what we’re doing and why it’s interesting and important,” Nowlan said.
Her goal is to educate the next generation of neuroscientists and curious community members about how discoveries made in the lab are translated into treatments for disease.
Drs. Iwao Ojima, left, and Martin Kaczocha in a Stony Brook University laboratory. Photo by John Griffin, Stony Brook University
A non-opioid investigational drug with promising pre-clinical results in treating neuropathic pain has passed an important hurdle after the study’s safety review committee (SRC) reviewed the data from initial volunteers and recommended to progress into the next dose level in a first-in-human clinical trial.The drug, ART26.12, is being developed by Artelo Biosciences, Inc, based in Solana Beach, Calif.
The compound was discovered and initially developed by Stony Brook University’s Iwao Ojima, PhD, and Martin Kaczocha, PhD. The technology is based on a class of fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) inhibitors, including what is now ART26.12, and was licensed to Artelo in 2018 by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York.
Neuropathic pain is estimated to affect about eight percent of the U.S. population, which translates to approximately 20 million people. ART26.12 is being developed specifically for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, which remains a serious adverse problem for patients during cancer therapy and post therapy.
Dr. Ojima and colleagues selected FABPs as drug targets of the body’s endocannabinoid system to modulate lipids within the cell for a potentially promising way to treat pain, inflammation and cancer. According to Artelo, ART26.12 is the lead compound in Artelo’s proprietary FABP platform and is believed to be the first-ever selective FABP5 inhibitor (5 indicates a specific protein) to enter clinical trials.
The SRC completed its initial clinical safety review of ART26.12 in early January for the first cohort of eight volunteers. With that, the phase 1 clinical trial of this drug will advance to the next step, which will include more subjects and an evaluation of higher doses of the investigational drug.
Artelo says that other potential indications with the lead compound and other FABP5s in development include treatments related to cancer, osteoarthritis, psoriasis and anxiety.
Dr. Ojima, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook University, and Director of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, and Dr. Kaczocha, Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesia in the Renaissance School of Medicine, led the Stony Brook team in its work developing inhibitors to various FABPs.
They continue to consult with Artelo regarding the advancement of these compounds in clinical trials.
For more about the FABP inhibitor story, see this 2024 press release. For more about Artelo’s successful completion of the first cohort in the phase 1 study of ART26.12, see this press release.
Hand-drawn renderings of two of the seven sampled molars from Australopithecus (StW-148 and StW-47), illustrative of teeth frequently exposed to plant eating. Credit: Dom Jack, MPIC
Study published in Science identifies Australopithecus as a plant eater, narrowing the scope on when regular animal consumption increased and brains grew.
An international team of researchers including Dominic Stratford, PhD, of Stony Brook University and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, have discovered that an ancient human ancestor found in deposits at the Sterkfontein Caves, Australopithecus, which lived more than three million years ago in South Africa, primarily ate plant-based foods. The finding, published in the journal Science, stems from an analysis of tooth enamel from seven Australopithecus fossils and is significant because the emergence of meat eating is thought to be a key driver of a large increase in brain size seen in later hominins.
Every human behavior, from abstract thought to the development of complex technology, is a result of the evolution of the brain. According to evolutionary scientists, meat consumption is a primary driver of many aspects of the evolution of our own genus, Homo, including brain size. When hominins started to exploit and consume highly nutritious animal products is a major question in human evolution studies because it represents a turning point in our evolution. However, direct evidence of when meat eating emerged among our earliest ancestors, and how its consumption developed through time, has remained elusive to scientists.
The research team included investigators from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Germany and the University of Witwatersrand. They analyzed stable nitrogen isotope data (15N/14N) from tooth enamel of Australopithecus fossils found in the caves, an area known for its rich collection of early hominin fossils.
The ratio of stable nitrogen isotopes accumulated in animals’ tissues has been used to understand its trophic position – place in the food chain – for many years. An enrichment of 15N is generally indicative of a higher position in the food chain and consumption of animal tissue. Conventionally, bone collagen or dentin are sampled to attain enough nitrogen isotopes for analysis. But these tissues typically decay relatively rapidly, limiting the application of nitrogen isotope analysis to about 300,000 years.
The recent development of more sensitive analytical techniques that can measure less nitrogen provided the opportunity to sample enamel, the hardest tissue of the mammalian body that also traps Nitrogen stable isotopes while it is forming. Enamel can potentially preserve the isotopic fingerprint of an animal’s diet for millions of years.
According to Stratford, an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University, and Director of Research at the Sterkfontein Caves, and his colleagues, this advancement in nitrogen isotope analysis enabled the researchers to obtain the first direct evidence of the diet of ancient hominin fossils and explore when meat eating started, the behavior that set hominins on a new evolutionary path.
They compared the isotopic data from those fossils with tooth samples of other coexisting animals at the time, such as monkeys, antelopes, hyenas, jackals and big cats. The comparison revealed that while its possible Australopithecusoccasionally consumed meat, its primary diet was plant-based.
In fact, the isotopic data showed the hominin ate more like a herbivore than a carnivore. One interpretation of this result, explains Stratford, is that changes in behavior known to occur in Australopithecus may not be a result of an increase in meat consumption. It may also suggest that regular meat eating had not yet emerged as a behavior in a hominin this old, implying that it occurred only later in time, or in a different geographic area.
“Overall, this work provides clear evidence that Australopithecus in South Africa did not eat significant amounts of meat three million years ago, and it represents a huge step in extending our ability to better understand diets and trophic level of all animals back into the scale of millions of years,” adds Stratford.
From left, postdoctoral researcher William Thomas, Professor Liliana Dávalos and former undergraduate fellow Maria Alejandra Bedoya Duque. Photo courtesy of William Thomas
By Daniel Dunaief
Captivity causes changes in a brain, at least in the shrew.
Small animals that look like rodents but are related to moles and hedgehogs, shrews have different gene expression in several important areas of their brain during captivity.
In a study led by 2022 Hearst summer Undergraduate Research Fellow Maria Alejandra Bedoya Duque in the lab of Stony Brook Professor Liliana Dávalos, shrews in captivity haddifferent gene expression in the cortex, hippocampus and olfactory bulb. These brain areas are important for cognition, memory and environmental sensing.
“I was very surprised by what we found,” said Dávalos. While she expected that the research might uncover differences between the brains of captive and wild animals, she didn’t expect the changes to be as many or as strong.
The change in brain activity could offer potential alternative explanations for studies that explore the effect of various experiments on animals kept in captivity.
“It could be very useful to find out if these environmental influences could be confounding,” said Dávalos. “We don’t know all the dimensions of what captivity is doing.”
Additionally, brain activity changes in captivity for shrews in terms of the transcripts that are over or under expressed mirror those found in humans who have neurological changes such as major depressive disorder or neuro degenerative disorders.
“How these [changes] influence behavior or cognition is a separate question,” Dávalos added.
To be sure, extrapolating from shrews to humans is different and requires careful analysis, Dávalos explained.
Humans and shrews have distinct life history, ecology, body size and other characteristics. While scientists can study genes they think might have similar functions, more studies are necessary to determine the effects of those genes in expression and how similar they are to those studied in humans or mice.
Dávalos does not expect to find a silver bullet that reorganizes human brains or a gene or pathway that’s going to revolutionize neurodegenerative research.
Nonetheless, in and of itself, the study suggested opportunities for further research and exploration into the effects of captivity on animals in general and, in particular, on their mental processes, which are affected by changes in conditions and needs in their environment.
A foundation for future work
Maria Alejandra Bedoya Duque
The study, which was recently published in the journal Biology Letters, grew out of a two-month internship Bedoya did at Stony Brook in which she studied the brains of four captive shrews and four wild animals. The analysis of the results involved numerous calls and discussions when she returned to Colombia to finish her undergraduate degree.
At the end of the summer, Bedoya was “going to present her work internally at Stony Brook,” explained William Thomas, a postdoctoral researcher in Dávalos’s lab and one of Bedoya’s mentors throughout the project. “Instead, she turned it into a paper.”
Thomas appreciated how Bedoya “put in a lot of work to make sure she got this out,” he said.
The shrew’s brain changed after two months in captivity, which is about 20 percent of their total lifespan, as shrews live an average of one year.
“We don’t know what the limits are,” in terms of the effect of timing on triggering changes in the shrew’s brain, Thomas said. “We don’t know how early the captive effect is.”
Thomas suggested that this paper could “lay the foundation for future studies with larger samples.”
Dávalos was pleased that the study resulted in a meaningful paper after a summer of gathering data and several years of analyzing and presenting the information.
“I’m immensely proud and happy that we had this unexpected finding,” said Dávalos. “It is one of the most gratifying experiences as a mentor.”
A launching pad
Bedoya, who graduated from Universidad Icesi in 2023 and is applying to graduate school after working as an adjunct professor/ lecturer at her alma mater, is pleased her work led to a published paper.
“I was so happy,” said Bedoya. “If it hadn’t been for [Thomas] and [Dávalos] cheering me on the whole time when I came back to Colombia, this study could have ended as my fellowship ended.”
Bedoya believes the experience at Stony Brook provided a launching pad for her career.
“It is a very valuable experience to have conducted this research all the way up to publication,” she said.
Thomas and Dávalos each recalled their own first scientific publication.
“I’m happy and relieved when they come out,” said Thomas. “While internal validation is important, the pleasure comes from providing something that you believe can help society.”
Dávalos’s first publication involved some unusual twists and turns. When she submitted her first paper about deforestation in the Andes, the journal wrote back to her in a letter telling her the paper was too newsy. She submitted it to several other publications, including one that indicated they had a huge backlog and weren’t publishing new research.
When it was published, the paper didn’t receive much attention. That paper, and another on her thoughts about how peace between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels might be worse for the rainforest, have since been cited frequently by other researchers.
Winter brain
At around the same time that Bedoya published her work about the effect of captivity on the shrew brain, Thomas published a study in the journal eLife in which he examined how shrew brains shrank during the winter and then regrew during the spring.
This work could offer genetic clues to neurological and metabolic health in mammals. Thomas focused on the hypothalamus, measuring how gene expression shifts seasonally.
A suite of genes that change across the seasons were involved in the regulation of energy homeostasis as well as genes that regulate cell death that might be associated with reductions in brain size.
Temperature was the driver of these seasonal changes.
The genes involved in maintaining the blood brain barrier and calcium signaling were upregulated in the shrew compared with other mammals.
After the winter, the shrew’s brains recovered their size, although below their pre-winter size.
Originally from Syracuse, Thomas attended SUNY Albany.
When he was younger, he entertained ideas of becoming a doctor, particularly as his grandmother battled ALS. On his first day shadowing a physician, he felt claustrophobic in the exam room and almost passed out.
He wanted to be outside instead of in “the squeaky clean floors” of a doctor’s office, he explained in an email.
As a scientist, he feels he can meld his passion for nature and his desire to help those who suffer from disease.
The past two years in Suffolk County had the warmest average mean temperature and the warmest average low temperature of any two consecutive years on record.
According to data recorded by the Southeast Regional Climate Center (SERCC), January 2023 to January 2025 were the hottest 730 days of the past 42 years.
The data, recorded at a station in Islip, reported the area’s average mean temperature as 55.1 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the third warmest year following 2023 and 2012, which both experienced an average mean temperature of 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
The average low temperature was 47.1 degrees Fahrenheit, tying with 2012 as the warmest average low temperature, followed by 2023 with an average low temp of 47.0, only .1 degrees cooler.
The years 2023 and 2024 rank high in most of the temperature charts, although 2024 was not among the top five highest average temperatures.
Long Island’s higher than normal temperatures are not unique; according to data obtained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average temperature of the continental U.S. was the warmest to date.
Compared to the baseline–the temperature from 1900 to 2000– the average temp of the U.S. in 2024 was almost 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer. The base is 52.01 degrees Fahrenheit while 2024 experienced an average of 54.94.
Dr. Elizabeth Watson, an associate professor at Stony Brook University’s Department of Ecology and Evolution, specializes in climate change and its effects on coastal environments.
According to Watson, global warming is generally felt more intensely in the winter months. As greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to trap heat within our atmosphere, the Earth isn’t releasing heat as rapidly as it has in the past.
The warming Earth doesn’t reach freezing temperatures as often, resulting in less snow to reflect the solar energy away from the Earth’s surface.
“Snow affects the seasonal energy balance, so if you have more snow it reflects the light,” Watson said.
This positive feedback loop has exacerbated warming and explains why there is such a noticeable change of temperature in winter months.
The temperature increase is an indication of a change that is impacting Long Island weather and ecology. Extreme weather events like storm surges impose a threat not only to the coastal environment, but also infrastructure.
In December 2023 and January 2024, Long Island experienced a storm surge–when a storm pushes water inland. Watson observed its effects in Patchogue, as water flowed out from the drains, blocks away from the Patchogue Bay.
“When I think about climate change in this area I think about flooding and high sea levels,” Watson said. “If you have high temperatures that lead to more energetic storms that can lead to more storm surges.” She emphasized the danger flooding would have on Long Island communities, especially coastal towns like Port Jefferson, Northport, and Huntington.
David Ansel, the vice president of the center for water protection at Save the Sound, interpreted the data in the context of what it means for the Long Island Sound.
“As it is getting warmer and warmer, that is negatively impacting a number of things,” Ansel said.”One is water pollution and also the actual warming of the water itself, which makes the water less healthy for biodiversity and plant life.”
A warming climate correlates with severe single-day precipitation events, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Heavy rainfall in itself is cause for alarm–it can erode land and damage crops–but the potential for it to cause flooding is among the most detrimental to our community.
Currently, Watson is studying the causes of forest dieback–a condition that leads trees and plants to weaken or die. Watson said. “Episodic storms seem to play a role. It seems [forest dieback] has accelerated a lot more in the past 10 years. It is not something that has started with Hurricane Sandy.”
Long Island infrastructure is ill-suited to deal with the mass amount of rainfall that data shows is becoming increasingly common as temperature rises. The data secured from SERCC did not reveal abnormal rain in recent years, but national studies suggest an increase.
“When it rains a lot in a short amount of time it overwhelms water treatment and for communities,” said Ansel, who is advocating for the replacement of outdated septic tanks and more efficient wastewater facilities.
The Central and Western Basins of the Long Island Sound are healthy, according to a study released by Save the Sound in 2023 that tested the dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll levels, dissolved organic carbon, and water quality. Port Jefferson, Stony Brook, Old Field, and Nissequogue neighbor border this portion of the sound
The Eastern Narrows, which extend from New York City to Eaton’s Neck, is rated lower.
Increasingly, town officials are approaching Ansel for advice on how to improve their stormwater management and prepare for flooding.
From left, Iwao Ojima, Ashna Garg and Maurizio Del Poeta.
Photo by Kathryn Takemura
By Daniel Dunaief
It worked for mice and now, several years later, has shown promise for cats.
Researchers from Maurizio Del Poeta’s lab, working closely with those from Iwao Ojima’s team at Stony Brook University, have demonstrated that an experimental treatment against a fungus resistant to the current standard of care can work with cats battling a ferocious infection, albeit on a small sample size.
The Stony Brook team, along with scientists and veterinarians in Brazil, used a drug they created in 2018 called D13 to treat 10 cats with severe forms of a fungus that affects cats and humans called sporotrichosis.
With this treatment, which the researchers introduced as a powder into the cat’s food, half of the 10 felines whose skin was under insidious attack from the fungus staged remarkable recoveries, offering a potentially promising development that could one day also offer an alternative care for cats and for people.
“The prevalence in South America is 25 to 20 cases per 100,000 people, which is not low,” explained Del Poeta, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology. “It affects mostly immunocompromised people and particularly people who have cats or people taking care of infected cats.”
Tis cat presented no improvement of the tumor-like lesion and of an ulcerated lesion on the nasal region upon treatment with ITC. After adding D13, the cat significantly improved, even though clinical cure was not achieved after 4 weeks of treatment with ITC and D13 combination.
Typically, people get superficial infections, but a person who is severely immunocompromised could have an infection that spreads and becomes fatal.
The work taps into the expertise of Ojima, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry. Ojima worked on the structure elucidation, the structure activity relationship and development of efficient synthetic methods for large scale synthesis of the drug.
Recent Stony Brook PhD graduate Ashna Garg contributed to this ongoing effort.
Ojima described the work as “solidly encouraging” and added that the scientists have “even better compounds in the same series for human use” that are more potent and more selective to fungi compared to humans which makes systemic toxicity “very low.”
Del Poeta’s lab has been studying sphingolipids metabolism and signaling in fungal and mammals cells to identify new markers for early diagnosis and microbial enzymes/ molecules essential to cause infections in the attempt to develop new antifungal targets.
To be sure, in the cat research, five out of the 10 cats didn’t complete the study. One of them died, although the cause of death was unknown, and four of the other cats abandoned the study.
Additionally, one of the cats for whom the drug worked showed an elevated level of a liver enzyme, which returned to normal within weeks of the conclusion of the study.
Still, the results were promising and provided encouraging improvements for cats battling an infection that threatened their health.
“I am very pleased with the efficacy of D13 on cats in Brazil,” explained Ojima, adding that it is “a compelling result.”
Additionally, in other preliminary studies, D13 works against various fungal infections, including cryptococcosis, aspergillosis and candidiasis. A new derivative of D13 is more effective for those other infections, the scientists said.
Del Poeta explained that the scientists chose to do the research in Brazil because of the prevalence of sporotrichosis in the area and because he had established collaborations in the country in earlier research.
‘Proud and grateful’
For her part, Garg was thrilled to contribute to research that provided a remedy to a deteriorating condition in an animal some of her friends own as pets.
Cat owners often reacted emotionally when she told them about her work, appreciating the significance of the results.
“I am deeply proud and grateful to have contributed to this work,” said Garg. “Its remarkable effectiveness continues to inspire and motivate me.”
A significant part of her PhD revolved around taking the initial lead compounds and developing second and third generation compounds to enhance their effectiveness and bioavailability.
With three bromine atoms, D13 is an unusual therapeutic treatment.
Bromine is “relatively rare among the top 200 pharmaceuticals,” Garg explained. “Bromine can be toxic or can act as an irritant. Part of my work involved exploring ways to reduce the bromine content” to make the treatment more viable in drug development. The scientists are working to understand why and how this treatment works.
“The exact mechanism of action of D13 is not fully understood yet but we are getting very close,” Garg explained.
With the third generation of D13, the team identified compounds that are highly fungal specific with broad spectrum activity, effectively eradicating 100 percent of the three malignant type of fungi.
“It’s important to note that some first and second generation compounds also demonstrated excellent antifungal activity at very low drug concentrations, even if they did not achieve complete eradication on one of the three fungal strains,” Garg added.
While promising, this study does not indicate a new human treatment will be on the market in the short term.
The scientists are doing toxicology studies and hope a new therapeutic option might be available as soon as five years, Del Poeta estimated.
From Delhi to Stony Brook
Garg, who defended her thesis in December, grew up in Delhi, India, where she pursued her undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Delhi University.
After that, she earned her Master’s in Chemistry at Vellore Institute of Technology in Tamil Nadu, India.
Garg arrived at Stony Brook in 2019 and joined Ojima’s lab in early 2020, just at the start of the pandemic.
“It was indeed a challenging time to start a new position,” Garg acknowledged.
Currently a resident of Poquott, Garg enjoys living on Long Island, where she visits beaches, drives around the area and cooks.
Garg, who attended meetings in the labs of both Professors Ojima and Del Poeta, is grateful for the support of these senior scientists, who were also part of her thesis committee.
Del Poeta described Garg as a “dedicated scientist” with an “impeccable” work ethic.
“Drug synthesis can be very challenging,” Del Poeta described. “She is tirelessly resilient.”
Garg is staying at Stony Brook for another year as a post-doctoral researcher.
Del Poeta is pleased with the productive collaboration he’s had with Ojima, whom he described as “passionate, intellectually stimulating, dedicating, inspiring and hard working.”
If Del Poeta sends an email on Saturday night, Ojima typically replies by Sunday morning.
“It is an honor to collaborate with him,” Del Poeta explained. Ojima’s work “makes these impressive results possible.”
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