Rachel Smith, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, recently received the FCIDD McNulty Civitan Scientist Award along with her research collaborator, Scott Cruishank, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine.
The award is given on behalf of the FCIDD McNulty Civitan Scientist Committee and the Civitan International Research Center which provides $75,000 per year for three years in funding for interdisciplinary clinical or fundamental science research aimed at enhancing understanding of typical and atypical brain development.
Smith and Cruikshank's collaborative study will combine state-of-the-art electrophysiological recordings, optogenetic techniques, and computational analysis tools to better characterize the dysfunctional neuronal circuits associated with SLC6A1 neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs).
Smith, an assistant professor in the UAB School of Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is aiming to fill a major gap by understanding a specific part of the brain called the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), which plays a role in how SLC6A1-related NDDs develop.
“We hypothesize that mutations in SLC6A1 changes inhibitory activity of the TRN, and this disruption of physiological levels of inhibition causes reciprocal bursting between TRN and thalamocortical cells, giving rise to seizure-like activity,” said Smith.