Media contacts:
Holly Korschun, 404/727-3990, hkorsch@emory.edu
January 30, 2003


 



Neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás Will Deliver Breinin Lecture at Emory University



Rodolfo R. Llinás, MD, PhD, the neuroscientist who pioneered important concepts of neural circuitry and communication within the brain, will deliver the annual Goodwin and Rose Helen Breinin Lecture in Basic Sciences at Emory University. The lecture will take place Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 4:00 p.m. in the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building Auditorium, located off Clifton Rd. on the Emory University campus. A reception will immediately follow the lecture.



Dr. Llinás is chairman of the Department of Physiology and Neuroscience at New York University School of Medicine, where he has been the Thomas and Suzanne Murphy Professor of Neuroscience since 1985. His research encompasses many aspects of neuroscience ­­ from the study of synaptic communication in the giant squid, where he first demonstrated the biophysical properties of calcium currents, to the electrophysiology of the cerebellar neuronal circuit, which he described for the first time in collaboration with J.E. Eccles. Dr. Llinás was the first to describe calcium currents in vertebrate neurons. Most of the results from his laboratory experiments have been confirmed in humans using magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings, which he has pioneered over the last 15 years.

Dr. Llinás received his medical degree from the Javeriana University (Colombia) and his PhD from the Australian National University. He trained postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Department of Physiology at the University of Minnesota. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) since 1986, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and most recently the French National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Llinás has contributed more than 500 publications to brain research, has been awarded six honorary degrees and is the recipient of numerous honors. He has served on the Council of the National Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Institute and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Roche Institute and the Max-Planck Institute for Psychiatry, Munich. He currently chairs the NASA/Neurolab Science Working Group. He was chief editor for the journal Neuroscience during its formative years from 1974-1999.

The Breinin Lectureship is named for Goodwin Breinin and Rose Helen Breinin.. Dr. Goodwin Breinin, a 1943 graduate of Emory University School of Medicine, is chair of ophthalmology at New York University School of Medicine and director of the Kirby Institute of Ophthalmology. He was a pioneer in developing new treatments for glaucoma and is a 1993 recipient of the Emory Medal ­ Emory University’s highest honor. Rose Helen Breinin attended Wellesley College and completed her education at Barnard College. A political science major, she worked with the New York City Housing Authority, in public health community service and as a museum researcher and volunteer.

The Breinin Lecture is free and open to the public. This year’s lecture is sponsored by the Department of Pharmacology in the Emory University School of Medicine.

For more information, call 404-727-5983.


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