Mechanisms of Memory

David Sweatt received a PhD in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt University for studies of intracellular signaling mechanisms. He then did a post-doctoral Fellowship at the Columbia University Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, working on memory mechanisms in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Eric Kandel. From 1989 to 2006 he was a member of the Neuroscience faculty at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, rising through the ranks there to Professor and Director of the Neuroscience PhD program. In 2006 he moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he served for ten years as the Evelyn F. McKnight endowed Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology at UAB Medical School, and the Director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute at UAB. Dr. Sweatt's laboratory studies biochemical mechanisms of learning and memory, most recently focusing on the role of epigenetic mechanisms in memory formation. In addition, his research program also investigates mechanisms of learning and memory disorders, such as intellectual disabilities, Alzheimer's Disease, and aging-related memory dysfunction. He is currently the Allan D. Bass endowed Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University Medical School, and has expanded his research program to include developing PharmacoEpigenetic approaches to enable new treatments for cognitive dysfunction. Dr. Sweatt has won numerous awards and honors, including an Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar Award and election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2013 he won the Ipsen Foundation International Prize in Neural Plasticity, one of the most prestigious awards in his scientific field. In 2014 he was the recipient of the PROSE Award for the most outstanding reference volume published in 2013, for his book Epigenetic Mechanisms in the Nervous System. The book was also one of five finalists for the 2014 Dawkins Award for the most outstanding academic book published in 2013. In 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 Thomson-Reuters named him as a "Highly Cited Researcher? and as one of the "World's Most Influential Scientific Minds.? Eric Klann received his PhD in biochemistry from Medical College of Virginia/ Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. After appointments at the University of Pittsburgh and Baylor College of Medicine, he joined the Center for Neural Science at New York University, where he is currently professor and chair. The research in his laboratory is focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying activity-dependent, long-lasting changes in neuronal function, and whether these mechanisms play a role in complex behaviors, including cognition. He uses a number of experimental approaches to gain a greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms necessary for maintaining long-lasting changes in synaptic strength and memory. Detailed biochemical and sophisticated imaging experiments are employed to delineate the molecular signaling cascades that are activated and required for long-lasting synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus, amygdala, cortex, and striatum, and whether these signaling events are required for memory formation, social behaviors, and behavioral flexibility. Dr. Klann is past president of the Molecular and Cellular Cognition Society and has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and receiving the 2013 Brain & Behavior Research Foundation NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award. Cristin Gavin received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, while training remotely at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida. Her research interests have focused on understanding the synaptic mechanisms that mediate structural and functional changes during experience-dependent plasticity, and how these processes can contribute to cognition, as well as specific behaviors such as learning and memory. After completion of her doctoral training, Dr. Gavin returned to UAB for a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. J. David Sweatt, where she focused on understanding the synaptic mechanisms leading to neuronal dysfunction in an animal model of Pitt Hopkins Syndrome (PTHS). Dr. Gavin is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Co-director of the undergraduate neuroscience program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.