Hydrogen peroxide triggers an increase in cell surface expression of system x in cultured human glioma cells.

System x exchanges extracellular cystine for intracellular glutamate across the plasma membrane of many cell types. One of the physiological roles of System x is to provide cystine for synthesis of the antioxidant glutathione. Here we report that hydrogen peroxide (HO) triggers the translocation of System x to the plasma membrane within 10 min of the initial exposure.

Developing a project-oriented introduction to neuroscience lab at hope college.

The Introduction to Neuroscience course at Hope College includes a three-hour laboratory period each week. Seven of the fifteen weeks of the lab are used for a lab project that is focused on understanding the effects of gonadal hormones on brain and behavior. Students perform ovariectomies and implant sham, estradiol, or testosterone capsules in rats and then carry out five experiments: 1) Sexual Behavior, 2) Spatial Learning using the Morris Water Maze, 3) The Size of the Sexually Dimorphic Nucleus, 4) Phosphorylation of NMDA Receptors, and 5) Long Term Potentiation in Hippocampal Slices.

Cultivation of an interdisciplinary, research-based neuroscience minor at hope college.

Hope College is an undergraduate liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 3,000 students. In the spring of 2005, we began to offer an interdisciplinary neuroscience minor program that is open to all students. The objective of this program is to introduce students to the field of neuroscience, and to do so in such a way as to broaden students' disciplinary perspectives, enhance communication and quantitative skills, and increase higher-level reasoning skills by encouraging collaboration among students who have different disciplinary backgrounds.