Thomas Kilduff, PhD, EAC Chair
Thomas Kilduff, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Neuroscience at SRI International (formerly known as the Stanford Research Institute) and currently serves as the Chair for TRiM’s EAC. Dr. Kilduff is an internationally-known neuroscientist for his research on sleep/wake regulation, particularly the discovery of the hypothalamic neuropeptide hypocretin, also known as orexin. Subsequent studies demonstrated that hypocretin neurons degenerate in the sleep disorder narcolepsy, a perspective that revolutionized both our understanding of the neural circuitry underlying sleep/wake control and the neuropathology underlying narcolepsy. Dr. Kilduff received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and has had research experience at Stanford University, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Scripps Research Institute, Pfizer Neuroscience, and SRI International.
Dr. Kilduff’s research focuses on the neurobiology of sleep and wakefulness, sleep disorders, and the biological clock. Government agencies, private foundations, and pharmaceutical companies have supported his research. He has been Principal Investigator on NIH grants from the National Institute of Aging (NIA), National Heart Lung Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS). In addition to basic sleep research, his group conducts in vitro and in vivo pharmacology studies related to the development of new medications for the treatment of sleep disorders and he has been awarded Drug Discovery R21 grants by NINDS for the study of novel treatments for narcolepsy. In work with ~40 biotech/pharmaceutical companies, he has established a translational research focus within the Center for Neuroscience with contracts totaling ~$30 million to date.
Dr. Kilduff was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010), an SRI Fellow (2010), a Distinguished Scientist by the Sleep Research Society (2017) and a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP; 2019). He has authored/co-authored more than 200 published abstracts, scientific articles, book chapters and mentored over 20 postdoctoral fellows during his professional career.
Margaret E. Rice, PhD
Dr. Rice is Professor and VIce Chair for Research in the Department of Neurosurgery and Professor at the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Rice's NIH-funded laboratory studies factors that regulate the release of dopamine, which is a key transmitter in motor and reward pathways of the brain. Current topics include: modulation of dopamine release in the striatum by diet and by the metabolic hormones insulin and leptin; the influence of exercise on dopamine levels and release; and fundamental mechanisms underlying release of dopamine from the cell bodies and dendrites of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra, the primary brain region showing degeneration in Parkinson's disease. Methods used include fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, optogenetics, patch-clamp recording of basal ganglia neurons, and immunohistochemistry. Dr. Rice is an investigator in the NYU Neuroscience Institute, a member of the Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute for Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders at NYU Langone, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Parkinson’s Foundation.
Detlev Boison, PhD
Dr. Boison is Professor and Vice Chair of Research and Training at the Department of Neurosurgery, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and New Jersey Medical School, at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He has a passion for translational research and seeks to translate fundamental mechanisms of biochemistry and energy metabolism into novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of neurological conditions. Dr. Boison has also focused his research effort on the development of metabolism-based therapies that enable disease modification in epilepsy and after traumatic brain injury. Having graduated from the University of Koln, Germany in 1994 with a PhD in Biochemistry, Dr. Boison went on to receive the venia legendi (Habilitation) in Cellular Pharmacology from the University of Zurich, Switzerland for his work on cell-based adenosine augmentation therapies for epilepsy. Dr. Boison has maintained a rigorous research program on translational adenosine research and has been continuously NIH-funded since 2008. Dr. Boison has published 160 papers with an h-index of 53 and has delivered over 130 invited lectures.
David A. Lathrop, PhD
Dr. Lathrop is the former Chief of the Heart Failure and Arrhythmias Branch in the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health. At NIH, he conducted and managed an integrated basic and clinical research program to study normal cardiac function and pathogenesis to improve diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of heart failure and arrhythmias. Dr. Lathrop promoted opportunities to translate promising scientific and technological advances from discovery through preclinical studies to multisite and network clinical trials.
Dr. Lathrop is the recipient of multiple Awards of Merit from the National Institutes of Health for consistent excellence and leadership for development of innovative multidisciplinary research programs in cardiovascular disease, development of initiatives to improve resuscitation outcomes from out-of-hospital arrest, innovative NIH staff training programs, among other outstanding achievements. Dr. Lathrop was inducted as a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA), Basic Science Council in 2003.
During his professional career, Dr. Lathrop has been Principal Investigator on several research grants from the NIH/NHLBI, the National American Heart Association, the Norwegian National Heart Association, among others, as well as a co-investigator on training grants from NIH/NHLBI and the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities. Dr. Lathrop has authored/co-authored more than 100 publications. He was awarded a PhD in medical physiology from Indiana University.
Sven O. Ebbesson, PhD
From 1985 to 2000, Dr. Ebbesson served as a Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the areas of medical science, neuroscience, and marine science. In 2000, he earned the distinguished title of Professor Emeritus and has continued to support collaborative research activities among scientists at the University of Alaska. Dr. Ebbesson is cited in Google Scholar as an author/co-author of more than 200 publications. Among his varied research interests, Dr. Ebbesson developed the Parcellation Theory, which explains the relation of interspecific variability in brain organization, evolutionary/ontogenetic development, and neuronal plasticity that was premised on results from his and others’ evolutionary studies involving sharks. He is also known for his epidemiological research of Alaska Native health problems that led to discoveries of identifying certain store-bought foods having high concentrations of palmitate, which was found to be specifically detrimental to the development of diabetes and cardio-vascular disease, health conditions common to many Alaska Native populations. Dr. Ebbesson is a pioneer of neuroscience and health research in Alaska. His work is internationally recognized, having spanned more than two decades in Alaska.
In 2006, the UAF College of Natural Science and Mathematics established the UAF Professor Emeritus Sven Ebbesson Award to honor Alaska researchers annually who make outstanding contributions to the field of neuroscience. Dr. Kelly Drew, PI for the Transformative Research in Metabolism program, was the first to receive this prestigious award recognizing her work using hibernation as a model of neuroprotection for discovery of novel therapies to treat stroke and neurodegenerative disorders.