Thursday, July 16, 2015

Douglas Busich successfully passed his Ph.D. examination on Thursday, July 16, 2015, in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. His thesis title was "Dual roles for an intracellular calcium-signaling pathway in regulating synaptic homeostasis and neuronal excitability". Members of his thesis committee were chair, Andrew Frank, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology; Andrew Russo and Amy Lee from the Department of Physiology, Chun-Fang Wu from the Department of Biology and Robert Cornell from the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.

Dr. Brusich’s research showed the necessity of intracellular calcium-signaling for homeostatic potentiation of neuronal activity following a loss in sensitivity. The same pathway was also shown to mediate aspects of neuronal excitability downstream of gain-of-function calcium channels modeled after channels known to cause migraine. Dr. Brusich received his B.S. from St. Ambrose and began his studies in the Biosciences Program in 2010 and joined Dr. Andrew Frank’s laboratory in 2011. Immediate future plans include a Visiting Assistant Professor position at Wartburg College in Waverly. 

Congratulations Dr. Brusich!