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Walters and Wang receive Ballard & Seashore Dissertation Fellowships

This fellowship program provides an opportunity for Ph.D. students to benefit from a final semester of protected and supported time to focus on completing their scholarly research activities and the writing of their dissertations. 

Grant Walters, and Mengya Wang, graduate research assistants in Drs. Yuriy Usachev and Andy Russo's laboratories have received a Ballard and Seashore Dissertation Fellowship for Fall 2021. 

 

Approximately 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy in their lifetime and about 1/3 of epilepsy patients are refractory to current therapies. My research focuses on determining the mechanisms underlying a strong anticonvulsant effect observed by the deletion of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter, the structure responsible for calcium uptake into the mitochondria. By determining how this anticonvulsant effect occurs, my research could lead to new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of epilepsy.


Migraine is a neurological disorder characterized by headaches and sensory abnormalities. It ranks as the second largest cause of disability worldwide. However, mechanisms of migraine remain elusive. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), a neuropeptide, has been proposed to have imperative functions in migraine pathophysiology. Greater understanding of mechanisms underlying CGRP action are urgently required to identify novel migraine therapies. My research explores the contribution of CGRP in sensory-integrative brain regions, namely the cerebellum, to migraine pathophysiology.

Date: 
Monday, August 30, 2021