"Metals in Your Brain..." Is Topic of Saturday Science Lecture on 27 January

22 January 2007 — A free public lecture titled "Metals in Your Brain: How to Stop Your Brain From Rusting Its Way to Alzheimer’s Disease" will be given on Saturday, 27 January 2007, by Jim Connor, professor and vice-chair for Research in the Department of Neurosurgery in the Penn State College of Medicine. The lecture will take place from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park Campus. The event is the first of five weekly lectures in the 2007 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, an annual series designed as a free minicourse for the enjoyment and education of residents in Central Pennsylvania communities. The theme of the series this year is “Broken Brains: New Research on Brain Disease Is Revealing How the Healthy Mind Works.”

Connor, who also is the director of the George M. Leader Family Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory and professor of neural and behavioral sciences, will describe the importance of metals in normal brain function, including the role of zinc in memory functions and the role of copper and iron in generating energy and in many other essential processes in the brain. He also will describe how these metals sometimes get out of balance and have a negative impact on brain function. "In Alzheimer's disease, most of the metals in the brain are found in excess and some metals such as cobalt, chromium, and aluminum can increase selectively," he says. Connor will explain how metals get into the brain, the role of diet in exposing the brain to metals, and how excessive levels of metals may contribute to Alzheimer's disease. He also will describe current treatment strategies under development for Alzheimer's disease that are designed to limit metal accumulation in the brain.

Connor has focused his research program on understanding the mechanisms for regulation of iron in the brain. His group pioneered the research field concerning the role of iron in neurobiology, and also identified iron mismanagement in the brain as a possible contributor to numerous neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and Restless Legs Syndrome. Connor has authored over 100 primary publications, over 30 review articles, and has edited or co-edited two books on the role of metals in neurological disorders.

Connor received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Thomas More College in 1975; a master’s degree in physiology from Wright State University in 1978; and a doctoral degree in anatomy from the University of California at Berkeley in 1981. He is currently professor and vice-chair of neurosurgery, professor of pediatrics, and director of the G.M. Leader Family Laboratory for Alzheimer's Disease Research at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

He serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards for the Iron Disorders Institute, the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation, the International Scientific Advisory Board for the International Conference on Metals and Brain, and the GlaxoSmithKline Restless Legs Syndrome National Advisory Board. He is a consultant for the International Copper Association, the Board for Research Advancing Iron in Neurology (BRAIN) of Vifor International Inc, and Intellyst Medical Communications Discussion on Movement Disorders. He serves on the editorial boards for the journals GLIA, Current Neurovascular Research, the Journal of Neuroscience Research, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Research, and is an associate editor for the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

The 2007 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are a free minicourse consisting of five consecutive lectures focused on recent research on the structure and function of the human brain. Audience members who attend the consecutive lectures will gain an understanding of how the study of brain disease is helping researchers to make new discoveries about normal brain function. The lecture series is sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science, with additional financial support provided by Pfizer Inc. The remaining lectures include:

• "Addiction: A Bad Case of Good Memory" by Kyung-An Han, associate professor of biology at Penn State, in 100 Thomas Building on 3 February;
• "Serotonin and the Misbehaving Brain: Unraveling the Biology of Anxiety and Depression" by Anne Andrews, assistant professor of molecular toxicology at Penn State, in 100 Thomas Building on 10 February;
• "Schizophrenia: The Broken Brain and How to Fix It" by Robert Levenson, professor of pharmacology at Penn State, in 100 Thomas Building on 17 Febrary; and
• "Brain Repair: Hopes and Challenges" by Gong Chen, assistant professor of biology at Penn State, in 112 Kern Building on 24 February.

Thomas Building is located at the intersection of Pollock and Shortlidge Roads on the Penn State University Park Campus. Free parking is available in the Eisenhower Parking Deck behind Eisenhower Auditorium. Kern Building is located at the corner of Curtin and Burrowes Roads. Parking is available free of charge at the Nittany Parking Deck adjacent to the Nittany Lion Inn on Fischer Road.

For more information or access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information by telephone at (814) 863-0901, by e-mail at science@psu.edu, or click on the web link at http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/frontiers/

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