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Winter 2025

NEWS

Welcome to the BHRI Collaboratories!

The latest in state-of-the-art equipment

BHRI Neuroimaging Collaboratory:

• The Olympus Slide Scanner is designed to capture high-resolution images of your microscope slides for quantitative analysis. The main advantages of the Slide Scanner are the automation, speed, and ease of capturing large numbers of images. Users can even set up their image-project and leave the Collaboratory to work on other tasks and return later to a full set of images.
• The UltraMicroscope Blaze light sheet microscope enables rapid 3D visualization of entire biological systems at a subcellular level. This microscope is capable of imaging fluorescent staining in whole brains, organs or tissues from animal models or human samples that have methods (e.g., 3DISCO, MACS). Recently, it has undergone clearing with organic solvent-based methods (e.g., 3DISCO, MACS) and has been upgraded to enable imaging multiple samples and organs in just minutes.
• The MBF Bioscience Module Neurolucida is fully integrated with Leica DMR microscope system hardware to control motorized stage, focus, camera, and optical filters, and is used to capture high quality images and z-stacks of brightfield or fluorescent sections. A key feature is the ability to automatically capture and montage images at high magnification of a large area for high-quality images (whole slide imaging).

BHRI Neurocognitive Collaboratory:

• Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can be used to measure blood oxygenation during activity. It relies mainly on the relative transparency of tissue to light in the NIR range, and the oxygenation-dependent light-absorbing characteristics of hemoglobin. By using several different wavelengths, the relative changes in hemoglobin concentration can be displayed continuously. These changes are spatially specific, showing which areas of the brain are receiving more and less oxygenation during a particular activity. The fNIRS unit in the BHRI can be used wirelessly, thus allowing subjects to move freely during recording.
• Electroencephalography (EEG) uses scalp electrodes to measure the electrical activity of the brain in response to stimuli. The unit in the Neurocognitive Collaboratory can be used alone or in conjunction with the fNIRS.

Brains on Tap

Alzheimer’s Disease and its roots

The most recent event of the Brains on Tap series landed in Westlake, Ohio, at Sibling Revelry Brewing, makers of the ����ֱ�� State Golden Lager.  Drs. Melissa Edler, KSU Anthropology, and Takhar Kasumov, NEOMED Pharmaceutical Sciences, presented on their research regarding Alzheimer’s disease and its roots. The event was emceed by Jeff St. Clair, WKSU radio host and award-winning science report and recorded for later airing on Sound of Ideas. The event was well attended with over 60 alumni, KSU faculty and staff, and community members in attendance.

The event was organized with help from the Division of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement.  The Division promoted the event to alumni and offered a dinner following the event for registered attendees.

BHRI Neuroscience Symposium 2025

Conference and Research Exchange

The BHRI Neuroscience Symposium 2025 gave members an opportunity to share their research and network with others in the neuroscience community.  The event kicked off with the keynote address on Thursday evening.  The BHRI’s former co-director, Dr. John Gunstad, presented “KSU Student Life Study: The Start of a Brand-New U.”  A reception followed the talk. 

Three plenary lectures were given on Friday morning by Drs. Stacy Miner, Aleisha Moore and Sheila Fleming.  The day continued with a student poster session and short presentations of ongoing research by BHRI faculty and students.  Sixty-five posters were presented by undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows/staff from ����ֱ�� State as well as other universities in the area.  The event ended with a reception sponsored by Drs. Mike Lehman and Lique Coolen.

Graduate Student Workshop

Learning Beyond the Classroom

The BHRI held its first workshop for graduate students on September 21, focusing on “soft skills” or personal and interpersonal skills.  Topics included time management, research project management and searching the literature.  Drs. John Johnson and Aleisha Moore, KSU Biological Sciences, and Dr. Jessica Williams, CCLCM-CWRU Molecular Medicine, presented and answered questions on the three topics.  A second workshop is planned for February 2026.