Professor Adam Weaver joined the St. Mike�s Biology Department in January of 2010 to bring his background and expertise in neurobiology to our program.  He�s been busy - in the early summer, Prof. Weaver set up his research space, the primary focus of which will be to investigate the evolution of the nervous system in closely-related leeches.  His lab uses computer modeling and experimental approaches to investigate the evolution of the circulatory and nervous systems in these species.  Two students, Kristen Cowens and Amanda Willette, worked with Professor Weaver over the summer.

	Neurite imaged with a confocal microscope.  Click for image source.

This fall, Professor Weaver debuted his new course addition to our curriculum -  Neurobiology.  The course consists of two main parts: 1) the electrophysiological properties of neurons and neuronal signaling and 2) important functional roles of the nervous system, including sensory processing, movement, development, and cognition.  The lecture portion of the course has also incorporated students presentations on a diverse set of research topics, including addiction, amnesia, sex differences, and many more.  The laboratory includes virtual experiments on computer models of the nervous system, detailed studies of brain anatomy, and hands-on electrophysiology experiments of animal nervous tissues.  By the end of the course, students will not only understand the foundations of how the nervous system functions, but they will have recorded many of these processes directly themselves.