Nellie Byun, Ph.D.
Research Instructor
B.A. Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley,
1997
M.S. Biochemistry, California State University, Hayward, 2000
Ph.D. Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, 2007
Biosketch and Research Interests
Nellie Byun, Ph.D. joined the Conn laboratory in August 2010 as a postdoctoral fellow. During her doctoral training in the laboratory of Eric Delpire, Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University, Nellie studied the role of the potassium chloride cotransporter-3 (KCC3) in the nervous system, primarily through the in-depth characterization of the KCC3 knockout mouse, which was found to be a model of the neurological disorder ACCPN [peripheral neuropathy associated with agenesis of the corpus callosum (and psychosis)]. For her postdoctoral studies, Nellie transitioned to in vivo neuroimaging, focusing on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) under the mentorship of John Gore, Ph.D. at the Vanderbilt Institute of Imaging Science where she received didactic and hands-on image acquisition and analysis training relevant to rodent functional MRI, which she subsequently applied to pharmacological studies of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 2, diet-induced obesity, and the development/validation of cerebral blood volume fMRI techniques. In the Conn lab, she is continuing to pursue her interest in neuroimaging of rodent models of neuropsychiatric disease and their potential therapeutics, with her current studies focusing on the in vivo characterization of selective M1 and M4 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor potentiators and activators at a systems level using functional MRI as an assay for brain activation as recent findings from the Conn laboratory indicate that such selective muscarinic receptor-targeting compounds may provide novel strategies for treating the positive symptoms and cognitive impairment of schizophrenia. Nellie is also interested in the differentiating the roles of M1 and M4 in learning and memory, so she is investigating the efficacy of selective M4 and M1 potentiators and agonists in cognition models, which have implications for both schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Selected Publications
Barry R, Byun N, Williams JM, Siuta MA, Speed N, Saunders C, Galli A, Niswender K, Avison M. 2010. High-fat diet modulates dopaminergic network activity: an analysis of functional connectivity. Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med.,18, 443.
Hackler, EA*, Byun, N*, Jones, CK, Williams, JM, Baheza, R, Grier, MD, Sangupta, S, Avison, M, Conn, PJ, Gore, JC. 2010. Selective potentiation of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 2 blocks phencyclidine-induced brain activation. Neuroscience, 168(1):209-18. *equal authorship
Geng Y, Byun N, Delpire E. 2010. Behavioral analysis of Ste20 kinase SPAK knockout mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 208(2):377-82.
Sheffler, DJ, Williams, R, Bridges, TM, Xiang, Z, Kane, AS, Byun, N, Jadhav, S, Mock, MM, Zheng, F, Lewis, LM, Jones, CK, Niswender, CM, Weaver, CD, Lindsley, CW, Conn, PJ. 2009. Novel selective muscarinic acetylcholine receptor subtype 1 antagonist reduces seizures without impairing hippocampal-dependent learning. Molecular Pharmacology, 76(2):356-68.
Byun N and Delpire E. 2007. Axon and periaxonal swelling precede peripheral neurodegeneration in KCC3 knockout mice. Neurobiology of Disease, 28:39-51.
Karadsheh MF, Byun N, Mount DB, Delpire E. 2004. Localization of the KCC4 potassium-chloride cotransporter in the nervous system. Neuroscience, 123(2):381-91.
Howard HC, Mount DB, Rochefort D, Byun N, Dupré N, Lu J, Fan X, Song L, Rivière J -B, Prévost C, Welch R, England R, Zhan FQ, Mercado A, Siesser WB, George AL, Horst J, Simonati A, McDonald MP, Bouchard J-P, Mathieu J, Delpire E, Rouleau GA. 2002. The K-Cl cotransporter KCC3 is mutant in a severe peripheral neuropathy associated with agenesis of the corpus callosum. Nature Genetics, 32,384-392.
