About
About
The history of neuroscience in Hawaii is rich with talented scientists who generate significant work in their respective areas. The National Institutes of Health has committed substantial funds in the last decade to support research at the University of Hawaii. Funding from the institution, the NIH, and other entities was supporting a large number of Neuroscientists in a multiple departments across the university system. Currently, much of the Neuroscience research activity is concentrated in the Cell & Molecular Biology Department in the medical school and in the MRI Research Group at Queens Hospital.
As part of a growing Hawaii-based Neuroscience research community, the University of Hawaii offers a Neuroscience Specialization. The Neuroscience Graduate Specialization currently is an area of concentration within a group of existing graduate programs: primarily Cell and Molecular Biology, although we have participation with Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, Clinical Research, Tropical Medicine, and Communication Sciences. This program crosses departmental and campus borders to promote interdisciplinary study in many aspects of basic and clinical neuroscience. The program builds upon the strengths of Hawaii's spirit of collaboration, intrinsic ethnic and cultural diversity, and existing strengths in neuroscience and health disparities research.
The graduate program consists of a required series of courses in the first-year core training component, which includes three research rotations through different laboratories working the Neuroscience arena. In the second year, students begin to specialize in the specific area of their research interests under a faculty mentor. Irrespective of the partnering graduate program, the first year courses introduce the student to fundamental concepts of the partner discipline plus background exposure to molecular biology, cell biology and neuroscience. This first year program is followed by the Qualifying Exam that requires a level of background knowledge that justifies each student progressing into subsequent years. In the second year, the student will select the general area of their research interests and an advisor/mentor in that area of Neuroscience.
Given the number of research active and instructional faculty at UH Manoa with backgrounds and/or current research and teaching activity in different areas of Neuroscience, there are faculty in several different specialized areas of Neuroscience research:
- Aging - Neurodegeneration
- Biomedical Engineering
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Neurobehavior
- Neurobiology
- Neuroimaging
- Neuroinformatics
- Neurolinguistics
- Neuropharmacology
- Neurovirology
Additionally, several resources throughout UH are currently available for basic and clinical neuroscience research:
Basic Resources Currently Available:
1. John A. Burns School of Medicine
Behavioral neurosciences*
Bioinformatics facility
BSL-3 and ABSL-3 facilities
Flow cytometry
Histology***
NeuroAIDS laboratory
Neuroimaging**
Neuropharmacology
Neurophysiology*
Stem Cells
*Part of a RCMI-funded core: Behavioral-Electrophysiology Murine Phenotyping
**Part of a RCMI-funded core: Microscopy
***Part of a RCMI-funded core: Histopathology
see http://rcmi-bridges.jabsom.hawaii.edu/
2. Pacific Biosciences Research Center
Behavioral neuroscience expertise
Depression/Autism expertise
Invertebrate neurobiology
Neurophysiology
3. College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
Peptide neurotoxin laboratory
4. Psychiatry
Neurobehavior models
5. UH Hilo
Ligand binding assays for neuropharmacological compounds
Synthesis of compounds
Clinical Resources Currently Available:
1. Hawaii Center for AIDS
Clinical trials infrastructure for HIV/AIDS clinical translational research
Clinics, support laboratories, research nurses, research associates, etc.
2. Queen's Medical Center
Acute Stroke Team and Stroke Database
Epilepsy Center
Ischemia-Stroke models
4. Psychiatry
Pacific Addiction Research Center
IDEAL (Infant Development, Environment and Lifestyle) study
Personnel with fellows, nursing, outpatient presence at QMC
5. Neurobehavior
NRI, Inc (Neurobehavioral Research Institute): Private industry collaboration
6. Communication Science at UHM
Disorders of communication
Voice laboratory
Acoustic analysis
7. Geriatric Medicine
Geriatric Care Center
Specialized technical training available to researchers in the neurosciences includes:
The UH Histopathology, Imaging and Behavioral-Electrophysiology Murine Phenotyping Core Facilities, http://rcmi-bridges.jabsom.hawaii.edu/, offer technical training and services in histology, histochemical and immunohistological techniques; use of several microscopic platforms for confocal and fluorescent microscopy, including live imaging; training in behavioral testing and extracellular recording in acutely isolated brain slices.
The JABSOM Molecular Biology and Immunology Core (MBIC) Facility, http://cobre.manoa.hawaii.edu/pceidr/mci/flow/, supported by the NCRR, NIH, is a state-of-the-art facility supporting investigators and students in the academic and corporate sectors in experimental demands ranging from routine culture techniques to advanced cell transfection and cell sorting capabilities. The facility offers a wide range of flow cytometry-based assays including 1-7 color multi-parametric immunofluorescent studies, cell sorting, as well as Luminex multiplex bead assays, ELISA enzyme immunoassays, and comprehensive data analysis. In addition, because the MBIC is central to UH's training of the next generation of scientists, both undergraduate and graduate students have access to its resources. The MBIC technical expertise is available to assist in designing flow cytometry and molecular applications tailored to investigators and student's needs as well as education on instrument operation.
The UH Biological Electron Microscopy Facility, http://www5.pbrc.hawaii.edu/bemf/site/ is a multi-user, multi-service facility, administered by the Pacific Biosciences Research Center. The mission of this facility is to provide biological-biomedical researchers with state-of-the-art instrumentation, training and services for high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, conventional and energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy, optical, fluorescence, and laser scanning confocal microscopy, and image analysis on a recharge basis.
Genomics Core facilities are in Kaka'ako and Manoa, equipped with Affymetrix and Agilent microarray stations and scanners, 384-well high-throughput real-time PCR with robotic microfluidics handling, and high throughput DNA sequencing. Training on this equipment is provided by a technical staff.
Last Updated 
2015