2015-11-10: College Lecture Series featuring Prof. Jorge Barrio at CSULB

Abstract: Mild traumatic brain injuries are frequent events in the general population, also affecting sport players and war veterans, and are associated with a severe neurodegenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is an acquired primary tauopathy with a variety of cognitive, behavioral and motor symptoms linked to cumulative brain damage sustained from single, episodic or repetitive traumatic brain injury. No definitive clinical diagnosis for this condition exists. In this presentation we will discuss the devastating consequences of the disease and the use of an in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) naphthalene-based imaging probe ([F-18]FDDNP) labeled with the short lived radionuclide fluorine-18 (t1/2=109 min) to detect brain patterns of paired-helical filament (PHF)-tau neuropathology distribution in retired professional American football players with suspected CTE. This imaging procedure may be able to detect the disease in living people with varying degrees of symptoms. Early detection would facilitate the most effective management strategies and provide a baseline to measure the effectiveness of treatments. [Reference: Barrio JR et al, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015 Apr 6. pii: 201409952. [Epub ahead of print] Doi: 10.1073/pnas.1409952112]

Biography: Dr. Jorge R. Barrio is Distinguished Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He did his Bachelors and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, followed by another Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1979) under the guidance of Prof. Nelson Leonard. He has previously held positions of Elizabeth and Thomas Plott Chair of Gerontology and Professor of Pharmacology and Radiological Sciences at UCLA. He also currently holds positions of Member, Crump Institute of Biological Imaging and Member, Resources Allocation Committee, UCLA – Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and Laboratory of Structural Biology and Molecular Medicine/Institute for Molecular Medicine, besides Chair, UCLA Medical Radiation Safety Committee and Radiation Drug Research Committee. Prof. Barrio has also been on the Editorial Board of reputed international journals, such as Founding editor and Editor-in-Chief, Molecular Imaging and Biology (2001-2010), International Editorial Board, Spanish Journal of Nuclear Medicine (2004-present), Nuclear Medicine and Biology (1985-2005) and Clinical Positron Imaging (1998-2000). He has supervised the Masters and Doctoral theses of several students and has been a Member of Graduate Students Theses Committees of scores of students. He has been a member of the American Chemical Society since 1971. Amongst his hundreds of National and International presentations, mention may be made of the American Chemical Society, Symposium on PET in Neuroscience. “Probing Dopaminergic Enzymes and Transport Mechanisms”, Chicago, Illinois, August 1995; and SCALACS (American Chemical Society), WRM2011 “Molecular Imaging of Tau Neuropathology in Humans” Pasadena, November 2011.

Directions: Directions and parking information are available at http://daf.csulb.edu/maps/parking/. The closest lots are Lots 17 and 18. There is a $5 charge for parking.