FAU’s Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute recently announced it has received $1 million from the Palm Health Foundation to launch and support its new Program in Computational Brain Science and Health (PCBSH). The gift is awarded through Palm Health Foundation’s Brain Health Innovation Fund, supporting new technologies, treatments, resources and educational tools to advance brain health in the community. This gift will accelerate FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute’s drive toward a new era of neuroscience research, education and community engagement.

“Palm Health Foundation’s gift supporting the launch of the program will be transformative, attracting distinguished neuroscientists and the neuroscientists of tomorrow to Palm Beach County,” said Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D., executive director, FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute. Read more.

Students, faculty, administrators, and trustees were recently in Tallahassee for FAU Day at the Florida Capitol. The event provides an opportunity for FAU to share its successes, engage lawmakers, and increase awareness and understanding of the University’s 2022 legislative priorities. FAU Day participants met with leadership in both chambers, legislators, and professional staff and toured the House of Representatives and Senate chambers. Highlights from the event included hearing from FAU alumnus, Representative Mike Giallombardo, District 77, and Marshall Criser III, chancellor of the State University System of Florida.

FAU's Division of Research recently welcomed three Nigerian research administrators to the FAU's Jupiter Campus. Participants Innocent Inegbe and Funmilayo (Funmi) Temiloluwa Ajagbe from the University of Ibadan, and Bolarinwa (Bola) Ajigboye from the University of Lagos are on an IREX University Administration Support Program Fellowship, a six-week program that supports the development of university research management.

During their visit, Innocent, Funmi and Bola had the opportunity to explore the campus and learn about the life science programs, research opportunities and initiatives taking place at FAU Jupiter. Learn more here.

Florida Atlantic University’s Carmen Varela, Ph.D., recently received the Alzheimer’s Association’s “Research Fellowship to Promote Diversity” award to investigate the relationship between sleep patterns and one’s overall brain health. Poor sleep quality is associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias from early stages and is thought to contribute to the progression of AD. With this three-year, $149,871 award, Varela will develop new indicators to monitor quality of sleep in deep brain structures affected in AD.

“Sleep disruption is not only distressful for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, it’s disruptive for their caregivers,” said Varela, an assistant professor of psychology, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, John D. MacArthur Campus at Jupiter, and a member of the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute. “This Alzheimer’s Association fellowship will support the development of non-invasive methods to monitor sleep quality, which will provide a key advance to assess if new candidate drugs truly restore sleep quality in the brain.” Read more. 

Ashley Graham Kennedy, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy at FAU's Wilkes Honors College, Jupiter campus, has been invited to speak at King's College in London, England, and Oxford University in Oxford, England this month.

Kennedy will be delivering, "Science, Truth and Democracy," a talk focused on current work in science and public policy at the 3rd Sowerby Interdisciplinary Workship at King's College on Nov. 2. The second talk, "Diagnostic Justice," will take place on Nov. 4 at Oxford University, where Kennedy will highlight the considerations influencing the clinical diagnosis process for the medical practitioner – concepts discussed in her recently published book, Diagnosis.

You can learn more about Kennedy's work here.

FAU’s  Raquel Assis, Ph.D., associate professor, College of Engineering and Computer Science, and a fellow of FAU’s Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention (I-HEALTH), has received a five-year, $1.8 million “Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award” (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The goal of this early career award is to enhance the ability of investigators to take on ambitious scientific projects and approach problems more creatively.

Assis will develop a suite of tailored, model-based statistical and machine-learning approaches for classifying the evolutionary outcomes and predicting the evolutionary parameters of structural variations arising from duplication, deletion, inversion, and translocation events. Structural variations are key drivers of both evolutionary adaptation and human disease. Read more.

Kerriann Badal, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Science Integrative Biology (IB) Ph.D. program student was recently awarded National Institutes of Health (NIH) F31 Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research. Badal is currently working on her dissertation research in the Sathya Puthanveettil laboratory at Scripps Research located on FAU’s Jupiter campus. Badal is focusing her research on the synaptic regulation of lysosomal-related organelles (LROs) axonal transport in Aplysia californica (sea slug) presynaptic neurons.

FAU Max Planck Honors Program students taking Advanced Techniques in Neuroscience participated in small group tours at Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI). The tours – led by MPFI's Joe Schumacher, Ph.D., head of undergraduate training, and Matthias Haury, Ph.D., chief operating officer, – exposed the students to the machine shop, electron microscope core, and fluorescent microscopes, while also introducing them to various members of MPFI faculty and staff who conduct research utilizing advanced techniques the students are studying. Visit here for more information on the MPHP program at FAU.

Emma Susi, a senior with FAU High – Jupiter Campus in Partnership with Max Planck Academy, is in pursuit of a neuroscience and behavior degree at the age of only 17. Susi's research experience in the FAU High at Jupiter program began Fall 2021. Since the beginning of the semester, Susi has worked in the laboratory of Robert Stackman, Jr., Ph.D., dean of the Graduate College and professor in the Department of Psychology, and focused her research on the neurobiological mechanisms of long-term memory using behavioral, neuropharmacological and neuropsychological approaches. Susi says she aspires to continue her research with a focus in neurophysiology.

Learn more about FAU High – Jupiter Campus in Partnership with Max Planck Academy, here.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science are the first to explore whether greater amounts of neighborhood open space and forest are associated with neighborhood-based walking in older adults in the United States. Moreover, this is the first known nationally representative study to suggest that physical activity levels among older African Americans may benefit from greater amounts of neighborhood open space, including parks.

Results of the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed that open spaces, including parks, were associated with 5.4 more minutes of neighborhood walking per day in older African Americans. By contrast, forests were positively associated with more neighborhood walking among whites, where daily neighborhood walking increased by an additional three minutes. Read more. 

Researchers from FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science examined immune function in two populations of non-captive green sea turtles, comparing resident turtles from an area of poor water quality with those in a more pristine environment. 

“Findings from our study suggest that habitat quality, disease state, and immune function are intertwined, forming a positive feedback loop wherein polluted environments impact the immune system and make animals more prone to the expression of Green Turtle Fibropapillomatosis, which in turn further compromises the immune system,” said Sarah L. Milton, Ph.D., lead author, chair and professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and a member of the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute and the FAU Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention (I-HEALTH). Read more. 

Cristina Rodriguez, alumna from FAU WHC Class of 2015, has been selected as one of 15 new Encore.org Gen2Gen Innovation Fellows. The 2021 fellowship provides support the nation's most talented and ambitious visionaries who dedicate their work to create solutions that bridge generational gaps.

Rodriguez is the president and co-founder of Mind & Melody, Inc., an organization passionate about creating transformative music experiences between generations of people, and those experiencing neurological impairments. Read more.

The FAU Jupiter community is invited to participate alongside the "Neurosquad" in the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) Walk on Saturday, Nov. 6 in-person at John Prince Park in Lake Worth, FL or virtually! The 5K walk begins at 9 a.m. for those participating in-person. 

NAMI is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization dedicated to providing education, support, and advocacy with the goal to empower individuals living with mental illnesses and their families, and to eliminate the stigma associated with brain illnesses. For more information on NAMIWalks or to join the "Neurosquad" team, please visit HERE. 

Sign up for Explore FAU or the Wilkes Honors College open house to meet faculty and staff, hear student experiences, tour the FAU Jupiter campus and discover what is great about FAU! Register today!   

The FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute’s Neuroscience Seminar Series is underway! Take look at the Fall 2021 schedule.

Osama Refai, Ph.D.,

Research Assistant Professor, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and FAU's Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute

Read more on Research in Action Series events.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at FAU in Jupiter has announced its course offerings for the winter semester, which begins Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. Registration for the winter semester begins Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. Course offerings include such varied subjects as foreign policy, political science, film, music, art history and literature. The OLLI provides seasoned adults the opportunity to enrich their lives through non-credit, university-level courses with no homework or tests. Learn more .

Construction continues to progress on the new, cutting- edge, FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute on the Jupiter campus. Once completed, this building will provide current and future generations of scientists with a state-of-the-art, research and education facility.

Current building progress includes the continuation of air conditioning and ventilation product installation; pad construction for the building’s generators; second floor paint preparation and priming.

Construction photos, updated weekly, can be viewed here.

The Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute launched its latest edition of Masterminds magazine. Read about any array of stories from the latest research in neuroscience to the updates on the new state-of-the-art neuroscience research building on the Jupiter Campus. Read more.

Learn about the innovative research and initiatives taking place at FAU Jupiter in the Fall 2021 issue of Owl Research and Innovation. Read more.

The Parking and Transportation Services provides a free intercampus shuttle service. Students, faculty, and staff can enjoy hassle-free, convenient transportation between the Boca Raton and Jupiter campuses. View Schedule

Explore key Jupiter campus locations and learn about life as a Wilkes Honors College student without leaving your home! Our new virtual tour takes visitors throughout the John D. MacArthur Campus, our world-class research facilities and the beautiful Jupiter community with nearby beaches. Tour