PYI: Development of Asymmetry in the Nervous System

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Based on her outstanding research accomplishments and her devotion to undergraduate education, Dr. Barbara Beltz of Wellesley College, received the prestigious Presidential Young Investigator award. With this award, she will continue her work on the development of neuronal plasticity. Dr. Beltz pioneered methods in immunocytochemistry, an invaluable neuroanatomical procedure. She has taught a very popular and first-class course in immunocytochemical methods at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, which developed into a book. Dr. Beltz will use this award to focus on an number of important questions in developmental neurobiology: the acquisition of transmitter and peptides systems, plasticity in identifiable neurons, and the emergence of specific motor programs and behaviors during development. Her emphasis will be to characterize the anatomy, physiology and development of neurotransmitter and peptide systems of neurons. These data will add important insights to our understanding of how the transmitter and peptide choices in developing neural networks are made. Her research area is of great importance and the studies are likely to reveal underlying principles of how neurons develop.