Welcome

The Neuroscience Institute at MUSC exists to create a nationally known center of neuroscience research, education and treatment by facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration in the South Carolina neuroscience community. With members drawn from departments at MUSC, the University of South Carolina, Clemson and the Greenwood Genetic Center, the Institute has grown into an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in cutting-edge Neuroscience.

The primary focus of the Neuroscience Institute is to bridge the gap between the basic sciences and clinical sciences to provide South Carolina with the needed resources to treat and potentially cure neurodegenerative disorders. The Institute concentrates on stroke, spinal cord injury, and neurodevelopmental processes, however, provides support for research in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Gary Aston-Jones, Ph.D. is one of the Co-Directors of the Neuroscience Institute at MUSC.

Dr. Aston-Jones received his PhD degree from the California Institute of Technology and after a postdoc at the Salk Institute, held faculty positions at SUNY Binghamton, New Yourk University, and at Hanhnemann University where he directed the Division of the Laboratory of Neuromodulation and Behavior at the Universtity of Pennsylvania from 1997 to 2006.

Dr. Gary Aston-Jones primary research interests are in the brain neuromodulatory systems, and their roles in cognitive performance, drug abuse, sleep and waking, and affective disorders. He uses a multidisciplinary approach, primarily involving single unit neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and behavioral neuropharmacology in rats and monkeys. He and his colleagues have recently described a role for the brain noradrenergic locus coeruleus system in decision processes, in the circadian regulation of sleep and waking, and in depression. Other of his lab's recent work also reveals a key role for the A1/A2 noradrenergic brain system innervation of the ventral forebrain in the affective response to drug withdrawal, and also indicates an important role of this and related systems in the drug seeking that accompanies protracted opiate withdrawal.

Thomas W. Uhde, MD is one of the Co-Directors of the Neuroscience Institute at MUSC.

Thomas W. Uhde, M.D., was appointed Chairman of the MUSC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in November of 2007.

Dr. Uhde was the Director of the Penn State Hershey Neuroscience Research Institute and Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Penn State. He was born in Louisville, KY, obtained an undergraduate education in psychology at Duke University and his medical degree from the University of Louisville. Dr. Uhde completed a psychiatry residency at Yale University and was a Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) where, from 1979 to 1993, he served as chief of the section on anxiety and affective disorders. He became Chairman of the Wayne State University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences and was later appointed Associate Dean for Research.

Dr. Uhde has made substantial and significant research contributions in the field of anxiety and is one of the Institute of Scientific Information's most highly cited researchers in psychiatry. He has won numerous awards, international recognition for his professional accomplishments, and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Anxiety and Depression".