Researchers to Discuss Fight Against Neurological Disease at UCSB Chancellor’s Community Breakfast and Open House

It is an exciting time in neuroscience, where researchers are making major advances in battles against neurological disease and injury.

Some of that excitement is being created at the Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, according to Stuart Feinstein, the institute's acting director.

Feinstein will present an overview of the research taking place at NRI in a public presentation at a UCSB Affiliates Chancellor's Community Breakfast, 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16 in the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center, 1118 East Cabrillo Boulevard, Santa Barbara. He and his NRI colleagues will also host an institute open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26.

At the Chancellor's Breakfast, Feinstein will be joined by colleague Steven Fisher, founding director of NRI, who will speak about his investigations of neurodegenerative conditions that lead to blindness. Fisher was recently honored for his contributions in this area with the 2002 Ludwig von Sallman Prize, given by the International Congress of Eye Research.

Tickets for the breakfast are $10; the open house is free. Advance registration is required for both events and can be made by calling the UCSB Office of Community Relations at 893-4388. The Chancellor's Community Breakfast series is sponsored and hosted by UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang and the UCSB Affiliates.

NRI was founded in 1986 and has grown to include 14 laboratories and two centers. NRI investigators work across a broad range of disciplines, doing cutting-edge research on normal neurological development as well as neurodegenerative conditions resulting from disease, aging or injury.

Labs open for the NRI open house include the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the Center for the Study of Macular Degeneration, the Degeneration and Regeneration of the Retina lab, the Development of the Nervous System lab, and the Regulation of Cardiac and Neuronal Function lab.

Other NRI labs focus on cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and muscular dystrophy.

Feinstein earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco. He came to UCSB in 1986. His research focuses on mechanisms that cause Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia.

Fisher earned a Ph.D. in neurobiology at Purdue University. He came to UCSB in 1971.