Physics Colloquium: “Blue Light, Neurogenetics, Pain & Sex as a Variable. Plus, STEM Education with Multimedia.”

The Syracuse University Department of Physics is pleased to welcome Dr. John Pollock, Professor of Biological Sciences, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA.

“Blue light, neurogenetics, pain & sex as a variable. Plus, STEM education with multimedia.”

Dr. John Archie Pollock is a graduate of Syracuse University and a Full Professor of Biological Sciences at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. He teaches neuroscience and explores the development and functions of the nervous system with a current focus on the changes in gene expression associated with pain and nanotherapeutic pain-relief that are distinct between males and females.

At Syracuse University, he received his B.S. in physics, completed a major in philosophy, earned a M.S. in physics, as well as his Ph.D. in biophysics with Ed Lipson. Postdoctoral studies were in the laboratory of Prof. Seymour Benzer, a pioneer in neuro-genetic and behavioral research, at Caltech in Pasadena, California. For the next 12 years, he served as Assistant/Associate Professor of Biology at Carnegie Mellon University before joining Duquesne.

Dr. Pollock also serves as founding director for the Partnership in Education (www.thepartnershipineducation.com), which produces digital and analog multimedia for informal science education. These artistically rich STEM learning resources including YouTube videos, Emmy Award® winning broadcast TV shows, award winning Apps, board games and teacher resources for K-12 and the public.

Abstract: A triple graduate of Syracuse University (B.S. Physics ’78, M.S. Physics ’83, Ph.D. Biophysics ’84), the talk will follow his research from the blue-light response of the single cell fungus to the neuro-genetic, behavioral research and molecular cell biology of the developing nervous system associated with vision. Stops will include receptor tyrosine kinase Ras cascade, opsin/arrestin phototransduction, ETS heterodimer transcriptional regulation facilitated by alternative mRNA splicing and then the TRP calcium channel proteins associated with nociception – pain. Current research explores nanotherapeutic immunomodulation of neuroinflammation revealing significant differences between male and female responses to nerve injury and to pain-relieving drugs.

He will also briefly highlight efforts to develop digital and analog multimedia for STEM education on a range of topics of ‘everyday science’ of interest to kids.