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I am currently in my last year of graduate school at the University of
Pittsburgh in the combined MD/PhD program. I am finishing my fourth
year of medical school and will graduate in May 2010, after which I
will continue my training in psychiatry residency.
I completed my PhD in neuroscience in
2008, working in the lab of Nathan Urban at Carnegie Mellon University.
My research focused on the sense of smell. Specifically, I used
electrophysiological techniques to directly record from individual neurons
in the olfactory bulb as well as utilized computational modeling techniques
to better understand the functional implications of the data gathered from
recording from these neurons.
Building on my interests in medicine and research, I am very involved
in projects that address solutions to broader problems in (hopefully)
new and creative ways. To this end, I started a company in 2001
relating to my work in healthcare technology and software development. Also,
I recently founded the non-profit Open Science Initiative which implements
a novel form of funding scientific research in the creation of 'micro-prizes'
(see below).
 CV |
aca4@pitt.edu
recent press | awards
related items
Nathan Urban Lab, Carnegie Mellon University
Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh MSTP
ARCS Foundation, Pittsburgh Chapter
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My research focused on
understanding the interactions between neurons in the olfactory bulb. The bulb
is the first part in the brain where smell is represented and processed. The principal
neurons located in the bulb that receive input from olfactory receptors in the nose
and then project to higher brain areas are called mitral cells. These cells are
indirectly connected to one another via a population of local inhibitory neurons.
When active, the mitral cells stimulate the inhibitory neurons, which in turn
decrease the activity of other mitral cells, thus transforming the representation of
odors in the olfactory bulb.
However, it was not clear how exactly the output of mitral cells was transformed and what rules
govern the extent that cells are inhibited by one another. I used electrophysiological
techniques to record from groups of individual neurons in the bulb in vitro
in slice preparations. From these experiments, we found that the mitral cells
interact with each other dynamically, based on the relative activity of those cells.
This represents a novel form of neuronal interaction since in other sensory systems,
this type of interaction is typically specified primarily by the spatial location of
the neuron rather than by the real-time activity of the neuron.
We called this novel method of neuronal interaction 'activity-dependent lateral
inhibition'. I then extended these experimental results with computational
models which showed that this form of dynamic interaction can effectively enhance
contrast between similar odors, thus potentially improving the ability of an animal
to discriminate between them. These results were published in the journal
Nature Neuroscience in 2008 as well as presented at several conferences.
Please see the links
below for access to the articles as well as one of the more recent conference posters.
funding sources
My research and medical education is currently being funded by an NRSA F30 grant from the
National Institutes of Health. The early part of my graduate research was supported by a
one-year IGERT grant from the National Science Foundation. In addition to these grants,
I was fortunate to receive a generous three-year award from the ARCS foundation from 2006-2009.
publications/presentations
Arevian AC, Kapoor V, Urban NN. (2008) Activity-dependent gating of lateral inhibition in the mouse olfactory bulb. Nature Neuroscience. Jan;11(1):80-7.
Urban NN, Arevian AC. (2009) Computing with dendrodendritic synapses in the olfactory bulb. Ann NY Acad Sci. Jul;1170:264-9.
Arevian, A.C., Ermentrout, G.B., Urban, N.N. (2007). "Novel computational role for lateral inhibition in the olfactory bulb and its applications to other sensory systems" 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA
undergraduate research
Arevian, A.C., Poo, M.M. (2001). "Postsynaptic Calcium and Spike Timing-Dependent Synaptic Plasticity: A Computational Approach" University of California, Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology Honors Research Symposia, Berkeley, CA. (Poster)
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www.openscienceinitiative.org
I started this nonprofit to encourage innovation within the scientific community.
One of the primary mechanisms of encouraging innovation is by the creation of a
prize-based funding mechanism. The nonprofit will make available several prizes
related to scientific research. Individuals in the academic community who successfully
accomplish the objectives outlined in the prize definition will then be awarded the
prize. This is a novel method for funding scientific research as the prevailing
mechanism continues to be based on grants issued by a handful of agencies such as the
NIH and NSF. Hopefully this method of funding research will lead to additional
innovations in the scientific community not currently being addressed by the existing
grant-based funding mechanisms.
www.arevtech.com
I began my adventures in computer programming as a sophomore in college after
picking up a book on the Java language because I thought it would be interesting
to be able to type in some code and have the code create something functional.
As it turned out, I found the intellectual creativity afforded by this effort to
be very rewarding and eventually started a consulting company related to these
efforts. Since then, I have undertaken several projects including creating a
medical management application that tracks over 25,000 patients in a variety of
care settings, a palm pilot program for a UPMC research study, and various other
web and desktop applications. I am very interested in systems-level issues,
especially in healthcare, and enjoy using technology to come up with creative
solutions to problems.
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While I have been an active cyclist since college, I recently started racing
bikes as a member of the University of Pittsburgh cycling team last year.
pittcycling.com |
usacycling.org
things worth checking out
. threadless.com
. Ruby on Rails
. NewScientist
. TED Talks
. Memorial Counseling Associates
. Tamara's Vieux Carre in Laguna Beach
. Old version of this site circa 2003
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