Penn Comprehensive Neuroscience Center

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• History of Neurosciences

Administration

The Penn CNC is optimally organized to integrate clinical care, research, and education.

• The Penn CNC is led by two Co-Directors, one from a clinical department (Francisco Gonzalez-Scarano, MD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology) and one from a basic science department (Irwin Levitan, PhD, David J. Mahoney Professor of Neurological Sciences and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience).  Dr. Gonzalez-Scarano and Levitan are both accomplished educators, and oversee outstanding education and training programs in their respective departments.

• The Penn CNC Co-Directors both report directly to the Dean of the School of Medicine and to the CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. This strengthens the position of the Center within the larger institution and ensures that the Penn CNC has a voice at the highest levels of the School of Medicine and Health System.

• The Executive Director of the Penn CNC is Rosellen Taraborrelli, who also serves as Chief Administrative and Financial Officer of the Department of Psychiatry, which has acclaimed programs in clinical care, research, and education.

• The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Neuroscience Steering Group provides administrative and programmatic advice and oversight for the Penn CNC.  It includes leaders from Penn’s neuroscience community, ensuring that a broad group of perspectives are represented from the Departments of Anesthesiology & Critical Care, Neurology, Neuroscience, Neurosurgery, Otorhinolaryngology: Head & Neck Surgery, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, and Psychiatry.  

Institutional and Programmatic Goals

The Penn CNC has multiple programmatic goals in several mission areas.  Building on a long tradition of interdisciplinary thinking, the Center is designed to create an integrated and collaborative organizational framework for Penn departments, centers, institutes, and programs in the neurosciences.

Biosketches

Francisco Gonzalez-Scarano, MD
Dr. González-Scarano is a nationally recognized expert in HIV neuropathogenesis as well as in other aspects of neurovirology and brain inflammation. He has been and is the principal investigator of several NIH grants, including a program project centering on the biology of HIV infection of the brain, and of training grants in neurovirology and in the scientific development of students from underrepresented minorities.  He has held many roles in national organizations, is the author of over 155 publications in neurovirology, AIDS, and Multiple Sclerosis, and is co-editor of two books. Between 1993 and 1997 he was the Chairman of the Board of Scientific Councilors of the NINDS; before and since he has served on several NIH and Multiple Sclerosis Society study sections. He was on the Council of the American Neurological Association in 2001-2003, currently chairs its Scientific Program Committee, and previously was a member of the American Academy of Neurology's Scientific Program Committee. He is a member of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council (2004-2008). In addition to his clinical work in Multiple Sclerosis and his laboratory activities, he is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Virology, Virology, Virus Research, the Journal of Neurovirology, and Glia, and edits a section of the electronic textbook Up-to-Date.

Irwin Levitan, PhD
Dr. Levitan has twice won the NIH Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, once in 1985 and then again in 1992.  In 1997 he was awarded a McKnight Senior Neuroscience Investigator Award, and received a McKnight Neuroscience of Brain Disorders Award in 2004.   Dr. Levitan is author of over 150 original papers and chapters and has written two books and edited two others.
 
Levitan's laboratory is interested in the long term regulation of neuronal excitability and synaptic transmission. They study the molecular mechanisms that nerve cells use to modulate the activity of individual ion channels, since these mechanisms must contribute to long term changes in neuronal function, and ultimately in behavior.  The essence of their approach is a combination of biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics and electrophysiology, at the level of individual neurons, synapses and ion channels.  They study the electrophysiological properties of native channels in neurons, and of cloned channels expressed in heterologous host cells, using patch recording techniques.  In parallel they carry out biochemical measurements of channel proteins, making use of specific antibodies directed against channel epitopes.  One theme that Dr. Levitan's lab is pursuing vigorously is the idea that channels do not exist on their own in the plasma membrane, but rather are part of a regulatory complex that includes signaling proteins that are involved in the modulation of channel function.  For example, they have isolated a novel protein named Slob, which binds to and modulates the Slowpoke calcium-dependent potassium channel from Drosophila.  They are investigating the molecular details and physiological significance of the dynamic interactions of Slob and other signaling proteins with several different kinds of potassium channels.  One way they do this is by using genetics to introduce mutant channels and their binding partners into flies to ask questions about the roles of ion channel regulatory complexes in neuronal physiology and behavior.

Rosellen Taraborrelli
Rosellen Taraborrelli serves as the Executive Director of the PENN Comprehensive Neuroscience Center. She is a long standing member of the Penn community. She also serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Department of Psychiatry and Penn Behavioral Health at the University of Pennsylvania where she has served in this position for more than 14 years. Rosellen serves as the Executive Director of PENN Behavioral Health Corporate Services, which manages the behavioral health benefits for the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania Health System. It also provides Employee Assistance and Management Assistance programs and training to 60 companies.

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