{"id":4638,"date":"2025-08-11T15:31:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/?p=4638"},"modified":"2025-08-11T15:31:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:31:41","slug":"biology-professor-dr-nadja-spitzer-leads-research-that-peers-into-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/2025\/08\/11\/biology-professor-dr-nadja-spitzer-leads-research-that-peers-into-the-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Biology professor Dr. Nadja Spitzer leads research that peers into the brain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In her lab at Marshall University, Dr. Nadja Spitzer and her students are exploring one of science\u2019s final frontiers \u2014 the brain. As part of the NSF-funded West Virginia Network for Functional Neuroscience &amp; Transcriptomics (WV-NFNT) project, Dr. Spitzer collaborates with researchers across the state to study how the brain\u2019s intricate connections change in response to new information.<\/p>\n<p>Using advanced microscopy, her team examines brain cells and the millions of tiny contact points \u2014 called synapses \u2014 where neurons communicate. Examining an image that looks like a bunch of green and red confetti, Spitzer expounds, \u201cEach one of those dots is a place where two cells talk to each other. Now we can actually see them and watch how they change, which is so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The project not only advances neuroscience but also builds a strong research network across West Virginia\u2019s universities. 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As part of the NSF-funded West Virginia Network for Functional Neuroscience &amp; Transcriptomics (WV-NFNT) project, Dr. Spitzer collaborates with researchers across the state to study how the brain\u2019s intricate connections change in response<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":4639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,77,75,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-faculty-scholars","category-research","category-science-abstracts"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/files\/biology-spitzer-wv-nfnt-video.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4640,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638\/revisions\/4640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}