Nationality Manx Residence Vancouver, Canada | Name Jane Roskams | |
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Alma mater University College of Swansea, Penn State College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Education Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Swansea University | ||
Dr jane roskams on studio 4 with fanny kiefer part 1 of 2
Angela Jane Roskams is a neuroscientist and the Executive Director of Strategy and Alliances at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. At the University of British Columbia (UBC), she was professor in the Brain Research Centre and directed a laboratory of neural regeneration and brain repair. Roskams also worked at Johns Hopkins Medical School, where she began research to analyse the mechanisms that drive successful regeneration in the olfactory system and underscore the early loss of brain function in Alzheimer's disease. This led her to research examining the interplay between genetics and the environment in shaping how cells in the nervous system develop and adapt.
Contents
- Dr jane roskams on studio 4 with fanny kiefer part 1 of 2
- Dr jane roskams on studio 4 with fanny kiefer part 2 of 2
- Early life and education
- Research
- Awards
- Books and publications
- References
Dr jane roskams on studio 4 with fanny kiefer part 2 of 2
Early life and education
Roskams was born and raised on the Isle of Man. She attended the University College of Swansea, from which she graduated with a first class honours degree in biochemistry. A graduate scholarship took her to the United States to study journalism at the University of Idaho for her master's studies. Local reporting resulted in her being awarded a Sigma Delta Chi Award for science journalism. She completed her PhD in neuroscience at Penn State University in 1991.
She completed postdoctoral training fellowships in neuroscience and neuropathology at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, before taking up a professorial position at the University of British Columbia. In addition to her appointments in zoology (Faculty of Science) and psychiatry (Faculty of Medicine), Roskams served as an associate dean.
Research
Roskams has made important contributions to the field of regeneration, focusing on how cells interact during brain development. She researches how neural stem cells and specialized glia in the brain can aid in promoting nervous system development and repair. In 2008, she collaborated with the Allen Institute for Brain Science to bring together a group of experts to produce an annotated gene expression map of the spinal cord, which is now freely used by researchers across the world as a genetic map for discovery. Between 1999 and 2014, the Roskams Lab received more than $1.7 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Her study of olfactory ensheathing glia has been funded by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.
In 2011, Roskams led a team of researchers who identified radial glial cells in the periphery of the adult spinal cord. As of 2015, Roskams and the Allen Institute for Brain Science are working on a project known as BigNeuron. This effort joins computer programmers and scientists for "hackathons" in which participants test computer algorithms that could allow for the automated analysis of neurons.
Awards
In 2013, Roskams received the Bernice Grafstein Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Mentoring from the Society for Neuroscience.
Books and publications
She was the co-editor of Lab Ref, a how-to manual of basic research resources for scientists. That work has been reviewed in publications such as Biochemistry (Moscow) and the Journal of Cell Science. Roskams is on the editorial board of BrainFacts.org.