ForESTer kmyhr

ForESTer kmyhr

ForEST User Name
Online Name	kmyhr
ForESTer Since	1998-07-23
Info Updated	2004-01-24

Name and Birthday
Name	Karen L. Myhr, Ph.D.
Birthday	1968-01-09

Online Addresses
Email	kmyhr@wayne.edu

Home Address
Phone	313-547-4866

Work Address
Work Address	Assistant Professor Department of Biology Wayne State University 2159 Biological Sciemces Building 5047 Gullen Mall Detroit, MI 48202 313-577-1504

Personal Statement
	I am currently an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University in the Biological Sciences Department. I did my graduate work (for my Ph. D.) at the University of Michigan in the Neuroscience Program with Dr. John McReynolds. I studied how nerve cells in the retina adapt to light. Long increases in light (minutes) change how retinal cells respond to changes in light intensity. These changes allow you to read a page in a dim room without having everything look black, and to read a page in bright light without having everything look white. I worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Anatomy and Neurobiology Department of Washington University in the laboratory of Dr. Rachel Wong from 1997 to 2003. I studied how nerve cells in the retina make the correct synapses, which are the connections between cells that allow them to communicate. Sometimes the cells know where to make connections with each other by molecules on the surface of the nerve cells. Other times the activity of the cells instructs the connection pattern. I am studying how different patterns of activity are generated during the time of synapse formation. I am continuing this line of research in my lab at Wayne State University.