From left, professor of marine biology and fisheries Sharon Smith, Rosenstiel School Dean Roni Avissar, Miller and Rosenstiel researcher Lora Fleming, and Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt at the BMAA and The Brain conference.

The University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine joined forces with the Institute of Ethnomedicine and the Center for Oceans and Human Health at UM for a dialogue on “BMAA and the Brain” held on November 4. The program, introduced jointly by Rosenstiel School Dean Roni Avissar and Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, highlighted the University’s unique interdisciplinary research in Oceans and Human Health and efforts now under way in ethnomedicine, neurosciences, toxicology, marine biology, and oceanography.

One noteworth project involves research into cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) found on land and in freshwater and the oceans that can produce BMAA, an environmental neurotoxin that affects humans and animals. BMAA has been linked to age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Parkinson’s in humans.

Paul Cox of the Institute of Ethnomedicine discussed the genesis of his studies in Guam and the widespread neurological disease associated with the Chamorro people, which is now being linked to the ingestion of animals that eat cycads with cyanobacteria. Deborah Mash, director of UM’s Brain Endowment Bank who is currently testing for BMAA in postmortem human brain samples, spoke of the vital importance of the brain biorepository and the preliminary findings she and her team are making in their studies of neurodegenerative brains and control brains.

Larry Brand, a professor at the Rosenstiel School discussed BMAA as a toxin in the marine food web.

The discussion was followed by a reception hosted by the codirectors of the Center for Oceans and Human Health, Lora Fleming, who holds joint appointments at in epidemiology and public health at the Miller School and marine biology and fisheries at Rosenstiel, and Sharon Smith, professor of marine biology and fisheries.