A new virtual frontier in the metaverses

https://www.nyit.edu/bio/rstout Neuroscientist and cell biologist Randy Stout, Ph.D., serves as an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, as well as the director of the NYITCOM Center for Biomedical Innovation (CBI) and NYIT Imaging Center (NIC). He is also directing scientific planning for the Biomedical Research Imaging Innovation Center (BRIIC) while it is being established in 2023. The CBI uses tools such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, robotics, 3-D technologies, and imaging to develop and apply original technologies for biomedical discovery, diagnostics, and treatment. The NIC is a collaborative research center that serves as a hub for shared microscopy equipment, imaging expertise, and computing tools to gain new insights into biology and medicine. The NIC serves to enhance research for all NYIT faculty, staff, and students, along with collaborating researchers from other institutions. Many cutting-edge microscopes are included in the NIC, including a two-photon microscope and several super-resolution light microscopes. The NIC collaborates with researchers to aid their research with advanced microscopy technology. Prior to his appointment as CBI Director, Stout led the CBI's imaging, visualization, and modeling group, which focuses on imaging biological processes and systems via 3-D technologies, virtual reality simulations, and modeling. Stout organizes VR Interest Group meetings. These meetings have fostered several completed and ongoing collaborative projects that bring together New York Tech faculty, staff, and students from many departments and disciplines to build new VR and computation-focused research and educational technologies. Research in Stout's laboratory focuses on how brain cells interact, namely glial cells, which are the cells that make up much of the human brain and are required for learning, cognition, brain homeostasis, and metabolic control. His glia research centers on their connections called gap junctions, which act as complex molecular machines and as sites of interaction between cells. They are critical to the development and function of tissues throughout the human body, with specialized roles in the brain. Understanding how these fascinating cellular connections contribute to symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorder and recovery from brain injuries, such as those that occur in multiple sclerosis and trauma, is critical to improving human quality of life. Using high-resolution light microscopy to reveal how molecules, cells, and tissues work, his work often tests how proteins and other biological molecules come together to form supramolecular machines that control the function of cells and determine how tissues function in healthy and disease states. His research examines how substances such as thyroid hormone, cannabidiol, and other natural supplements, affect the brain by altering gap junctions and glia. Stout has continuing collaborations with colleagues at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y., where he did his postdoctoral training and research. His interest in glia and gap junctions started early in his post-graduate training at the University of California, Riverside, and continued during his doctoral training at the University of Alabama, Birmingham (Ph.D., Neurobiology). His interest in cell biology and genetics developed during his undergraduate training (B.S., Biology at Cornell University). He is a member of several national societies including the American Thyroid Association, American Society for Cell Biology, and the American Society for Neurochemistry (for which he serves as co-chair of the Membership Committee).