School of Biomedical Sciences
生物醫學學院
The Chinese University of Hong Kong 香港中文大學

Prof RANSOM Bruce Robert


bruceransomProfessor

B.A., M.D., Ph.D.

Telephone:  3943 0598

Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Address: Room 324A, Lo Kwee-Seong Integrated Biomedical Sciences Building, Area 39, CUHK

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9658-0294

Scopus Author ID: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=L-rgM4IAAAAJ&hl=en

 

 

  

Biography

Prof RANSOM Bruce Robert obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. (Neurophysiology) degrees from Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO) in 1972. After an Internal Medicine internship at Washington University, he did postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health and subsequently his Neurology residency at Stanford, where he stayed on as a faculty member. He was recruited to Yale University School of Medicine in 1987 with appointments in Neurology and also Physiology and Biophysics. In 1995, he became the Founding Chairman of the Neurology Department at the University of Washington School of Medicine (Seattle, WA) and Warren Magnuson Chair in Neurosciences, with an adjunct Professor appointment in Physiology and Biophysics. He was recruited to Hong Kong in 2019 and founded a Neuroscience Department at City University of Hong Kong. His main research interests are the physiology and function of neuroglial cells, ionic homeostasis of brain extracellular space, brain energy metabolism and the cellular mechanisms of brain injury due to stroke. He has received numerous prestigious awards and honors, including the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, Alexander von Humboldt Research Award and Past-Presidency of the Association of University Professors of Neurology. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. He is the founder and co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal GLIA, now in its 34th year. Prof. Ransom is the inaugural Director of the Gerald Choa Neuroscience Centre and a member of the Neural, Vascular, and Metabolic Biology (NVMB) Program of the School of Biomedical Sciences, CUHK.

  1. Physiology, anatomy and function of mammalian glial cells, especially astrocytes.
  2. Pathophysiology of cellular injury in white matter stroke.
  3. The role of astrocyte glycogen in brain and peripheral nerve energy metabolism.
  4. The role of pH in controlling neural excitability and epileptic discharge.
  5. Ionic and volume homeostasis in brain extracellular space, especially the role of glial cells.
  6. Intracellular ion homeostasis in glia and neurons.
  1. Ransom, B.R. & Barker, J.L. (1975). Pentobarbital modulates transmitter effects on mouse spinal neurones grown in tissue culture. Nature 254:703-705.
  2. Ransom, B.R., Neale, E., Henkart, M., Bullock, P.N. & Nelson, P.G. (1977). The mouse spinal cord in tissue culture. I. Morphology and intrinsic neuronal electrophysiologic properties. J. Neurophysiol. 40:1132-1150.
  3. Ransom, B.R., Christian, C.N., Bullock, P.N. & Nelson, P.G. (1977). The mouse spinal cord in cell culture. II. Synaptic activity and circuit behavior. J. Neurophysiol. 40: 1151-1162.
  4. Barker, J.L. & Ransom, B.R. (1978). Amino acid pharmacology of mammalian central neurones grown in tissue culture. J. Physiol. 280:331-354.
  5. Barker, J.L. & Ransom, B.R. (1978). Pentobarbitone pharmacology of mammalian central neurones grown in tissue culture. J. Physiol. 280:355-372.
  6. Malenka, R.C., Kocsis, J.D., Ransom, B.R. & Waxman, S.G. (1981). Modulation of parallel fiber excitability by postsynaptically mediated changes in extracellular potassium. Science 214:339-341.
  7. Connors, B.W., Ransom, B.R., Kunis, D.M. & Gutnick, M.J. (1982). Activity-dependent K+ accumulation in the developing rat optic nerve. Science 216:1341-1343.
  8. Kettenmann, H. & Ransom, B.R. Electrical coupling between mammalian astrocytes and between oligodendrocytes studied in mammalian cell cultures. Glia, 1:64-73, 1988.
  9. Serrano, E.E., Kunis, D.M. and Ransom, B.R. (1988). Effects of chronic phenobarbital exposure on cultured mouse spinal cord neurons. Ann. Neurol. 24:429-438.
  10. Butt, A.M. & Ransom, B.R. (1989). Visualization of oligodendrocytes and astrocytes in the intact rat optic nerve by intracellular injection peroxidase. Glia, 2:470-475.
  11. Stys, P.K., Ransom, B.R., Waxman, S.G. & Davis, P. K. (1990). Role of extracellular calcium in anoxic injury of mammalian white matter. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 87:4212-4216, PMCID: PMC54078.
  12. Ransom, B.R., Waxman, S.G. & Davis, P.K. (1990). Anoxic injury of CNS white matter: protective effect of ketamine. Neurology, 40:1399-1403.
  13. Waxman, S.G., Davis, P.K., Black, J.B. & Ransom, B.R. (1990). Anoxic injury of mammalian central white matter: decreased susceptibility in myelin-deficient optic nerve. Ann. Neurol., 28:335-340.
  14. Stys, P.K., Ransom, B.R. & Waxman, S.G. (1991). Compound action potential of nerve recorded by suction electrode: a theoretical and experimental analysis. Brain Res., 546:18-32.
  15. Stys, P.K., Waxman, S.G. & Ransom, B.R. (1991). Na+-Ca2+ exchanger mediates Ca2+ influx during anoxia in mammalian CNS white matter. Ann. Neurol., 30:375-380.
  16. Stys, P.K., Waxman, S.G. & Ransom, B.R. (1992). Ionic mechanisms of anoxic injury in mammalian CNS white matter: Role[1] of Na+ channels and Na+-Ca2+ exchanger. J. Neurosci. 12:430-439.
  17. Pappas, C.A. & Ransom, B.R. (1994). Depolarization-induced alkalinization (DIA) in rat hippocampal astrocytes. J. Neurophysiol., 72: 2816-2826.
  18. Lee, J., Taira, T., Pihlaja, P., Ransom, B.R. & Kaila, K. (1996). Effects of CO2 on excitatory transmission apparently caused by changes in intracellular pH in the rat hippocampal slice. Brain Res., 706: 210-216.
  19. Rose, C. & Ransom, B.R. (1996). Intracellular sodium homeostasis in rat hippocampal astrocytes. J. Physiol., 491: 291-305.
  20. Rose, C. & Ransom, B.R. (1997). Regulation of intracellular sodium in cultured rat hippocampal neurones. J. Physiol., 499:573-587.
  21. Rose, C.R., Waxman, S.G. & Ransom, B.R. (1998). Effects of glucose deprivation, chemical hypoxia and simulated ischemia on Na+ homeostasis in spinal cord astrocytes. J. Neurosci., 18: 3554-3562.
  22. Ransom, C. B., Ransom, B.R. & Sontheimer, H. (2000). Activity-dependent extracellular K+ accumulation in rat optic nerve: the role of glial and axonal Na+ pumps. J. Physiol. 522:427-442.
  23. Brown, A.M. Tekkök, S.B. & Ransom, B.R. (2003). Glycogen regulation and functional role in mouse white matter. J. Physiol. (Lond). 549: 501-512.
  24. Spray, D.C., Ye, Z.C. & Ransom, B.R. (2006). Functional connexin "hemichannels": a critical appraisal. Glia. 54:758-73.
  25. Tekkok, SB, Ye, Z-C. & Ransom BR. (2007). Excitotoxic Mechanisms of Ischemic Injury in Myelinated White Matter. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 27:1540-1552.
  26. Brown, A.M., Evans R.D., Black, J. & Ransom BR. (2012). Schwann cell glycogen selectively supports myelinated axon function. Ann Neurol. 702:406-418.
  27. Yang, X., Hamner, M.A., Brown, A.M., Evans, R., Ye, Z., Chen, S.D. & Ransom, B.R. (2014). Novel hypoglycemic injury mechanism: N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-mediated white matter damage. Ann Neurol. 75(4):492-507.
  28. Brown, A.M., Rich, L.R., Ransom, B.R. (2019). Metabolism of Glycogen in Brain White Matter. Adv Neurobiol. 23:187-207.
  29. Zhou, B., Zhu, Z., Ransom, B.R. & Tong, X. (2020). Oligodendrocyte Lineage Cells and Depression. Molecular Psychiatry. 26:103-117.
  30. Hamner, M.A., McDonough, Gong, D.C. (2021). Todd LJ, Rojas G, Ransom CB, Reh TA, Ransom BR, Weinstein JR. CSF1R antagonism abolishes ischemic preconditioning in white matter. Glia, in press.
  1. Warren Magnuson endowment, until 2019.