Ruffin NeuroLab LLC
What is the Ruffin NeuroLab?
The Ruffin NeuroLab is:
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an educational program that aids in professional development and provides academic and research training.
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a professional networking platform and a resource for educational and research opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM).
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an outreach experiment that celebrates education, academic success, and diversity in STEAM.
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The Ruffin NeuroLab emphasizes and inserts the Research in STEAM intentionally creating a diverse STREAM of trained professionals.
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What is the mission?
Increase awareness of STEAM educational opportunities, internships, and career options in underserved scholarly communities.
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Increase the recruitment and retention of trained professionals and scholars in STEAM education and research careers
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As a service to scholarly and public communities, the lab provides consulting, produces research tools and best practices, and organizes events.
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What is the research about?
The brain is filled with specialized cells called neurons and neuroglia. Together these cells regulate all of the brains functions including the five senses (vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell), movement, language, emotion, and learning/memory. In addition, neurons and neuroglia are involved not only in the regulation of the cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal systems. but in the coordination all of the major organ systems of the body, In fact, all of the work of these brain cells results in the brain having both a high oxygen consumption and a high metabolic rate.
The research in the Ruffin NeuroLab focuses on understanding how neurons and neuroglia regulate a stable intracellular acid concentration (pHi) which is necessary for optimal function even though they produce acid as a result increased activity and a high metabolic demand. During exercise or some pathological conditions (ie. hypoxia) there is even more acid produced and an imbalance in pHi. Understanding how cells regulate pHi is essential to understanding cell function and important in both normal physiology and pathophysiologic diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy, and Stroke.
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Who is Dr. Vernon A. Ruffin?
Dr. Vernon A. Ruffin received his undergraduate degree in biology from Virginia Union University under the mentorship of Phillip W. Archer, PhD and his graduate degree in neurophysiology from Howard University School of Medicine under the mentorship of C. Ovid Trouth, MD, PhD. Dr. Ruffin was also trained at Albert Einstein School of Medicine and the University of California San Diego by Gabriel Haddad, MD, PhD. Dr. Ruffin completed his postdoctoral research at both Yale University School of Medicine and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine under the mentorship of Walter Boron, MD, PhD.
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