Clemson scientist recieves national grant

Clemson University scientist David Feliciano recently received a three-year, $442,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how alterations to a complex pathway in the developing brain cause a constellation of neurological disorders, including the simultaneous presence of autism and epilepsy. The project will test the hypothesis that a transporter of amino acids in the brain regulates the “mammalian target of rapamycin” (mTOR) pathway in newborn neurons during fetal and early postnatal development of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain responsible for integrating sensory information with thought processing.