John Mielke

Mielke lab

Office: BMH 2107 

Telephone: (519) 888-4567, ext 38843

Teaching interests

Undergraduate:

HLTH/KIN/GERON 210 (Development, Aging, and Health)

HLTH 432 (Honours Thesis: neurophysiology research)

HLTH 471 (Psychopharmacology)

HLTH 472 (Independent Study: Nutritional Neuroscience)

KIN 433 (Senior Essay)

Graduate:

HSG 601 (Lifespan Approaches to Disease Prevention and Health Promotion)

HSG 620 (Selected Topics: Current Topics in Neuroscience)

HSG 671 (Psychopharmacology and Addiction)

Research interests

My research group uses a variety of biochemical, electrophysiological, and behavioural methods to better understand neuroplasticity (that is, the way in which the connection of neurones may be changed) across the lifespan. Our first area of interest concerns the role that environmental factors early in the lifespan (notably, maternal nutrition and pre-adolescent psychosocial stress) may play in the programming of metabolism and brain development. Our second area of interest concerns the examination of stroke pathogenesis and therapeutics in pre-clinical models.

Role of maternal nutrition in offspring brain development.

Female rats are fed a high level of saturated fat, and, once an obese phenotype is established, the animals are mated and permitted to deliver and nurse their offspring. At different developmental time points, offspring are examined using biometric, biochemical, electrophysiological, or behavioural methods to determine whether maternal obesity has altered metabolism and the structure/function of the hippocampus (a brain region important learning and memory).

Role of chronic, post-weaning social isolation upon brain development.

At the point of weaning, male and female rats are randomly placed into either group housing or social isolation. Following a seven week period, which will see the animals develop from pre-adolescents to young adults, biochemical, epigenetic, and electrophysiological methods are used to determine whether early life psychosocial stress has altered the structure and/or function of the hippocampus.

Influence of sex and age on outcome from cerebral ischaemia.

At various developmental time points, brain slices are harvested from male and female rats, and challenged with an in vitro model of ischaemia (oxygen-glucose deprivation). Cellular viability and biochemical assays are completed to determine whether the sex and/or age of an animal has influenced neuronal viability following the ischaemic insult.

Research group

• Crystal Lalonde, BSc, MSc (technician)

• Denise Lau, BSc  (MSc student)

• Dimitri Pavlov, BSc (MSc student)

• Karen Fung (undergraduate thesis student)

• Graham Quirk (undergraduate thesis student)

• Christine Hawkes (medical student)

• Currently accepting applications for MSc students to begin autumn, 2012

Selected publications

• Mielke JG, Ahuja T, Comas T, Mealing G. (2011) Choline-mediated depression of hippocampal synaptic transmission. Nutritional Neuroscience, 14(5): 186-194.
• Mielke JG and Wang YT. (2011) Insulin, Synaptic Function, and Opportunities for Neuroprotection. Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science, 98: 133-186.
• Mielke JG & Mealing G. (2009) Cellular distribution of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor α7 subunit in rat hippocampus. Neuroscience Research, 65(3): 296-306.
• Ross AP, Bartness TJ, Mielke JG, Parent MB. (2009) A high fructose diet impairs spatial memory in male rats. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 92(3): 410-416.

• Mielke JG, Nicolitch K, Avellenada V, Earlam K, Ahuja T, Mealing G, Messier C. (2006) Longitudinal study of the effects of a high-fat diet on glucose regulation, hippocampal function, and cerebral insulin sensitivity in C57BL/6 mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 175(2): 374-382.
• Mielke JG, Taghibiglou C, Wang YT. (2006) Endogenous insulin signalling protects cultured neurons from oxygen-glucose deprivation induced cell death.Neuroscience, 143(1): 165-173.
• Mielke JG, Taghibiglou, C, Liu, L, Zhang, Y, Jia, Z, Adeli, K, Wang, YT. (2005) A biochemical and functional characterization of diet-induced brain insulin resistance. J. Neurochemistry, 93(6), 1568-1578.
• Mielke JG & Wang YT (2005) Insulin exerts neuroprotection by counteracting the decrease in cell-surface GABAA receptors following oxygen-glucose deprivation in cultured cortical neurons. J. Neurochemistry, 92(1), 103-113.

Current funding sources

• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)

Selected professional activities and networks

• Society for Neuroscience
• Canadian Association for Neuroscience
• International Society for Neurochemistry
• Society of Biology