Tharushini Bowala
BTech (Biomed) (Auckland)
Neuroimaging Group
Interoception Laboratory
Contact Details
Email: tharushini.bowala@florey.edu.au
Phone: +61 (0)3 8344 1914
Supervisor
PhD Project Title
- Neuroimaging of Thirst
Research Interests
I have a broad interest in all neuroscience research. The aims of my PhD project are to investigate the neural correlates of thirst and attention to thirst cues during thirst. Human subjects were made thirsty by exercise and fluid deprivation and scanned with a 3T MRI at the Royal Children’s Hospital. A new perfusion based fMRI method called arterial spin labeling (ASL) was used in addition to the Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) fMRI method.
Some other neuroscience research fields that I have a special interest in are:
- Learning, memory and cognition
- Neurodegeneration and regeneration
- Neural networks especially dopaminergic networks
- Addiction, reward, depression
- Schizophrenia and schizotypal disorders
- Prion diseases
Laboratory Techniques
My current study involves functional MRI in humans, and so far I have gained knowledge and skills in design of neuroimaging experiments, and processing fMRI images.
I have experience in using image processing programmes such as
- Matlab
- SPM
- MedEx
- FSL.
I am also experienced in using the image viewing program MRIcro.
From previous work, I have gained experience in handling mice and rats, including anaesthetic procedures (cold and CO2 inhalation), surgical procedures on young rats and adult mice, and decapitation and brain removal from these animals. I have learnt tissue-slicing skills on the vibratome and cryostat. I have gained a good grasp of rat and mice neuroanatomy and extended my experience in immunohistochemistry.
Other specific techniques
- use of BrdU in analysis of neurogenesis
- 6OHDA model of PD in mice and rats
- FluorGold as a retrograde tracer
- Hu and NeuN as neuronal markers
- FluoroJade as a neuronal death marker
In addition, I’ve learnt techniques such as
- cell dissociation
- single cell collection
- RNA extraction
- RT-PCR (including single cell RTPCR)
I have experience in the design of primers for PCR.
Publications and Articles
Please see PubMed.
Guatteo E., Chung K. K. H.., Bowala T. K., Bernadi G., Mercuri N. B., and Lipski J. Temperature sensitivity of dopaminergic neurons of the substantial niagra pars compacta: involvement of TRP channels. J. Neurophysiology, Jul 2005 Epub.
Bowala T. K., Scozzafava A. E., Egan G. F., Farrell M. J., VanMeter J. W., Wang J., Denton D., Zeffiro T. A. Comparison of continuous arterial spin labeling (CASL) with blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast fMRI in functional imaging of a visually cued motor task. Proceeding of the Society for Neuroscience, 2005.
Chung K.K.H., Bowala T.K., Guatteo E., Mercuri N. B., and Lipski J. Contribution of TRPV3 and TRPV4 channels to temperature sensitivity of nigral dopaminergic neurons. Australian neuroscience society meeting abstracts (2005).
Gardner R.C., de Lange P.J., Keeling J., Bowala T., Brown H.A., and Wright S.W. A late quaternary phylogeography for New Zealand inferred from chloroplast DNA haplotypes in Meterosideros (Myrtaceae), Biol J Linnean Soc, 83(3):399-412 (2004).
Lin J., van Wyk M., Bowala T., Teo M-Y., Lipski J. Dendritic projections and dye coupling in dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra examined in horizontal brain slices from young rats, J Neurophysiology, 90(4): 2531-5 (2003).
Bowala TK., van Wyk M., Teo M-Y., Lin J., Lipski J. Dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra: dendritic projections and dye coupling capacity examined in horizontal brain slices taken from young rats. Proceeding of the Physiological Society of New Zealand 21:47 (2002).
Lipski J., van Wyk M., Bowala T., Teo M-Y., Lin J. Morphological features of Lucifer Yellow (LY) and Neurobiotin (NB)- labelled dopaminergic substantia nigra neurons examined in horizontal brain slices from the rat. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 27 (2002).
Students
