RADFORD -- Brandon Newmyer just completed his first year at Radford University and already the biology major has become the lead author on an important study that is accepted for publication in a highly-respected behavioral neuroscience journal.

Newmyer, a rising sophomore, worked during the spring semester with RU biology professor Mark Cline on research concerning the effect of the neurotransmitter neuropeptide SF on the appetite of birds.

Newmyer wrote, and Cline edited, the associated manuscript for the study that was accepted for publication by Behavioural Brain Research, a publication that has a selective acceptance rate, Cline said. Behavioural Brain Research is an international, interdisciplinary journal dedicated to the publication of articles in the field of behavioral neuroscience.

(IN THE PHOTO: Brandon Newmyer, seated, and RU professor Mark Cline.)

"Brandon is the first author to report the appetite-associated role of neuropeptide SF in any species," Cline said. "This was demonstrated through a food and water intake study and a comprehensive behavioral analysis."

Newmyer began working in the laboratory with Cline in the fall of 2008 on a study Cline designed concerning the effects of neuropeptide AF on appetite. That study was published in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology.