Charles Ouimet Ph.D.

Charles Ouimet Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Main Campus

Dr. Ouimet is the course director for clinical neurosciences and is responsible for development and implementation of the course. He is a member of the College of Medicine Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Scholar in Neuroscience. Dr. Ouimet studies neurodegeneration (Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease).

Dr. Ouimet is an award-winning teacher who has been involved with medical education for 29 years. He received his Ph.D. (neuroscience) from Brown University in 1980, and then completed four years of postdoctoral study in the pharmacology department at the Yale University School of Medicine. He accepted a faculty position at the Rockefeller University in the department of cellular and molecular neuroscience and three years later joined the faculty at FSU. His research focuses on neurodegeneration.

B.A., Biology, Bridgewater State College, 1968

M.A., Biology, Bridgewater State College, 1975
Dissertation Topic: Ultrastructural differentiation of neuromuscular junctions in crayfish opener muscle fibers. Thesis advisor: Walter A. Morin.

Ph.D., Neuroscience, Brown University, 1980

Dissertation Topic: The ultrastructure, biochemistry and origin of norepinephrine-containing fibers in the cerebral cortex of the turtle Pseudemys scripta. Thesis advisor: Ford F. Ebner.

Postdoctoral Training, Pharmacology Department, Yale University School of Medicine, 1981-1983
Topic: Third messengers for cAMP- and calcium-dependent protein kinases. Sponsor: Paul Greengard.

Postdoctoral Training, Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University, 1983-1984
Topic: Third messengers for cAMP- and calcium-dependent protein kinases. Sponsor: Paul Greengard.

Curriculum committee

University Radiation Committee

Faculty discipline committee

Numerous faculty search committees

Promotion and Tenure Committee

Year 1 and 2 curriculum committee

Numerous Ph.D. committees

Biomedical action committee

Curriculum design committee

1975-1977 U.S. Public Health Service Traineeship in Anatomical Science (predoctoral)

1977-1978 Arnold Fellowship

1981-1984 NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship

1981-1983 Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research Grant Award, "Immunocytochemical localization of dopaminoceptive neuron protein," co-principal investigator.

1985-1990 Klingenstein Fellowship Award in the Neurosciences, "Immunocytochemical studies of calcium/calmodulin protein kinase II in the brain," principal investigator.

1985-1986 American Parkinsons Disease Association, "Dopaminoceptive neurons in the caudate-putamen," principal investigator.

1985-1990 NIH Program Project Grant, "Dopaminoceptive pathways in the limbic system," co-principal investigator.

1987-1988 Tourettes Syndrome Association, "Identification of cingulate neurons projecting to the periaqueductal grey whose physiology can be altered by a potent phosphatase inhibitor," principal investigator.

1989-1992 NIH, "Chemical neuroanatomy of dopaminoceptive neurons," principal investigator.

1991-1992 Developing Scholar Award

1992 FSU Cofers grant

1992 Miles Inc., Effects of long-term nimodipine treatment on the expression of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II mRNA, neuronal longevity and spatial memory in aged rats.

1992 Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Foundation, Effects of neonatal dopamine and combined dopamine/serotonin lesions on the development of dopaminoceptive neurons in prefrontal cortex.

1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Richard C. Winzler Award
(The Top Teaching Award in FSU Program in Medical Sciences, the Richard C. Winzler Award had Charles Ouimet's name added to it in 2001 so that Ouimet could have the pleasure of presenting the award to a colleague instead of accepting it one more time.)

1994 TIP Teaching Award

1994 Outstanding Educator Award

1994 University Teaching Award

1994 Psi Chi Teaching Award (undergraduate)

1996 Golden Apple Award, American Medical Student Association

1997 Basic Science Teaching Award (selected by M.D. Class of 1997, University of Florida)

1998 Teaching Incentive Program Award

2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Excellence in Teaching Award (College of Medicine)

2005 The Distinguished Teaching Award (FSU's Top Teaching Award)

2007 elected member of AOA

Society for Neuroscience

Association for the Advancement of Science

Course director for clinical neurosciences

Dr. Ouimet’s lab is focused on neurodegeneration. The lab work is supported by grants for Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease. Animal models for each disorder are used to unravel the mechanisms that cause neuronal death, with specific attention to the role played by epigenetic modification of histones by histone deacetylases. Inhibition of the latter is strongly implicated in enhancing neuronal survival despite genetic loading for neurodegeneration.


Darcy, M. J., Calvin, K., Cavnar, K., & Ouimet, C. C. (2010). Regional and subcellular distribution of HDAC4 in mouse brain. J Comp Neurol, 518(5), 722-40.

Dietz, D. M., Dietz, K. C., Moore, S., Ouimet, C. C., & Kabbaj, M. (2008). Repeated social defeat stress-induced sensitization to the locomotor activating effects of d-amphetamine: role of individual differences. Psychopharmacology (Berl), 198(1), 51-62.

Johnson, O. L., & Ouimet, C. C. (2006). A regulatory role for actin in dendritic spine proliferation. Brain Res, 1113(1), 1-9.

Johnson, O. L., & Ouimet, C. C. (2004). Protein synthesis is necessary for dendritic spine proliferation in adult brain slices. Brain Res, 996(1), 89-96.

Ouimet, C. C., Katona, I., Allen, P., Freund, T. F., & Greengard, P. (2004). Cellular and subcellular distribution of spinophilin, a PP1 regulatory protein that bundles F-actin in dendritic spines. J Comp Neurol, 479(4), 374-88.

Yao, J., Petanceska, S. S., Montine, T. J., Holtzman, D. M., Schmidt, S. D., Parker, C. A., Callahan, M. J., Lipinski, W. J., Bisgaier, C. L., & Turner, B. A.,Nixon, R.A., Martins, R.N., Ouimet, C. C., Smith, J.D., Davies, P., Laska, E., Ehrlich, M.E., Walker, L.C., Mathews, P.M., Gandy, S.(2004). Aging, gender and APOE isotype modulate metabolism of Alzheimer's Abeta peptides and F- isoprostanes in the absence of detectable amyloid deposits. J. Neurochem, 90, 1011-8.

Norrholm, S. and Ouimet, C.C. (2000) Chronic fluoxetine administration to juvenile rats prevents age-associated dendritic spine proliferation in hippocampus, Brain Res. 17;883(2):205-215.

Bibb, J.A., Chen, J., Taylor, J.R., Svennigsson, P., Nishi, A., Snyder, G.L., Yan, Z., Sagawa, Z.K., Ouimet, C.C., Nairn, A.C., Nestler, E.J., and Greengard, P. 2001 Effects of chronic exposure to cocaine are regulated by the neuronal protein Cdk5, Nature: 410(6826):376-80.

Stafstrom-Davis, C., Ouimet, C.C., Feng, J., Greengard, P., and Houpt, T.A. (2001) Impaired conditioned taste aversion learning in spinophilin knockout mice. Learning and Memory 8: 272-278.

Norrholm, S. and Ouimet, C.C. (2001) Altered dendritic spine density in animal models of depression and in response to antidepressant treatment. Synapse 42: 151-163.

Norrholm, S., Bibb, J., Taylor, J., Nestler, E.J., Ouimet, C.C., and Greengard, P. (2002) Cocaine-induced proliferation of dendritic spines in nucleus accumbens is dependent on the activity of the neuronal kinase Cdk5. Neuroscience, under revision.

Fowler, C., Ouimet, C.C., and Wang, Z. (2001) Estrogen effects on neuronal proliferation in forebrain. In press, J. Neuroscience.

Darcy, M.J., Kavnar, K., Calvin, K., and Ouimet, C.C. 2009 Regional and cellular distribution of HDAC4 in mouse brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology.



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