Neurosciences
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The Neurosciences Ph.D. Program is designed to accommodate all graduate students at Stanford with an interest in neural function and/or structure. Diverse approaches are being used to solve the mystery of the brain by a faculty renowned for its leadership in molecular neurobiology, signal transduction, cellular and developmental neurobiology, electrophysiology, systems and sensory neurobiology, neurological and behavioral sciences, and computational neuroscience. Our program trains a select group of students to become leaders in this exciting and growing field.
Stanford provides a rich research environment in which to think, discuss, and solve some of the major biological questions of our time. In the neurosciences, these include the basis of learning and memory, the molecular and cellular basis of intracellular and intercellular communication, how genes control development and behavior, how neuronal networks give rise to perception and consciousness, and the etiology and treatment of disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. There is no better time to launch your career in neuroscience, and there is no better place to do it than at Stanford.
Every student is trained in the fundamentals of neuroscience and allied fields of biological sciences. In addition to an introductory course in neurobiology, students select from courses in the areas above. Requirements and training are tailored to the needs and specialized research interests of the student. Students also participate in a weekly forum that introduces them to “survival skills” including the presentation of oral, written, and graphical information; effective grant writing; job hunting; and the responsible conduct of scientific investigation.
Neurosciences is a cohesive interdisciplinary program with a unique esprit de corps because its students are of the highest quality and its 87 faculty members have a tradition of collaborating in every aspect of their education.
For more information contact:
Ross Colvin
Neurosciences Program Administrator
269 Campus Drive
CCSR 4235C
Stanford, CA 94305-5173
(650) 723-9855
(650) 721-1905 (fax)
http://neuroscience.stanford.edu/education/phd_program/
Faculty and their Research Interests
Katrin Andreasson. We are interested in understanding the mechanisms by which neurons die in neurodegenerative diseases. We focus on the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) pathway, which is a central mediator of neuronal death in models of Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, and stroke. We are investigating the function of downstream prostaglandin receptor signaling pathways in mediating COX-2 dependent neuronal death. Our long-term goal is to understand the contribution of prostaglandin signaling to neuronal injury in a wide array of neurological diseases and to develop therapeutic strategies targeting these pathways in human disease.
Stephen A. Baccus. Visual processing in neural circuits of the retina, studied using multielectrode extracellular array recording, intracellular recording, imaging, and computational modeling.
Ben A. Barres. Our lab is interested in the neuronal-glial interactions that underlie the development and function of the mammalian central nervous system.
Helen M. Blau. Regulating stem cell fate in vitro and in vivo. Stem cell therapies. Characterizing and bioengineering stem cell niches. Nuclear reprogramming. Muscle development and disease. Drug delivery. Tracking cell behavior in vitro and in vivo. Understanding tissue degeneration and regeneration.
Helen M. Bronte-Stewart. My research focus is human motor control and brain pathophysiology in movement disorders. Our overall goal is to understand the role of the basal ganglia electrical activity in the pathogenesis of movement disorders. We have developed novel computerized technology to measure fine, limb and postural movement. With these we are measuring local field potentials in basal ganglia nuclei in patients with Parkinson's disease and dystonian and correlating brain signalling with motor behavior.
Kwabena Boahen. Our group has two synergistic goals: to understand how brains work, which will enable us to replace damaged neural tissue, and to build computers that work like brains, which will enable us to increase computational power a million-fold. To these ends, we model brains using an approach far more efficient than software simulation: we emulate the flow of ions directly with the flow of electrons. Thus, our work links electronics and computer science with neurobiology and medicine.
Lera Boroditsky. Language, cognition and perception; cross-linguistic differences in thought; effects of experience on cognition and perception; plasticity.
Anne Brunet. Molecular basis of longevity and age-dependent diseases. Role of the nervous system in the control of lifespan.
Axel Brunger. Axel Brunger’s goal is to understand the molecular mechanism of synaptic neurotransmission. He is particularly interested in the structure, function, and dynamics of key players in the synaptic vesicle fusion machinery. His lab is also working on the mechanism of action of clostridial neurotoxins that target this machinery. Other projects include the ATPases of the AAA family that are involved in protein complex disassembly and degradation. A molecular understanding of these complex protein machineries may ultimately lead to new therapeutics to treat human diseases.
Paul S. Buckmaster. Mechanisms of epilepsy; circuitry of temporal lobe structures.
Marion S. Buckwalter. TGF-beta signaling after brain injury. To understand the role of TGF-beta signaling after brain injury, we use mouse models to manipulate and image TGF-beta signaling after stroke, viral vectors to influence TGF-beta signaling in neural progenitor cells, and small molecule therapies in a time-restricted fashion. We measure the effects on functional recovery from brain injury, the cellular and molecular immune response, and cell-specific signaling pathways.
Pak H. Chan. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of cell death after ischemia, trauma and neurodegeneration using transgenic and knockout strategies.
Thomas R. Clandinin. Genetic and molecular mechanisms controlling the development of precise patterns of neuronal connections in the central nervous system. Functional dissection of neuronal circuits controlling visual behaviors in the fruit fly.
Corinna Darian-Smith. Structural organization and function of peripheral and central neural pathways that underlie directed manual behavior. Capacity of these neural pathways to compensate/adapt following specific sensory manipulations.
Karl Deisseroth. Neural stem cells, neuroengineering, adaptive plasticity, electrophysiology, two-photon imaging, animal behavior, computational modeling, neuropsychiatry, developing noninvasive technologies for focal brain stimulation.
Luis de Lecea. We focus on the molecules and neuronal circuits controlling sleep and arousal and on the role of the hypocretins/orexins in addiction.
Firdaus Dhabhar. I am interested in identifying biological mechanisms that mediate and differentiate the recently appreciated immunoenhancing effects of short-term stress from the long-known immunosuppressive effects of chronic stress.
Ricardo E. Dolmetsch. Calcium channel regulation of neuronal motility, survival and differentiation; development of new technologies to study neural circuits.
Heidi M. Feldman. I am a developmental-behavioral pediatrician with long-standing research interests in child language. Language development in young children is central to the acquisition of information, learning, and social interactions. I have studied children developing typically and children with a variety of clinical conditions that put language learning at risk, either because the condition alters access to environmental input or to the neural substrates that usually process language.
Marcus W Feldman. Professor Feldman's research group uses applied mathematics and computer modelling to simulate and analyze the process of evolution, which by its very nature is statistical. It focuses on four general areas of interest. First is the evolution of complex genetic systems that can undergo both natural selection and recombination. This theory is relevant to the major histocompatibility complex of humans, a multi-gene system that influences the immune response and appears to affect the frequency of certain diseases in human populations. Second, the evolution of learning is being examined as one interface between modern methods in artificial intelligence and models of biological processes, including communication. Third, the interaction of biological and cultural evolution is being investigated as, for example, in the spread of food plant domestication across Europe, and the transmission of learned behaviors in contemporary groups. Progress in these areas is yielding insight into problems ranging from the origin and control of genetic systems to the medical control of diseases. The fourth area concerns mathematical and statistical analysis of molecular evolution, particularly microsatellite polymorphism.
Russell D. Fernald. In the course of evolution, two of the strongest selective forces in nature, light and sex, have left their mark on living organisms. I am interested in how the evolution and function of the nervous system reflects these events. In the visual system, we are studying how eyes evolved. In the reproductive system, we have identified a collection of cells in the brain containing gonodotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) that respond to changes in the social conditions by changing size.
Robert S. Fisher. Clinical manifestations of epileptic seizures. New technology for investigating and treating epilepsy.
Craig C. Garner. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of CNS synaptogenesis.
Rona G. Giffard. Cellular and molecular basis for neuronal and astrocyte vulnerability to ischemic injury; roles of chaperones and mitochondria in cell death.
William F. Gilly. Mechanisms involved in the cellular regulation of properties, density, and spatial distribution of voltage-gated Na and K channels and of ionotropic glutamate receptors cloned from the squid nervous system and expressed in frog oocytes and insect cells.
Gary H. Glover. Development of novel methods for imaging of brain function using MRI.
Miriam B. Goodman. Cellular and molecular basis of sensory mechano- and thermotransduction. We study sensation at the molecular, cellular and organismal levels, leveraging the complete wiring diagram of the C. elegans nervous system, advanced tools in classical and molecular genetics, electron microscopy, and in vivo electrophysiology.
Ian H. Gotlib. Neural foundations of information-processing biases in affective disorders; psychophysiology of depression; depression in children and adolescents.
Isabella Graef. Signaling and transcription in neural development.
Michael D. Greicius. Dr. Greicius' research involves the use of functional MRI in conjunction with other imaging modalities to detect and characterize neural networks in healthy adults and patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. The main research objective is to develop novel imaging biomarkers that will lead to advances in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, major depression, and schizophrenia.
Kalanit Grill-Spector. High-level vision, object & face recognition, learning categories and concepts. Studying the neural basis of visual perception using functional imaging (fMRI) of the human brain. Computational modeling and behavioral investigations of visual perception.
James J. Gross. Neural and autonomic bases of emotion and emotion regulation: basic processes (emphasizing relations among behavior, physiology, and subjective experience); personality correlates; health implications, with particular emphasis on social anxiety disorder.
H. Craig Heller. Neurobiology of sleep, circadian rhythms, regulation of body temperature, mammalian hibernation, and human exercise physiology. Dr. Heller is co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology. The Center fosters multidisciplinary approaches and collaborations that will help us understand the neural mechanisms controlling arousal states and arousal state transitions, the function of sleep, and the neural mechanisms of circadian rhythms. Research on human exercise physiology focuses on the effects of body temperature on physical conditioning and performance.
Stefan Heller. Inner ear development, cellular function, and regeneration.
Shaul Hestrin. Cortical function reflects the interaction of external sensory inputs with internal dynamic states of the cortex. The long-term goal of my lab is to understand how local circuits within the cortex generate these internal states and respond to sensory stimulation. We study the physiological properties of known classes of cortical neurons both in cortical slices and in vivo. We monitor how physiological responses and the morphological structure of neurons are modified by visual experience.
Ting-Ting Huang. The role of stress response and mitochondria in neurodegeneration; identify genetic modifiers that modulate responses to oxidative stress in the mitochondria.
John R. Huguenard. Neurobiology of thalamocortical oscillatory activities in epilepsy and sleep. Mechanisms of hyperexcitability, neuronal hypersynchrony, and relevant antiepileptic drug actions. Development of neocortical and thalamic networks. Computational models of realistic neural networks.
Terence A. Ketter. Brain imaging and pharmacological studies of emotion, mood, and temperament in healthy volunteers; mood disorders.
David M. Kingsley. The skeleton is one of the most highly patterned structures in higher organisms. Although built of only a few cell types, these tissues are molded into beautiful shapes and sizes and laid out in repeating arrays that illustrate many basic problems in morphogenesis and vertebrate evolution. The skeleton is also critical to human health, with diseases like osteoarthritis and osteoporosis afflicting a large fraction of the human population. We are using modern genetic and genomic methods to identify the molecular mechanisms that create, pattern, and repair skeletal tissues. Historically, many of these experiments began with classical mouse mutations that alter skeletal development. However, the genes we have identified in mice have turned out to be directly relevant to a better understanding of human disease. Recently, we have begun applying similar genetic and genomic methods to a detailed study of the molecular basis of vertebrate evolution. Using these methods, we believe it will be possible to identify some of the genes and mutations that underlie major changes in body form and physiology in naturally occurring species, including fish, lizards, whales, and humans.
Eric I. Knudsen. Cellular mechanisms of learning, studied in the central auditory system in developing and adult animals, using behavioral, systems,
cellular and molecular techniques.
Brian D. Knutson. Role of biogenic amines in modulating emotional experience. Neural correlates of anticipation of reward and punishment in healthy humans and patients with affective disorders.
Brian K. Kobilka. Structure, function and physiology of adrenergic receptors.
Ron R. Kopito. Cellular mechanisms which monitor protein biogenesis and ensure that only properly folded and assembled proteins are deployed within the cell. Genetic biochemical and cell biological approaches are used to identify the machinery involved in recognizing and destroying misfolded proteins.
Richard S. Lewis. Calcium signaling by ion channels and cellular organelles; store-operated channels; calcium control of gene expression.
Frank Longo. Our studies are focused on elucidation of disease-related signaling mechanisms and development of novel small-molecule strategies for preventing neurodegeneration and promoting neurogenesis and neural function. Disease areas include Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.
Bingwei Lu. Neural stem cell behavior; mechanisms of neurodegeneration.
Liqun Luo. We use molecular genetics to understand the logic of neural circuit organization and assembly in fruit flies and mice.
M. Bruce MacIver. The action of CNS depressants in hippocampal and neocortical brain slices; whole cell patch clamp and field EEG recordings are used to compare and contrast anesthetic actions on synaptic currents and local cortical circuit function.
Sean Mackey. Functional neuroimaging of pain focusing on behavior and plasticity.
Daniel V. Madison. Our laboratory uses electrophysiological techniques to study the mechanisms of synaptic transmission and plasticity in the mammalian hippocampus. One of the main focuses in the lab is in the study of synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP).
Merritt C. Maduke. Molecular mechanisms of chloride movement through channels and transporters. Integration of biophysical and electrophysiological methods.
Robert C. Malenka. Long-lasting changes in synaptic strength are important for the modification of neural circuits by experience. A major goal of my laboratory is to elucidate the molecular events that trigger various forms of synaptic plasticity and the modifications in synaptic proteins that are responsible for the changes in synaptic efficacy.
James McClelland. Models of memory, language, and cognitive development.
Susan McConnell. How individual neurons know where they should sit in the brain and with which neurons they should form specific axonal connections. Identify and characterize the progenitor cells that give rise to neuron and the processes by which young neurons locate their correct targets among hundreds of thousands of other neurons in the brain.
Samuel McClure. The Decision Neuroscience Laboratory studies the neural basis of human decision making. This includes both how we learn the value of goods and actions in the world and how we use this information to decide between different actions. Models of decision making are rooted in brain function. Recent work has particularly emphasized the function of the midbrain dopamine system and how this interacts with areas in the prefrontal and parietal cortices to produce decisions. Other work investigates how individual (e.g. age) and environmental (e.g. social context) differences are reflected concomitantly in brain function and behavior.
Susan McConnell. The development of the central nervous system encompasses a series of critical processes, including the production of neurons from progenitor cells, the determination of discrete neuronal phenotypes, the migration of young neurons into appropriate positions within the brain, and the formation of specific synaptic contacts. These processes ultimately generate the formation of precisely wired neuronal circuits that underlie complex behaviors. The goal of our work is to understand how neurons in the developing cerebral cortex are produced, assigned specific phenotypes, and wired together into functional circuits.
U. Jack McMahan. Cellular and molecular basis of synapse development and regeneration.
Vinod Menon. Theoretical and experimental systems neuroscience - dynamical basis of brain function and dysfunction; functional brain imaging of human cognition and its disruption by mental illness; timing of perceptual and cognitive processes; mathematical models of nonlinear information processing in neural systems.
Tobias Meyer. Signal transduction processes that underlie synaptic plasticity. Use of fluorescent microscopy techniques to dissect the complex signaling mechanisms in dendrites that regulate channel insertion and synaptic connectivity.
Emmanuel J. Mignot. Our laboratory studies sleep disorders at the molecular and neurophysiological level. Most of our work focuses on the sleep disorder narcolepsy and the neuropeptide system hypocretin/orexin.
William C. Mobley. Signaling and actions of neurotrophic factors.
Daria Mochly-Rosen. Mechanisms underlying the specificity of protein kinase C isozymes; role of protein-protein interaction in signal transduction.
Tirin Moore. Mechanisms of visual perception and cognition; visuomotor integration; control of movement.
William T. Newsome. Neural processes that mediate visual perception and visually guided behavior.
Theo Palmer. Neural precursor cells and the production of new neurons. Local cues that regulate precursor activity. How this information is used to recruit cells for CNS repair or to interrupt precursor signaling once it has gone awry in malignant growth.
Karen Parker. Oxytocin and social behavior; stress and HPA axis physiology.
Josef Parvizi. My research is about the study of brain architecture and how pathological changes in distinct brain circuitries cause different clinical phenotypes. In our current studies, we are mapping the propagation of epileptic discharges in the brain. Our goal is to find individual treatment options for patients with epilepsy and prevent or disrupt the propagation of pathological discharges in the brain of these patients.
Anna Penn. We focus on the role of placental factors in brain development, including the influence of steroids (estrogens and progestins) and protein hormones on cerebellar and hippocampal neurogenesis and connectivity.
David Prince. Altered properties of neurons/synapses in models of epilepsy.
Thomas A. Rando. Mechanisms of cell death and cell survival in muscular dystrophies; regulation of cellular antioxidant defenses; mechanism of age-related muscle atrophy; gene therapy for muscular dystrophies.
Natalie Rasgon. Dr. Rasgon has been involved in longitudinal placebo-controlled neuroendocrine studies for nearly two decades, and she has been involved in neuroendocrine and brain imaging studies of estrogen effects on depressed menopausal women for the last eight years. It should be noted that in addition to her duties as a Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dr. Rasgon is also the Director of the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Program and the Women's Wellness Program in the Department of Psychiatry. Research in the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Program, which Dr. Rasgon founded, focuses on the interaction between reproductive hormones and brain function. Research efforts of the lab are concentrated in two areas: (1) the reproductive endocrine status of women with affective disorders, and (2) the neurobiology of the effects of hormone therapy in aging women.
Jennifer L. Raymond. Study the neural mechanisms of learning, using a combination of behavioral, neurophysiological, and computational approaches. The model system we use is a form of cerebellum-dependent learning that regulates eye movements.
Lawrence Recht. Our laboratory focuses on two interrelated projects: (1) assessment of glioma development within the framework of the multistage model of carcinogenesis through utilization of the rodent model of ENU neurocarcinogenesis; and (2) assessment of stem cell specification and pluripotency using an embryonic stem cell model system in which neural differentiation is induced.
Richard Reimer. Molecular biology and physiology of neurotransmitter release; neuropathophysiology of lysosomal storage disorders; biosensors.
Allan L. Reiss. Neuropsychiatric-molecular associations in Fragile X syndrome. Brain MRI/MRS studies of Fragile X, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric disorders.
Anthony Ricci. Auditory hair cell mechanotransduction and synaptic transmission.
Terence D. Sanger. Movement disorders in children, computational neural networks, basal ganglia function and diseases.
Robert M. Sapolsky. How a neuron dies during aging or following various neurological insults; how such neuron death can be accelerated by stress; the design of gene therapy strategies to protect endangered neurons from neurological disease.
Mark Schnitzer. In vivo fluorescence optical imaging and electrophysiological studies of the mammalian brain towards understanding biophysical aspects of learning and memory. We are developing and applying novel imaging approaches such as multiphoton fluorescence endoscopy for examining individual neurons and dendrites, with emphasis on experiments in awake behaving animals.
Matthew P. Scott. Genetic regulation of animal development and human disease. We study homeobox genes, hedgehog/patched signaling and its links to skin and brain cancer, development of the neural tube and cerebellum signaling, and heart development.
Carla Shatz. The major goal of research in the Shatz Laboratory is to discover cellular and molecular mechanisms that transform early fetal and neonatal brain circuits into mature connections, and in particular to determine the extent to which neural function during critical periods of development is needed for these circuits to tune up into adult patterns of connectivity.
Kang Shen. We are interested in understanding how synapses are formed, the final step in wiring a nervous system. In particular, the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic specify: how neurons recognize each other and how they make decisions about forming synapses between contacting neurites during development. We use molecular, genetic and cell biological tools to study this question in the nematode, C. elegans, which has a very simple nervous system containing only 302 neurons and approximately 6000 synapses.
Krishna V. Shenoy. Sensorimotor integration. Neural population coding. Neural prosthetic systems. Neural basis of reaching plans and movements.
Stephen J. Smith. Imaging of synapse development and structural dynamics; cell signaling in neural development and plasticity.
Raymond Sobel. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of immune responses in the central nervous system; multiple sclerosis.
Gary K. Steinberg. Molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cerebral ischemia; development of neuroprotective and neurorepair strategies; stem cell transplantation for stroke.
Lawrence Steinman. Genetics basis of autoimmune neural disease. Immunotherapy. Gene and protein microarray analysis of neurological disease. The immune response in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease. The role of transglutaminase in the formation of aggregations in Huntington’s Disease.
Edith V. Sullivan. Application of magnetic resonance imaging modalities and component process analysis of cognitive, sensory, and motor functions to identify brain structural and functional mechanisms disrupted in neurodegenerative conditions: alcoholism, Alzheimer's disease, HIV infection, and normal aging. Our laboratory is applying structural MRI, MR spectroscopy, and MR diffusion tensor imaging to animal models of aging and alcoholism in parallel with the human studies.
Thomas C. Sudhof. Thomas Südhof is interested in how presynaptic terminals are formed during synaptogenesis, how presynaptic terminals release neurotransmitters, and how presynaptic terminals degenerate in neurodegenerative disease. To address these questions, Südhof's laboratory employs approaches ranging from biophysical studies to the physiological and behavioral analyses of mutant mice.
Stuart Thompson. Signal transduction mechanisms in neurons with the goal of better understanding how neurons process information. Signal cascades initiated by G-protein coupled receptors and regional specialization of function in neurons and the role that localized clusters of ion channels play in the processing of information by the cell.
Richard W. Tsien. Molecular properties of ion channels in relation to function of nerve and muscle; calcium signaling and synaptic plasticity.
Anthony D. Wagner. Cognitive neuroscience of memory and cognitive control—encoding and retrieval mechanisms; interactions between memory systems; prefrontal and medial temporal lobe function; neurocognitve aging.
Brian A. Wandell. Development and plasticity of signals in the human visual pathways; current emphases on reading development and cortical plasticity following retinal disease. Magnetic resonance, behavior, and computational methods.
Marius Wernig. My lab is interested in epigenetic reprogramming of somatic cells into pluripotent stem (or iPS) cells. One major question in the field is to lucidate the molecular mechanism underlying these dramatic epigenetic changes. In addition, the emerging iPS cell technology provides new fascinating translational applications such as patient-specific stem cell therapy or disease phenocopy through differentiation into the neural lineage. Another interest of the laboratory is to study self-renewal and differentiation in neural stem/progenitor cells and apply these findings to the tumor precursor cells of glioblastoma. This will shed some light into glioma generation and potentially lead to alternative treatment strategies of this devastating brain disease.
Jeffrey J. Wine. Regulation of ion channels by intracellular messengers and excitation-secretion coupling.
Tony Wyss-Coray. Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease.
Yanmin Yang. Elucidate biological functions of cytoskeletal organizing proteins in neurons. Define the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the neurodegeneration in BPAG1 null mice.
David C. Yeomans. Pain physiology and molecular biology; herpes vector-directed genetic alteration of sensory neurons; gene therapy for pain; cell transplantation as pain therapy.
Jaimie Zeitzer. My research concerns examination of human and primate circadian rhythms and sleep; notably, the neural mechanisms that underlie wakefulness and circadian photoreception. I am also involved in collaborative efforts in examining the role of sleep disruption in medical pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injury, and breast cancer.