Neurosciences
Contact Information
Faculty and their Research Interest
The Neurosciences Ph.D. Program is designed to accommodate all graduate students at Stanford with an interest in neural function and/or structure.
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 114 faculty members have a tradition of collaborating in every aspect of their education.
For more information contact:
Ross Colvin
Neurosciences Program Administrator
Stanford University School of Medicine
1215 Welch Road
Modular B, Room 42
Stanford, CA 94305-5400
(650) 723-9855
(650) 721-6434 (fax)
larkspur@stanford.edu
http://neuroscienceprogram.stanford.edu/
Faculty and their Research Interests
Katrin Andreasson. We are interested in understanding the mechanisms by which neuroinflammation elicits synaptic and neuronal injury in chronic and acute models of neurological disease. Our foot in the door has been the study of the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) pathway and its downstream prostaglandin receptor signaling pathways, which we have discovered function in very important ways in modulating the inflammatory response in brain in models of Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease (PD), and stroke. Thus this pathway functions across a broad spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases, and may potentially modulate inflammatory responses and neuronal injury via conserved cellular and molecular mechanisms. We use genetic and pharmacologic strategies as well as in vitro culture approaches to define COX-2/prostaglandin receptor mediated mechanisms of action in eliciting synaptic and neuronal injury in these models of human neurological disease. Our long-term goal is to (1) further understand how neuroinflammatory processes injure synapses and neurons and disrupt circuits, (2) define the contribution of the COX-2/prostaglandin signaling pathways in this process, and (3) develop therapeutic strategies targeting prostaglandin G-protein coupled receptors in human neurological diseases.
Stephen Baccus. Visual processing in neural circuits of the retina, studied using multielectrode extracellular array recording, intracellular recording, two-photon imaging, and computational modeling.
Ben Barres. Our lab is interested in the neuronal-glial interactions that underlie the development, function, and regeneration of the mammalian central nervous system.
Helen Blau. Cancer and stem cells can be viewed as two sides of the same coin. Regenerative medicine entails increasing the plasticity of cell fate. However, this increase in cellular plasticity also increases the chances of cancer. For example, to produce induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), two of the four Yamanaka proteins are onco-proteins (c-Myc and Klf4). To create cells for regeneration by dedifferentiation, the activity of two tumor suppressors (RB and p61/p19) is transiently inhibited. Thus, in order to enlist cells for tissue regeneration, the chances for cancer are increased and must be carefully monitored. We have shown that by non-invasive imaging by bioluminescence (BLI) we can distinguish in a dynamic and quantitative manner whether injected cells are functioning as expected for regeneration or have gone awry as in cancer. For example, the development of additional radiological methods for tracking single human cells delivered in vivo (e.g. using nanoparticles) has clear potential application in distinguishing tumorigenic or normal regenerative behavior. For regenerative medicine to succeed, cancer must be prevented, detected and controlled. Radiologic tools and technologies are invaluable to both regeneration and cancer and more such methods need to be developed and actively employed. This is a strong multidisciplinary focus of my laboratory.
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---don't worry, on the outside, it looks just like software.
Anne Brunet. Our lab studies the molecular basis of aging, with an emphasis on the role of the nervous system in longevity. We use worms, fish, and mice to discover novel genes that regulate aging and to study the importance of these genes in the nervous system. We are particularly interested in the role of longevity genes in preserving the adult neural stem cell pool and in preventing the decline in cognitive behaviors during aging. Our lab also explores if specific brain regions secrete factors that control the overall aging process.
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 Buckmaster. Mechanisms of epilepsy; circuitry of temporal lobe structures.
Marion Buckwalter. The goal of the Buckwalter Lab is to improve how people recover after a stroke. We use basic research to understand the cells, proteins, and genes that lead to successful recovery of function, and also how complications develop that impact quality of life after stroke. Ongoing projects are focused on understanding how inflammatory responses are regulated after a stroke and how to make recovery faster and better after stroke. We have two inflammation-related research programs. The first focuses on cells in the brain called astrocytes, to examine how they influence swelling and tissue cleanup after a stroke, and how similar cells in the lung influence stroke-induced immune insufficiency, which is a primary cause of pneumonias in stroke patients. The second focuses on late inflammatory responses after stroke. In collaboration with Dr. Longo's laboratory we are also developing a new drug that improves the speed and degree of recovery when treatment of mice is begun mice three days after stroke.
Lu Chen. We are particularly interested in synaptic signaling mechanisms that govern the strength of synaptic transmission and circuit properties, as well as their impact on animals' ability to learn and memorize.
Xiaoke Chen. Our long-term goal is to understand how sensory information and physiological state integrate to drive decisions and behaviors. We are now focusing on interoception, which is the sense of the physiological condition of the body. This includes our abilities to feel hungry or satiated, to sense heightened blood pressure and heart rate during stress, and to discriminate different types of pain. In our lab, we combine genetics-based brain circuit manipulation with in vivo electrophysiological and optical recording of neuronal ensembles to dissect the coding logic underlying interoception.
Yoon-Jae Cho. My laboratory studies childhood brain tumors with a particular focus on medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in children. We utilize computational and cell biological approaches to understand the molecular and cellular basis of this disease. Current projects include 1) leveraging expression of neurotransmitter receptors in brain tumors and other cancers for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, 2) investigating the role of ATP-dependent RNA helicases in neural development and disease and 3) developing a functional annotation of the medulloblastoma genome by merging whole-genome RNAi with high-throughput chemical biology and chemical genomic screens.
Thomas 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.
Corrina Darian-Smith. Structural organization and function of peripheral and central neural pathways that underlie directed manual behavior in the nonhuman primate. Capacity of these neural pathways to compensate/adapt following specific sensory manipulations.
Luis de Lecea. We use a combination of optogenetic, pharmacological, molecular and behavioral methods to map and manipulate the neuronal circuits controlling sleep, arousal and hyperarousal (i.e. stress and addiction).
Karl Deisseroth. Neural stem cells, neuroengineering, adaptive plasticity, electrophysiology, two-photon imaging, animal behavior, computational modeling, neuropsychiatry, developing noninvasive technologies for focal brain stimulation.
Firdaus Dhabhar. Although stress generally has a bad reputation, a short-term stress is response is nature's fundamental protective mechanism without which neither predator nor prey could survive. We are interested in identifying biological mechanisms that mediate and differentiate the recently appreciated immunoenhancing effects of short-term stress (eustress) from the well-known immunosuppressive effects of long-term stress (distress). We examine stress effects on the neuroendocrine system, and on leukocyte trafficking, innate/adaptive immunity, and cytokine gene/protein expression using models of skin immunity, surgery, and cancer.
Jun Ding. The interplay between motor cortex, sensory cortex, thalamus and basal ganglia is essential for neural computations involved in generating voluntary movements. Our goal is to dissect the functional organization of motor circuits, particularly cortico-thalamo-basal ganglia networks, using electrophysiology, 2-photon microscopy, optogenetics, and genetic tools. The long-term scientific goal of the lab is to construct functional circuit diagrams and establish causal relationships between activity in specific groups of neurons, circuit function, animal motor behavior and motor learning, and thereby to decipher how the basal ganglia process information and guide motor behavior. We will achieve this by investigating the synaptic organization and function that involve the cortex, thalamus and basal ganglia at the molecular, cellular and circuit level. Currently, we are focusing on several questions:
How are excitatory inputs integrated in the striatum?
How do feed-forward and recurrent local inhibitions balance the excitation in the striatum?
How are functional maps modulated in motor behavior and motor learning?
Our goal is to bridge the gap between molecular or cellular events and the circuit mechanisms that underlie motor behavior. In addition, we aim to further help construct the details of psychomotor disorder ‘circuit diagrams,’ such as the pathophysiological changes in Parkinson’s disease.
Ricardo Dolmetsch. We use a combination of molecular biology, microscopy, electrophysiology and stem cell biology to study the biological basis of autism. We are also interested in calcium channels and calcium signaling. Finally we are interested in developing new techniques for studying the brain.
Emit Etkin. The overarching aim of the Etkin lab (etkinlab.stanford.edu) is to understand the neural basis of emotional disorders and their treatment, and to leverage this knowledge to develop novel treatment interventions. Our work is organized around the study of affective neuroscience of emotion regulation in healthy subjects and individuals with psychiatric disorders. Studies aimed at understanding the neurobiology of treatment for anxiety or depression addresses:(a) which domains of neural/mental functions are involved, (b) how different approaches yield their effects, (c) how individual differences in capacities like emotion regulation underlie differential outcome, and (d) how the mechanisms of change with pharmacological methods relate to and interact with those involved in non-pharmacological methods. Based on this work, we design and test novel neuroplasticity-based brain training approaches for enhancing emotion regulation. We also use concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with fMRI to allow us to understand how activity in one brain region causally translates into activation in its interconnected network of partners, and how communication within defined neural circuits can be manipulated by repetitive TMS protocols which induce plasticity in the target cortex. This work opens up the potential for the development of highly novel, rationale, circuit-based interventions informed by neuroimaging.
Russell Fernald. Reproduction is the most powerful selective force in evolution and we focus on how important information about sex changes the nervous system. We study how social information is transduced into cellular and molecular changes using a range of techniques from behavioral observation to molecular analyses. Since we have shown that certain brain cells containing gonodotropin releasing hormone respond to changes in social status by changing size and connectivity, we are now examining the mechanisms including the role(s) of micro RNAs as well as epigenetic processes such as methylation of regulatory genes.
Surya Ganguli. Our lab works on theoretical neuroscience, with the fundamental goal of understanding how networks of neurons and synapses cooperate across multiple scales of space and time to mediate important brain functions, like sensory perception, motor control, and memory. To achieve this goal, we employ and extend tools from disciplines like statistical mechanics, dynamical systems theory, machine learning, information theory, control theory, and high-dimensional statistics, as well as collaborate with experimental neuroscience laboratories collecting physiological data from a range of model organisms. Some topics of interest include: how birds learn to sing, spatial memory in the rodent hippocampus, attention and motor control in macaques, memory properties of complex synapses, dynamics of plasticity in recurrent networks, signal propagation in neural circuits, the emergence of categorization in multi-layered networks, and the statistical mechanics of high dimensional data analysis.
Craig Garner. Our laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms that regulate the dynamic assembly and function of vertebrate synapses. Current efforts are oriented towards understanding how genetic lesions and environmental insults alter synaptic plasticity mechanisms and neuronal network function in neurodevelopmental disorders such as Down syndrome and autism. We also have an active translational program that takes insights from experimental neuroscience and develops rational clinically relevant pharmacotherapies. The first for treating cognitive impairment in Down syndrome will enter the clinic spring of 2012.
Rona Giffard. Cellular and molecular basis for neuronal and astrocyte vulnerability to ischemia; roles of chaperones, inflammation and mitochondria in cell death, modeling death pathways.
Lisa Giocomo. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of spatial learning and navigation.
Aaron Gitler. We investigate the mechanisms of human neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and ALS. We don't limit ourselves to one model system or experimental approach. We start with yeast, perform genetic and chemical screens, and then move to other model systems (e.g. mammalian tissue culture, mouse, fly) and even work with human patient samples (tissue sections, patient-derived cells, including iPS cells) and next generation sequencing approaches.
Gary Glover. Development of novel methods for imaging of brain function using MRI.
Miriam 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 Gotlib. Neural foundations of information-processing biases in affective disorders; psychophysiology of depression; depression in children and adolescents.
Kalanit Grill-Spector. fMRI, computational and behavioral studies of visual perception.
James 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.
May Han. Research in the Han lab mainly focuses on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and other inflammatory demyelinating diseases of the CNS. Our goal is to identify biomarkers to monitor disease activity and to understand protective molecules that are present during neuroinflammation. We study pathways involved in immune modulation and how the nervous system repairs after the immune attack. We are a translational research lab, thus we strive to directly apply our knowledge from bench to bedside. We study patient samples utilizing Systems Biology approach. We test our hypothesis in animal models, cellular and biochemical assays to decipher the molecular mechanism with the ultimate goal to apply the knowledge directly to patient care.
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.
Shaul Hestrin. The main interest of my lab is to understand how the properties of neocortical neurons and the circuits they form give rise to cortical activity and function. We study neuronal activity in slices and in vivo in awake behaving animals.
Ting-Ting Huang. The balance between the removal and production of ROS determines the reduction and oxidation (redox) status in tissues, cells, and subcellular compartments. Under pathological conditions, such as infection or inflammation, or exposure to external stressors, such as toxic chemicals or irradiation, the production of ROS exceeds the antioxidant capacity and tips the redox balance to causing cell death and tissue dysfunction. To determine how changes in redox balance affect tissue maintenance and repair, we use tissue culture cells and mouse models with altered antioxidant capacity and subject these experimental models to various forms of oxidative stress. One of the current research focuses is on the effects of redox balance on hippocampal neurogenesis.
John 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.
Seung Kim. Pancreas developmental biology and disease mechanisms.
David Kingsley. We are using genetics and genomics to identify specific genes and mutations that underlie new morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits during vertebrate evolution. Approaches used include genome-wide linkage mapping of recent evolutionary change in threespine stickleback fish; comparative genomics in lizards, whales, chimps, and humans; and detailed functional and regulatory analysis using transgenic, knock-out, and knock-in mice.
Eric Knudsen. Systems, circuit and synaptic mechanisms of spatial attention, studied in developing and adult owls and chickens, using behavioral, systems, in vitro slice, extracellular and patch-clamp recording, pharmacology, and molecular techniques.
Brian Knutson. Role of biogenic amines in modulating emotional experience. Neural substrates of incentive processing, with implications for psychiatric symptoms and decision making.
Brian Kobilka. G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest family of receptors for neurotransmitters in the human genome. We study the structure and mechanism of activation of GPCRs using a variety of biochemical and biophysical approaches including crystallography, NMR and fluorescence spectroscopy.
Ron 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. Molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, particular emphasis on Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease ALS and prion encephelopathies
Jin Hyung Lee. In vivo visualization and control of neural circuits for the development of neurological therapeutics.
Richard Lewis. Calcium signaling by ion channels and cellular organelles; store-operated channels; calcium control of gene expression.
Fei-Fei Li. Research in the Vision Lab focus on two intimately connected branches of vision research: computer vision and human vision. In both fields, we are intrigued by visual functionalities that give rise to semantically meaningful interpretations of the visual world. In computer vision, we aspire to build intelligent visual algorithms that perform important visual perception tasks such as object recognition, scene categorization, integrative scene understanding, human motion recognition, etc. In human vision, our curiosity leads us to study the underlying neural mechanisms that enable the human visual system to perform high level visual tasks with amazing speed and efficiency. We use psychophysics experiments, fMRI and computational modeling methods to tackle these extremely interesting yet challenging problems.
Y. Joyce Liao. My scientific and clinical efforts are inspired by the hope that one day, our studies will lead to effective treatment for retinal ganglion cell loss and optic neuropathies like anterior ischemic optic neuropathy and glaucoma. Using a photochemical thrombosis model of anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, we have evaluated key events following ischemia and identified potential targets and treatment modalities. 1) We are studying potential neuroprotective agents that may salvage retinal ganglion cells or optic nerve axons following injury, using in vitro as well as non-invasive, serial in vivo imaging techniques including spectral-domain optical coherence tomography and fluorescence confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. 2) We are testing the potential of intravitreal transplantation of neural progenitors derived from embryonic stem cells to treat optic neuropathies since the central nervous system has limited repair and regenerative capacity. In trying to increase the efficacy of transplantation into the adult eye, we found that retinal laser photocoagulation, a form of controlled injury used routinely to treat some patients, significantly enhanced the efficacy of transplantation in adult mice. We are continuing our study on manipulations of the neural progenitors as well as the host factors in order to optimize regenerative therapy in the adult retina.
Michael Lin. We have developed fluorecent proteins with drug-controllable onset for visualizing new protein synthesis and are using them to study stimulus-induced local protein translation. We are currently applying this technology to understand how proteins are locally synthesized in complex cell types such as neurons, and how this process may be disrupted in human diseases caused by mutations in protein synthesis pathways. We are also developing fluorescent reporters of signaling pathways involved in synaptic growth.
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.
David Lyons. Behavioral neuroscience.
Sean Mackey. Functional and structural neuroimaging of pain from the spinal cord to brain. Central factors contributing to individual differences in pain including cognitive, emotional and decision making. Central plasticity contributing to chronic pain. Real-time fMRI learned control of brain activity and pain.
Daniel 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 Maduke. Molecular mechanisms of chloride movement through channels and transporters. Integration of biophysical and electrophysiological methods. Molecular studies of the mechanistic basis of neurostimulation by ultrasound.
Robert 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. We also study the behavioral functions of synaptic plasticity in defined circuits using a variety of in vivo molecular manipulations.
James McClelland. Two of the main topics of research in my laboratory are dynamics of decision making and learning. I collaborate with the Newsome lab and others to understand how dynamics at the neural level lead to decisions at the level of behavior. We are also interested in the effects of experience on behavior, and how these effects are mediated by changes within the nervous system. We use behavioral experiments and computational models to address these and other issues, and we are open to collaboration with neurophysiologists.
Samuel McClure. Mechanisms of reward learning and decision-making in humans. Methods include computational modeling and fMRI.
Susan McConnell. We are interested in how individual neurons know where they should sit in the brain and with which neurons they should form specific axonal connections. Our studies explore the molecular and genetic mechanisms by which young neurons locate their correct targets among hundreds of thousands of other neurons in the brain.
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.
Michelle Monje-Deisseroth. Our laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of postnatal brain development and cancer, with an emphasis neural precursor cells in neuro-oncological diseases. This encompasses the function of normal neural precursor cells after exposure to anti-cancer therapy as well as the role of neural precursor cells in primary neurooncogenesis. I am particulary interested in pediatric brain tumor origins and the molecular signals that drive their growth. As a paradigm of pediatric gliogenesis, I have been focusing on brainstem tumors, whose spatial and temporal specificity bespeak an underlying developmental cause.
Tirin Moore. Neural Circuits of Behavior; Mechanisms of visual perception and cognition; visuomotor integration; control of movement.
Mirna Mustapha. Our long-term goal is dedicated to understanding the genetics of deafness at the molecular level using human and mouse genetics. Our research program focuses on two main areas: neural circuit development related to thyroid hormone, and through action of motor molecules with scaffolding proteins. Our ongoing research investigates the role of thyroid hormone for the timely coordination of a complex set of neural differentiation events in the maturing cochlea. This includes research on the mechanisms that prompt the progression of synapse formation and functional maturation. We are using mouse genetic manipulations and a variety of molecular and physiological approaches to identify new genes involved in regulating cochlear hair cell innervation. The second line of research focuses on functional characterization of myosin motors in establishing and maintaining afferent fibers connection with hair cells using the mouse model. Our studies will improve our understanding of the molecular processes that regulate innervation of the organ of Corti, which will be essential in developing therapeutic approaches and strategies to connect regenerated hair cells to the central nervous system. In the long term we are interested in translating the lessons learned in mice to understanding human deafness.
William Newsome. Neural processes that mediate visual perception and visually guided behavior.
Anthony Norcia. Our overarching research focus is on "spatial vision" --- our ability to sense the structure and layout of objects in the world through encoding contrast, pattern, motion and depth. We utilize direct, but non-invasive measures of the brain's electrical activity, Visual Evoked Potentials (VEPs), in addition to functional imaging and behavioral measures to study how the brain processes visual images. As part of our research, we develop new methods for recording and analyzing brain activity, with an emphasis on dynamics. The lab has special interesting in the role of visual experience during development, because experience during development profoundly influences brain structure and function.
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. The core interest that guides my research program is to understand the development of typical and atypical patterns of social behavior. This interest is manifested in two overlapping lines of research: (1) Studies of neuropeptides (e.g., oxytocin) that support social functioning in animals and how alterations in these systems produce social deficits in humans; and (2) Investigations of how early social relationships, and their disruption, alter developing neurobiological systems that regulate affect, cognition, and stress reactivity, thereby producing resilient or stress vulnerable organisms.
Josef Parvizi. My lab is involved in electrophysiological recording and electrical stimulation studies in patients implanted with intracranial electrodes for invasive pre surgical monitoring to localize the source of seizures. Our main emphasis is to use electrocorticography and simultaneous EEG/fMRI, and tractography methods to test hypotheses at the level of system neuroscience. We collect electrophysiological data from the human brain during various cognitive and emotional tasks. We also study seizure propagation in the human brain, and how the propagation of ictal discharges along specific neuroanatomical circuitries relate to the stereotyped behavior and or thoughts during seizures. Our motivation is to explore human cognition and how it is broken during seizures.
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 cortical and hippocampal neurogenesis.
Giles Plant. Our laboratory’s research focuses on the repair of the injured spinal cord using adult stem cells and glial cell transplantation. We utilize animal spinal cord injury modeling (mouse and rat), neuroanatomy, immunocytochemistry, confocal microscopy, gene therapy, cell culture and molecular biology.
Kathleen Poston. The Poston Lab seeks to understand the underlying brain circuitry and connectivity associated with movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, and specifically understand the changes in these circuits that lead to specific symptoms, including motor symptoms and cognitive/behavioral symptoms. While current medical and surgical treatments can substantially improve many of the motor symptoms caused by Parkinson’s disease, none of the currently available treatments can cure the disease, alter the disease progression, or significantly treat many of the non-motor symptoms, such as memory problems. Our lab aims to bridge this treatment gap using functional and structural neuroimaging. In addition, we seek to develop novel neuroimaging biomarkers to improve diagnostic accuracy and monitor the efficacy of investigational treatments for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.
Thomas Rando. Molecular regulation of stem cell function; epigenetics of stem cell aging and rejuvenation; stem cell therapies for muscular dystrophies and other muscle disorders; bioengineering of stem cell niches
Jennifer Raymond. The goal of my research is to determine the role of specific classes of neurons and synapses in shaping the computations performed by the cerebellum. To this end, we are using the latest molecular-genetic approaches for manipulating neural circuits in combination with the detailed behavioral and circuit-level analyses possible in the oculomotor system.
Richard Reimer. Molecular biology and physiology of neurotransmitter release; neuropathophysiology of lysosomal storage disorders; biosensors.
Allan Reiss. Gene-environment-brain-behavior interactions as elucidated from the study of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions including fragile X syndrome, Williams syndrome, Turner syndrome, velocardiofacial syndrome, autism, preterm birth and other disorders of cognition and behavior. We also study typical and atypical brain development and function with a particular emphasis on measures of resilience. The lab employs comprehensive multi-modal neuroimaging and modeling techniques with identification and measurement of genetic risk factors and neurobehavioral outcome. An interdisciplinary model is emphasized.
Anthony Ricci. Auditory hair cell mechanotransduction and synaptic transmission.
Robert 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.
Greg Scherrer. Our laboratory investigates the cellular and molecular mechanisms of pain and its control by opioids. When chronic, pain is no longer an essential warning system critical to our survival, but a disease that severely affects the quality of life of many patients. We search to identity the neurons that participate in generating the sensation of pain and to uncover the molecular mechanisms that regulate neural activity in pain circuits. One of our goals is to elucidate the mechanisms by which opioids such as morphine generate analgesia and detrimental side effects, including addiction, to develop more efficient and safer analgesics. To this end we combine a variety of experimental approaches including molecular and cellular biology, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, optogenetics and behavior.
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 Scott. Genetic regulation of animal development and human disease. 1) We study Hedgehog (Hh) signaling, which controls growth of the cerebellum, and medulloblastoma, the tumors of the cerebellum that occur when Hh signaling is inadequately controlled. 2) Niemann-Pick C (NPC) disease causes Purkinje neurons of the cerebellum to die, and we are studying mechanisms of intracellular transport that underlie normal NPC functions. 3) We have recently discovered that serotonergic signaling in the fly brain is used to control insulin release and thus control of growth, and are studying the circuitry involved as well as identifying new genes required for it. 4) We are using light-activated channel proteins to study the circuitry of Drosophila neuromuscular function and development.
Carla Shatz. The major goal of research is to discover cellular and molecular mechanisms that transform early fetal and neonatal brain circuits into mature patterns of connections during critical periods of development.
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. We are also interested in understanding how synapses are eliminated. During development, synapse formation is always accompanied by synapse elimination. It is the balance between these two events that eventually lead to the maturation of synaptic circuit. Very little is known about synapse elimination. We are using genetic approaches to study this. Another area of interest is how axons and dendrite polarity is established and maintain.
Krishna Shenoy. Neural prosthetic systems, neural basis of movement preparation and generation, population codes and sensorimotor integration.
Stephen Smith. The development of novel high-resolution Imaging methods and the exploration of neural circuit connectivity and synapse molecular architectures.
Gary Steinberg. Molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cerebral ischemia; development of neuroprotective and neurorepair strategies; stem cell transplantation for stroke.
Thomas Sudhof. My laboratory 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, we employ diverse approaches ranging from biophysical studies to the physiological and behavioral analyses of mutant mice.
Patrick Suppes. This lab currently concentrates on two areas of brain research. The first, and longest running, is the study of language in the brain. Current work is concentrating on the recognition of English and Chinese phonemes, as well as their distinctive features, in the brain. A main focus is on the physical mechanisms used by the brain in phoneme recognition, and to almost the same extent, semantic similarities of words and phrases. Papers on using phase to recognize phonemes are near completion. The second area is the study of couples in sychotherapy, with EEG brain recordings of 128-sensors on each member of a couple, as well as a video and audio with four microphone recordings. The first data analyses are concentrated on verbal expression of emotion and moments of insight expressed verbally. The methodologies used in data analysis are guided by physical principles and the wealth of mathematical and statistical models available in MATLAB. The ultimate objective is, above all, to understand the brain’s system computations, as oppose to cellular ones. The currently most promising physical models for this task are electromagnetic oscillators.
Anthony Wagner. Cognitive neuroscience of memory and cognitive control; prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe function; interactions between memory systems.
Brian Wandell. Modeling visual neurons; 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.
Xinnan Wang. Mitochondria move and undergo fission and fusion in all eukaryotic cells. The accurate allocation of mitochondria in neurons is particularly critical due to the significance of mitochondria for ATP supply, Ca++ homeostasis and apoptosis and the importance of these functions to the distal extremities of neurons. In addition, defective mitochondria, which can be highly deleterious to a cell because of their output of reactive oxygen species, need to be repaired by fusing with healthy mitochondria or cleared from the cell. Thus mitochondrial cell biology poses critical questions for all cells, but especially for neurons: how the cell sets up an adequate distribution of the organelle; how it sustains mitochondria in the periphery; and how mitochondria are removed after damage. The goal of my research is to understand the regulatory mechanisms controlling mitochondrial dynamics and function and the mechanisms by which even subtle perturbations of these processes may contribute to neurodegenerative disorders.
Marius Wernig. My lab is generally interested in the mechanisms that determine cell fate identity. Our focus is on epigenetic reprogramming i.e. ways to induce cell fate changes by defined factors such as the reprogramming of somatic cells into pluripotent stem (or iPS) cells. More recently, we have demonstrated that mouse fibroblasts can directly be converted to functional neuronal cells that we termed induced neuronal (iN) cells (Vierbuchen et al., 2010, Nature). The iN cells were generated through expression of the three transcription factors Ascl1, Myt1l, and Brn2. This surprising discovery opened the door to a new area of investigation. We are currently working to apply our finding to human cells, explore the molecular mechanism of the action of the three transcription factors, and determine the neuronal subtype of resulting iN cells. A long term goal is to use this method to evaluate whether iN cells can be used to model neurological diseases. 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. Our lab has developed new methods to generate iPS cells from human fibroblasts with defined mutations and explores various technologies to improve gene targeting in human iPS cells with a long term goal to correct disease-causing mutations. This work is made possible through a very generous CIRM grant. 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.
Tony Wyss-Coray. Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease.
Yanmin Yang. Define the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the neurodegeneration associated with cytoskeletal abnormalities
David Yeomans. Pain physiology and molecular biology; herpes vector-directed genetic alteration of sensory neurons; gene therapy for pain; cell transplantation as pain therapy.
Jamie 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.
Heng Zhao. Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Despite extensive research for stroke treatment in the past several decades, few neuroprotectants have been successfully translated from basic research to clinical application. My lab is interested in developing novel therapeutic methods against stroke using various rodent ischemic models, including ischemic postconditioning, remote ischemic pre- or postconditioning, and mild to moderate hypothermia. I hope this research will eventually lead to clinical application. In addition, I am also interested in studying the interaction between brain injury and the immune system (both innate as well as adaptive), including the protective effects of splenectomy.