Faculty

The faculty who participate in the Neuroscience graduate program are listed below. You may find more information about any faculty member by clicking on their name. In addition to the >80 laboratories of Neuroscience Program faculty, Neuroscience students may carry out their thesis studies in any of the over 120 additional labs affiliated with Herbert W. Boyer Program in Biological Sciences (PIBS). PIBS is an umbrella entity comprising five separate graduate programs, created to give students access to the broadest possible range of research and to encourage interactions among faculty and students in different disciplines. PIBS sponsors many interdisciplinary activities designed to promote creative and interdisciplinary scientific research.

A

Katerina Akassoglou
Neurovascular Mechanisms of Inflammation and Tissue Repair

Arturo Alvarez-Buylla
Birth and Migration of New Neurons

Kaveh Ashrafi
Metabolic regulation of learning and memory

B

Scott Baraban
Neurobiology of Epilepsy

Samuel Barondes
Biological Psychiatry

Allan Basbaum
The Neurobiological Basis of Pain and its Control

Kevin Bender
Mechanisms and Function of Neuromodulation

Joshua Berke
Neurobiology of Motivation and Adaptive Decision-Making

Michael Brainard
Sensorimotor Learning in the Song System

C

Cathryn Cadwell
Human cortical cell types and circuits

Daniele Canzio
The generation of a cell-surface diversity code for neural circuit assembly

Jonah Chan
Neuronal/Glial Interactions that Control Myelination

Edward Chang
Speech Mechanisms

Ritchie Chen
Brain-body neuroscience, Bioelectronics, and Neurotechnology

Carlo Condello
Mechanisms and pharmacology of neurodegenerative diseases and glial biology

Bruce Conklin
Decoding and Repairing Genetic Disease

David Copenhagen
Synaptic Interactions in the Retina: Pathways and Mechanisms

Ryan Corces
Functional epigenomics in neurodegenerative diseases

D

Graeme Davis
Synapse Formation, Growth, and Plasticity

Markus Delling
Calcium signaling in primary cilia during development and diseases

Xin Duan
Molecular and Genetic Assembly of Neural Circuits

Dena Dubal
Mechanisms of Neural Resilience in Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease

Felice Dunn
Anatomy and function of retinal circuits under normal and disease states

E

Robert Edwards
The Synaptic Basis of Behavior

Pam England
Chemical Neurobiology: Ion Channel Structure-Function, Synaptic Plasticity

F

Steve Fancy
Development of glial cells of the brain and response to injury

Evan Feinberg
Cortical-subcortical networks for sensory processing and behavior

Howard Fields
Neural Circuitry of Motivation

Steven Finkbeiner
Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Plasticity and Neurodegeneration

Loren Frank
Learning and Spatial Coding in the Hippocampal-Cortical Circuit

Ying-Hui Fu
Molecular Study of Human Sleep Behaviors

G

Karunesh Ganguly
Neuroprosthetics, motor rehabilitation, and plasticity

Adam Gazzaley
Neural Mechanisms of Attention and Memory

Walter Gonzalez
Distributed brain computation controlling motor behaviors

Su Guo
Stem Cells, Neural Circuitry and Behavior

H

Corey Harwell
Neuron-glia crosstalk during circuit assembly

Andrea Hasenstaub
Genetic, Cellular, Circuit, and Functional Organization of Auditory Cortex

Stephen Hauser
Neurogenetics and Neuroimmunology of Demyelinating Diseases

Jonathan Horton
Structural Basis of Amblyopia and Strabismus

Eric J. Huang
Transcriptional Programs in Neuronal Survival and Differentiation

Yadong Huang
ApoE4 in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis and related drug development

I

Holly Ingraham
Neural Basis for Sex-Differences in Metabolism

J

Lily Jan
Potassium Channels and Calcium-activated Chloride Channels

Yuh Nung Jan
Neuronal morphogenesis and circuit assembly

David Julius
The Molecular Biology of Nociception and Pain

K

Martin Kampmann
Functional genomics to understand molecular mechanisms of brain function and disease

Aimee Kao
The molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disease

Saul Kato
Foundations of Cognition and Neural Computation

Mazen Kheirbek
Neural circuits for emotional behaviors 

Christoph Kirst
Neuronal Network Dynamics, Computational Coordination and Flexible Brain Function

Zachary Knight
Neural circuits for homeostatic behaviors

Arnold R. Kriegstein
Neural Stem Cells and Embryonic Cortical Development

L

Noelle L'Etoile
Understand how molecules, cells, circuits and the physiology of an intact organism work together to produce learned behaviors

Jeff Lansman
Biophysics of Mechanosensitive and Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels

Jon Levine
Signal Transduction and Second Messenger Signaling in Pain Sensory Neurons; CNS Pain Control Mechanisms: Neural-Endocrine Control of Inflammation

Qili Liu
Neurobiology of nutrient-specific appetite

M

Devanand Manoli
Neural, molecular, and genetic mechanisms of social attachment throughout development and in disease

Elyssa Margolis
Neurocircuits and opioid systems in pain and addiction

Daniel L. Minor
Structural and Mechanistic Studies of Ion Channels and Ion Channel Regulation

Anna Molofsky
Non-neuronal regulators of brain development, plasticity, and disease

Lennart Mucke
Neurobiology of Diseases Affecting Cognitive Functions

Ken Nakamura
Mitochondrial and Metabolic Dysfunction in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Vijay Namboodiri
Neural circuits for associative learning and decision-making

Alexandra Nelson
The cellular and circuit mechanisms of movement disorders

Roger Nicoll
The Cellular and Molecular Basis of Synaptic Plasticity

Tomasz Nowakowski
Cellular and Molecular Architecture of the Human Brain​​​​

O

Michael Oldham
The molecular basis of cellular identity in the human brain

P

Jorge Palop
Mechanisms of Network Dysfunction in Alzheimer's Disease

Mercedes Paredes
Late Cortical Neuron Development in the Human Brain and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Jeanne Paz
Neural dynamics and plasticity in Epilepsy and associated cognitive dysfunction

Xianhua Piao
Glial mechanisms of brain development and disorders

Sam Pleasure
Regulation of cortical development and function in health and disease

Stanley Prusiner
Molecular Biological, Genetic, and Protein Structural Studies of Prion Disease

Louis Ptacek
Genetics and Biology of Human Nervous System Disorders

R

Dorit Ron
Signal Transduction, Molecular Neurobiology of Addiction

Susanna Rosi
Brain Injury, Neuroinflammation, and Cognitive Function

John Rubenstein
Genetic Regulation of Forebrain Development

S

Stephan Sanders
Genomic and bioinformatic approaches to discovering the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders in humans, especially autism spectrum disorder

Massimo Scanziani
Understanding the mechanisms by which elementary circuits of neurons control the spatial and temporal structure of cortical activity.

Christoph Schreiner
Representation of Complex Signals in the Central Auditory System

William Seeley
Selective Vulnerability in Neurodegenerative Disease

Yin Shen
Utilizing functional genomics approaches to study brain development and diseases

Seth Shipman
Synthetic Biology for Neurodevelopment and Circuit Formation

Vikaas Sohal
Understanding emergent patterns of activity in cortical networks & their relationships to psychiatric disorders

David Sretavan
Axon Injury, Disease, and Novel Paradigms for Therapy

Philip Starr
Physiology of movement disorders in humans

Matthew State
Genetics and genomics of developmental neuropsychiatric disorders

Michael Stryker
Development and Plasticity of the Central Visual System

Raymond Swanson
Reactive oxygen species in neuronal signaling and disease

T

Laurence Tecott
Molecular Genetic Analysis of Behavioral Traits

U

Erik Ullian
Interactions between Neurons and Glia that are Required for the Proper Development and Function of the Nervous System

V

Christian Vaisse
Genetics of Metabolic Diseases

Saul Villeda
Mechanisms of Brain Aging and Rejuvenation

Susan Voglmaier
Vesicle Trafficking and Neurotransmitter Release

Mark Von Zastrow
Linking Cell Signaling and Membrane Traffic

W

Helen Willsey
Using frogs to dissect psychiatric orders

Y

Kevin Yackle
Cellular and Molecular Dissection of the Breathing Rhythm Generator

Andrew Yang
Decoding how the blood-brain barrier regulates brain health