People

Daniele Canzio, PhD

Assistant Professor
Neurology
[email protected]

The role of cell surface diversity in the assembly of neural circuits

Jonah Chan, PhD

Professor
Neurology
[email protected]

Neuronal/Glial Interactions that Control Myelination

Edward Chang, MD

Professor and Chair
Neurological Surgery
[email protected]

Speech Mechanisms

A unique and defining trait of human behavior is our ability to communicate through speech. My laboratory is interested in determining the basic mechanisms that underlie speech perception and production.  While much of this processing has been localized to the peri-sylvian cortex, including Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, the fundamental organizational principles of these neural circuits are completely unknown.

Ritchie Chen, PhD, MSc, BS

Assistant Professor
Neurological Surgery

Research Description
The central and peripheral nervous systems play a vital role in regulating fundamental physiological functions such as heart rate, breathing, and immunity. However, studying these connections can be challenging due to a lack of technologies that can record and stimulate neural circuits distributed throughout the body. Our research aims to develop and apply new technologies to map brain-body pathways and to better understand how the nervous system maintains homeostasis and regulates adaptive behavior.

Ben Cheyette, MD PHD

Associate Professor
Psychiatry
[email protected]

Signaling Scaffold Proteins in Development and Major Psychiatric Disorders

Claire Clelland, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor
Neurology

Research Description

Carlo Condello, PhD

Assoc Professor
Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases
[email protected]

Research Description

Bruce Conklin, MD

Professor
Departments of Medicine
Pharmacology and Ophthalmology
[email protected]

Decoding human genetic disease allows us to develop models of the pathology that can be directly tested with gene correction or targeted drug therapy. Dominant negative mutations are particularly promising therapeutic targets since they are resistant to traditional therapies, yet precise excision of disease-causing allele could provide a cure. We are using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model diseases in tissues that are particularly susceptible to dominant negative mutations: cardiomyocytes, motor neurons and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells.

David Copenhagen, PhD

Professor
Ophthalmology
[email protected]

Synaptic Interactions in the Retina: Pathways and Mechanisms

Ryan Corces, PhD

Assistant Professor
Neurology
[email protected]

Research Description

 The Corces Lab studies the gene-regulatory underpinnings of neurodegenerative disease. We utilize broad epigenomic and transcriptomic profiling of primary human disease tissue to generate hypotheses about the cell types and molecular mechanisms driving neurodegeneration. We then test these hypotheses using in vitro and murine model systems through large-scale screens (CRISPR / MPRA) and targeted molecular perturbation.

Current Projects

Grae Davis, PhD

Professor
Biochemistry and Biophysics
[email protected]

Synapse Formation, Growth and Plasticity

The ultimate goal of my research program is to define, at a cellular and molecular level, how stable neural function is established and then maintained throughout the life of an organism. The research can be broken down into two main areas of investigation that are described below.

Markus Delling, PhD

Assistant Professor
Physiology
[email protected]

About four billion years ago, while earth was covered with a primordial soup enriched with the building blocks of life, the equal occurrence of chiral molecules (non-superimposable “left-handed” vs “right-handed” molecules) fell out of balance. As a consequence, today’s life is asymmetric.

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