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Foundations of Cognition and Neural Computation

Our lab develops and applies computational, cutting-edge engineering (software, hardware, and genomic), and experimental approaches to basic neuroscience and builds theories of brain function. We also collaborate with other labs to apply our tools to probe brain dysfunction and disease.  We are a hybrid experimental-computational lab and welcome members from diverse scientific and technical backgrounds.

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

The cellular and circuit mechanisms of movement disorders

Molecular Genetic Analysis of Behavioral Traits

Signaling Scaffold Proteins in Development and Major Psychiatric Disorders

Circuit basis of motivated behaviors in psychiatric disease

Psychiatric disorders were historically thought to arise from a brain-wide chemical imbalance in neurotransmitter levels, but it is now becoming clear that they involve much more complex and subtle alterations in neural dynamics across specific synapses and networks in the brain. Our lab aims to understand the neural circuits underlying motivated behaviors and how they are perturbed in psychiatric diseases such as anxiety, autism, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Understanding social attachment: Molecular and genetic approaches to study the neural basis of social attachment throughout development and in disease

Birth and Migration of New Neurons 

Our laboratory studies the mechanisms of adult neurogenesis and neuronal replacement.  Contrary to the dogma held for over a century, some populations of neurons continue to be produced in juvenile and adult brains.  Basic mechanisms of neural development can be studied in a fully assembled brain, providing key insights into the nature of neural stem cells, mechanisms of neuronal migration, and neural maturation.

Our goals are to understand:

1) How young neurons are generated.

Linking Cell Signaling and Membrane Traffic