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The Section of Neurobiology Faculty
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University Professor, Fletcher Jones Chair in Computer Science, and Professor of Computer Science, Biological Sciences, and Psychology The thrust of Michael Arbib's work is expressed in the title of his first book, Brains, Machines and Mathematics (McGraw-Hill, 1964). The brain is not a computer in the current technological sense, but he has based his career on the argument that we can learn much about machines from studying brains, and much about brains from studying machines. He has thus always worked for an interdisciplinary environment in which computer scientists and engineers can talk to neuroscientists and cognitive scientists. |
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Associate Professor of Biological Sciences The goal of my laboratory is to understand how ion channels are targeted to specific subcellular locations in neurons and how electrical activity can modulate that targeting. To address these questions we are using the following techniques: dissociated neuronal cultures or organotypic brain slices, confocal and 2-photon microscopy, and biochemistry. |
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Professor of Biological Sciences and Psychology The major goal of our lab is to understand how experience sculpts neural circuits for learning during development. Sensitive periods of development are characterized by periods of heightened capacity for both neural and behavioral change. That is, they represent "windows of opportunity" during which brain and behavior are most susceptible to modification by experiential factors in the external environment and/or changes in internal milieu (such as levels of hormones and growth factors). Certain types of learning occur only during sensitive periods of development, and coincide with heightened phases of neural plasticity. In humans, for example, children are much more adept at learning languages than are adults, and the time at which the capacity for language acquisition decreases seems to correlate with the end of the period of maturation of the cerebral hemispheres. |
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Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences During development, neurons extend axons along complex pathways towards their synaptic targets, resulting in the precisely ordered networks that underpin the diverse functions of the nervous system. Growth cones, at the tips of axons, translate guidance cues in the extracellular environment into a stereotyped binary response: movement towards or away from a particular signal. The identification of individual guidance cues is a critical step towards understanding both the mechanisms by which axons navigate and the signal transduction machinery that results in cytoskeletal rearrangements in the growth cone. My work seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms used by a novel class of axon guidance cues, the Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs), to polarize commissural neurons, a class of spinal interneurons |
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Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Topographic representations in the primary sensory cortices are believed to be the neural basis of sensory perception. These representations are continuously altered during learning and after sensory organ loss. Despite their role in sensory information processing, the mechanisms by which they are modified is still unknown. The major goal of our lab is to describe the neural circuits and the synaptic mechanisms responsible for the development and maintenance of the sensory representations using in vivo and in vitro electrophysiological recordings, imaging, computerized behavioral trainings and molecular biological methods |
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Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences (Starting in 2012!) We are interested in synapse development, function, and plasticity in general, and in particular how these processes are stably maintained within proper physiological ranges, referred to as homeostatic synaptic plasticity. Homeostatic feedback systems are a ubiquitous form of biological regulation, which recently have been demonstrated to maintain the stability of nervous system function. Homeostatic processes also play crucial roles in the development of the nervous system, tuning synaptic strength and establishing the proper balance of excitation and inhibition. Dysfunction in these systems may contribute to the etiology of schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and other complex neurological and psychiatric diseases. Our long term interests are to identify the molecules and elucidate the mechanisms that achieve and maintain the stability of neural function, and to determine how dysfunction in these processes may contribute to human disease. |
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University Professor, ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging and Professor of Gerontology, Biology and Psychology Finch's main interests are the genomic regulation of aging processes. He has authored three books: Longevity, Senescence, and the Genome (1990); Aging: A Natural History (1995, with R. Ricklefs); Chance, Development, and Aging (2000, with TBL Kirkwood); and The Biology of Human Longevity (2007). In 450 reports and reviews since 1966, Finch has lead several developments in the fields of the neuroendocrinology and pharmacology of normal aging and Alzheimer disease, and in the biodemography of aging. |
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Professor of Biological Sciences |
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Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Somehow, the cerebral cortex translates the dappled images it receives from the retina via the thalamus into a coherent perception of the visual world. Our research explores the earliest stages of visual cortical processing. Specifically, we ask how thalamocortical connections and circuits within the striate cortex itself resolve basic features of the visual scene. The main approach is whole-cell recording with dye-filled electrodes from the thalamus and the cortex in vivo. With this technique we can resolve synaptic integration during vision and ultimately correlate physiological response with anatomical profile. Individual projects are designed to explore key aspects of cortical integration, such as interaction between synaptic input and intrinsic properties of the membrane, functional specializations of intracortical pathways and the synaptic basis and physiology of responses to visual pattern. |
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Professor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Section of Neurobiology Among the most challenging questions in neurobiology is how synaptic connections form, function, and maintain at the appropriate targets in normal and diseased nervous system. Using electrophysiological, morphological, and molecular approaches, we examine the role of synaptic molecules in transmitter release, as well as the role of glial cells in synapse formation, maintenance and repair. We also use transgenic mice to investigate the disease mechanisms of ALS (also called Lou Gehrig's disease), a late-onset motoneuron disorder, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a leading genetic cause of infant mortality characterized by the loss of spinal motoneurons and muscle atrophy. We are studying the possible contribution of synapse loss or defects to the pathogenesis of these motor neuron diseases. |
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Associate Professor of Biological Sciences My laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms that underlie taste and other chemical senses and the regulation of TRP ion channels involved in these processes, using a combination of approaches that include cellular imaging, patch clamp electrophysiology, mouse genetics and molecular biology. |
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Professor of Biological Sciences |
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Associate Professor of Biological Sciences The laboratory is interested in the neurobiological basis behind our ability to detect touch and pain. These fundamental processes, termed somatosensation and nociception, respectively, allow for the detection of chemical, mechanical, and thermal stimuli, and can critically differentiate between innocuous and noxious stimuli. Peripheral sensory neurons are the principle sensors of these stimuli and convert these environmental cues into ascending neural activity. Research in my lab aims to understand the molecular and cellular basis of this fundamental sensory process. |
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Professor The development of the brain depends on complex interactions between genetic factors and environmental influences, such as neuronal activity, growth factors and circulating hormones. Hormones secreted by peripheral organs can determine the number and chemical phenotype of specific sets of neurons during development, as well as direct formation of connections with other parts of the brain. Currently, we are studying the organization and development of forebrain pathways that regulate feeding and energy homeostasis. Recent findings indicate that these neural pathways develop under the influence of the adipocyte derived hormone leptin during discrete temporal domains, suggesting that there are region-specific, hormonally directed mechanisms governing the assembly of homeostatic circuits. Using axonal labeling methods and both in vitro and in vivo experimental approaches, we are determining if manipulations of genes known to participate in leptin signaling in mature animals also influence the development of the pathways that mediate hypothalamic responses to changes in energy balance. The results of this work indicate that leptin is indeed a major developmental factor that may mediate the developmental effects of a variety of environmental factors including nutrition. |
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Swanson, Larry
Milo Don and Lucille Appleman Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Biological Sciences, Neurology and Psychology We are interested in the organization of neural networks that control motivated behavior in mammals. The approach is mostly structural, and to display and model results we are developing computer graphics and database approaches. |
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Emeritus University Professor, William M. Keck Chair in Biological Sciences and Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences The long term goal of his research program is to understand in depth and detail how the brain codes, stores and retrieve memories. To this end he utilizes basic forms of learning and memory exhibiting the same fundamental properties in humans and other mammals to localize and analyze processes of memory storage in the brain. In earlier work, he characterized the non-associative learning phenomena of habituation and sensitization and their neural substrates. More recently and currently, he focuses on associative learning and memory, particularly classical conditioning of discrete responses (e.g. eyeblink), fear and basic processes of synaptic plasticity. |
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Professor of Biological Sciences, Physiology and Biophysics Our work is directed towards understanding how the brain contributes to the development, manifestation, and complications of diabetes and obesity. How the brain and the body senses changes in blood glucose is a fundamental physiological process, the understanding of which is critical to the etiolology of both forms of diabetes. We are interested in how glucocorticoids and neurotransmitters interact with neurons in the hypothalamus, which is a major integrative locus for metabolic control. A major focus of our work is on sets of hindbrain catecholaminergic neurons that project to the forebrain. These neurons are crucial for detecting and encoding information about blood glucose levels. We investigate the way that catecholaminergic neurons and glucocorticoids affect signal transduction and gene regulatory mechanisms in sets of forebrain neurons responsible for regulating metabolism in health and disease. |
| Research Faculty | |
Foy, Michael Senior Research Assitant |
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Hahn, Joel Research Assitant Professor of Biological Sciences
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Zhou, Ligang Research Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences |