Neuroscience Graduate Program Faculty

Program Chair:  Jane E. Johnson

Joseph P. Albanesi -- Motility and signaling in neurosecretory systems.

Leon Avery -- Neurogeneics of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Ilya B. Bezprozvanny -- Calcium channels and calcium signaling in the nervous system; deranged calcium signaling and neurodegeneration in Huntington's and Alzheimer's disease.

James A. Bibb -- Signal transduction in the nervous system, with emphasis on the biochemistry and neuropharmacology of protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation.

Stephen Cannon -- How ion channels regulate electrical excitability of cells and of how defects in these channels lead to human disease.

Donald Cooper -- Behavioral and neurophysiological plasticity within the brain reward circuit and its relationship to addiction.

Christopher Cowan -- Molecular mechanisms of axon guidance and synapse formation/remodeling.

Joel Elmquist -- Functional neuroanatomy of the mammalian hypothalamus.

Jay Gibson -- The electrophysiology of rodent sensory neocortex: cellular, synaptic and systems properties.

Matthew S. Goldberg -- Molecular mechanisms of inherited forms of Parkinson’s disease.

Robert W. Greene -- Control and function of sleep/wake states; system mechanisms of NMDA hypofunction-related cognitive defects.

Mark Henkemeyer -- Molecular biology of axon guidance.

Robin Hiesinger -- Neurogenetics; brain wiring/synaptic specification; synapse function/neurotransmitter release membrane fusion; computational approaches to 4D visualization and simulation.

Donald W. Hilgemann -- Function and regulation of membrane transporters; electrophysiology; biophysics of ion pumps and channels.

Jenny Hsieh  -- Stem cell biology; neurogenesis and gliogenesis in CNS; chromatin remodeling; neurological diseases.

Kimberly M. Huber -- Physiology and cellular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity.

Jane E. Johnson -- Molecular biology of mammalian neural development.

Rolf H. Joho -- Molecular and cellular neurobiology; structure/function studies of ion channel proteins.

Ege T. Kavalali -- Physiology and development of central nervous system presynaptic terminals.

Helmut J. Krämer -- Genetic dissection of endocytic trafficking in Drosophila.

Shuxin Li -- Axonal regeneration in the central nervous system; cell death and neuronal survival; spinal cord injury.

Weichun Lin -- Developmental neurobiology.

Qing Richard Lu -- Differentiation mechanisms in the mammalian central nervous system: gliogenesis as a model.

Colleen McClung -- Molecular mechanisms of mood disorders and drug addiction.

Eric Nestler -- Molecular mechanisms of drug addiction and depression.

Luis F. Parada -- The role of proto-oncogenes in vertebrate development; trk receptors and neurotropins.

Juan Pascual -- Animal and cellular models of neurogenetic disorders. Synaptic transmission in experimental epilepsies. Disorders of brain energy metabolism. Developmental neurobiology. Genotype:phenotype correlations in novel childhood encephalopathies. Clinical pediatric neurology.

Andrew Pieper --

Craig Powell -- Molecular and cellular mechanisms of cognition with an emphasis on learning and memory.

José Rizo-Rey (Josep Rizo) -- Structural analysis by nuclear magnetic resonance of proteins involved in calcium-triggered synaptic vesicle exocytosis.

Adrian Rothenfluh - Genetics and neurobiology of behavioral responses to drugs of abuse in the fruit fly.

David W. Self -- Neurobiology of motivational systems and drug addiction.

Dean P. Smith -- Molecular biology of sensory transduction in Drosophila.

Thomas C. Südhof -- Molecular basis of neurotransmitter release and synapse formation.

Carol Tamminga -- Schizophrenia; postmortem brain; human brain imaging; human translational neuroscience.

Malu (Lourdes) Tansey -- Role of TNF and neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases; neural progenitors in adult tissues.

Jonathan Terman -- Axonal growth and guidance; neuronal connectivity; axonal regeneration.

Masashi Yanagisawa -- Identification and characterization of new neuropeptides that regulate vital functions such as sleep, appetite and blood pressure.

Gang G. Yu -- Molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and neuronal signaling.