Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences
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Neurosciences Program

Graduate Student Coordinator: Sally Vogt
Neurosciences Faculty Directors: Dora Angelaki and Paul Taghert
Neurosciences Program Website
Neurosciences Program Guidelines
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Washington University in St. Louis has a long tradition of excellence in the neurosciences. Here, Erlanger first measured nerve conduction velocity and its relation to axon diameter. In the 1950s, Levi-Montalcini, Cohen and Hamburger discovered the first neuronal trophic factor, nerve growth factor. Today, a large and interactive faculty focuses interest on almost every area of modern neuroscience ranging from molecular analysis of ion channels to positron emission tomography of the human brain.

Faculty from the departments of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Anesthesiology, Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Cell Biology and Physiology, Genetics, Molecular Microbiology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Pathology and Immunology, Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, Psychiatry and Radiology serve as advisers for thesis research and serve as teaching faculty in the neurosciences. The remarkable breadth of faculty interests in neuroscience at Washington University guarantees a student's exposure to a wide range of current neurobiological problems and approaches.

For information regarding career path and complete program guidelines, click here.

Program of Study

Two core courses, taken in the first year of graduate study, provide an integrated, multidisciplinary view of modern neuroscience. A first semester course in Cellular Neurobiology (Bio 5571) covers the essential principles of electrophysiology, molecular neuroscience, neurohistology, and neural development. A second semester course (Bio 5651) covers systems neuroscience and the neurobiology of disease.

In their second year, students take a short course in Oral Presentation of Scientific Data, which provides training in teaching and lecturing, and a course in scientific ethics.

This curriculum provides students with exposure to the full breadth of the discipline, and provides a solid foundation for laboratory research and advanced training in specific areas. The comprehensive coverage is especially helpful for students entering with limited experience in biology, such as those with backgrounds that emphasized computer science, engineering, chemistry, or psychology.

Specialized elective courses are offered to advanced students in later years of their training.

Through rotations, students gain experience in a variety of research approaches and techniques. The cell course is given in a 6 to 8 week-long intensive block, so that students are free to become deeply involved in laboratory rotations for the remainder of the semester. The systems course is taught in a traditional 16-week format. Following two to three rotations of 10 to 12 weeks each, students have greatly broadened their expertise and are in an ideal position to choose the most suitable laboratory for thesis work.

For more information about the Neurosciences Program, click here for an additional website.

Neurosciences Program Faculty

Joseph J.H. Ackerman, Ph.D. - Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging of intact functioning biological systems.

Beau Ances, M.D., Ph.D. - Characterization of HIV associated neurocognitive disorders using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Dora E. Angelaki, Ph.D. - Perceptual and neurophysiological approaches to motion perception, spatial orientation and sensorimotor transformations.

Nancy L. Baenziger, Ph.D. - Bradykinin/Histamine receptor regulation, signal transduction, phosphorylation, and hyperactivity in Alzheimer’s disease.

Robert H. Baloh, M.D., Ph.D. - My lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in the peripheral nervous system, using insights from human genetic diseases.

Jianxin Bao, Ph.D. - Stem cell therapies for age-related diseases

Dennis L. Barbour, M.D., Ph.D. - Sensory neuroscience and cerebral cortex circuitry.

Deanna Barch, Ph.D. - Neurobiological and Psychological Mechanisms of Cognitive and Emotional Control: Normative Function and Abnormalities in Psychiatric Disorders.

Randall J. Bateman, M.D. - Alzheimer disease pathophysiology.

Yehuda Ben-Shahar, Ph.D. - Molecular and genetic analyses of behavior

Kevin J. Black, M.D. - (1) Functional neuroimaging with dopaminergic challenges using PET and fMRI; (2) Tourette syndrome; (3) Neuropsychiatry of movement disorders

Pablo M. Blazquez, Ph.D. - Function of the Cerebellar-brainstem loop in motor control, spatial orientation and motor learning

Kendall J. Blumer, Ph.D. - Signal transduction in the cardiovascular, nervous and visual systems.

Walter A. Boyle, III, M.D. - Molecular and cellular actions of anesthetics and septic stimuli on vascular tissue.

Todd Braver, Ph.D. - Studies of cognitive (executive) control and prefrontal cortex function using cognitive neuroscience methods (fMRI, computational, behavioral, clinical).

Paul C. Bridgman, Ph.D. - Cell biology of developing nerve and muscle cells.

David L. Brody, M.D., Ph.D. - Experimental and Translational Research on Traumatic Brain Injury: Amyloid-beta, Apolipoprotein E, and linkages to Alzheimer's disease.

Guojun Bu, Ph.D. - Receptor biology focusing on endocytosis, intracellular protein trafficking and signaling, and related human pathobiology

Andreas H. Burkhalter, Ph.D. - Structure and physiology of neuronal circuits in mouse visual cortex.

Harold Burton, Ph.D. - Neuroimaging studies of adaptive plasticity in blind and sighted individuals.

Yu-Qing Cao, Ph.D. - Voltage-gated calcium channel, synaptic transmission and pathophysiology of migrain headache.

Bruce A. Carlson, Ph.D. - Temporal coding in sensory systems

Valeria Cavalli, Ph.D. - Axonal Transport, Injury Signaling and Nerve Regeneration.

Zhou-Feng Chen, Ph.D. - Molecular mechanisms of the dorsal spinal cord development and the role of the central serotonergic system in pain modulation.

Shiming Chen, Ph.D. - Molecular mechanisms regulating photoreceptor transcriptome in healthy and diseased retina.

Theodore J. Cicero, Ph.D. - Gender differences in the pharmacology and abuse liability of drugs.

C. Robert Cloninger, M.D. - Multidisciplinary research on the genetic epidemiology of psychiatric disorders.

Maurizio Corbetta, M.D. - Cortical mechanisms of attention and neural communication; neurological mechanisms of functional recovery after brain injury

Joseph C. Corbo, M.D., Ph.D. - Transcriptional regulatory networks in photoreceptor development, evolution, and disease.

Douglas F. Covey, Ph.D. - Medicinal chemistry of steroids.

C. Michael Crowder, M.D., Ph.D. - C. elegans behavioral genetics, hypoxic cell death, general anesthetic targets.

Jianmin Cui, Ph.D. - Ion channels in physiology and disease, channel structure-function relationship, electrophysiology, molecular biology and biochemistry.

Joseph P. Culver, Ph.D. - Non-invasive optical measurements for both functional- and molecular- biological imaging

Marc I. Diamond, M.D. -

Aaron DiAntonio, M.D., Ph.D. - Neural circuits in development and disease

J. David Dickman, Ph.D. - Neural mechanisms underlying motion detection and spatial orientation.

Ian G. Dobbins, Ph.D. - Interaction of Episodic Memory and Decision-Making Using fMRI and behavioral methods.

Gammon M. Earhart, Ph.D., P.T. - Neural Control of Movement in Health and Disease

Alex S. Evers, M.D. - Molecular mechanisms of anesthetic action.

Simon J. Fisher, Ph.D., M.D. - Role of nutritional and hormonal brain signaling in pathogenesis of obesity, diabetes, and impaired hypoglycemic counterregulation.

N. Gautam, Ph.D. - Imaging signaling in living cells.

Robert W. Gereau, Ph.D. - Cellular and molecular mechanisms of chronic pain.

Jeffrey M. Gidday, Ph.D. - Endogenous mechanisms of vascular and parenchymal cell protection in CNS ischemia

Alison Goate, Ph.D. - Genome-wide association studies to uncover genetic susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disease.

Mark P. Goldberg, M.D. - Mechanisms of ischemic injury and recovery in white matter axons and glia.

David I. Gottlieb, Ph.D. - Neural gene regulation; stem cells

Paul A. Gray, Ph.D. - Molecular development of neural circuits.

David H. Gutmann, M.D., Ph.D. - Using mouse models to understand normal growth control and tumor formation in the mammalian brain.

Phyllis I. Hanson, M.D., Ph.D. - Regulation of membrane trafficking

Denise Head, Ph.D. - Cognitive neuroscience of aging.

Tamara G. Hershey, Ph.D. - Clinical and cognitive neuroscience.

Erik D. Herzog, Ph.D. - Cellular and molecular analysis of circadian behavior in mammals.

Robert O. Heuckeroth, M.D., Ph.D. - Molecular mechanisms of neuronal development.

John E. Heuser, M.D. - Electron microscopy of cells and molecules.

Keiko Hirose, M.D. - Mechanisms of injury in the murine inner ear and how inflammation interacts with the cochlea to result in either exacerbation of injury or facilitation of repair.

Didier Hodzic, Ph.D. - Role of LINC complexes (Linkers of the Nucleoskeleton to the Cytoskeleton) in nucleokinesis and neuronal migration

David M. Holtzman, M.D. - Cellular/Molecular/Biomarkers studies of Alzheimer’s disease and neonatal brain injury.

Timothy E. Holy, Ph.D. - Neural mechanisms of pheromone detection, recognition, and olfactory learning; novel optical methods for recording neuronal activity

James "Jim" E. Huettner, Ph.D. - Glutamate receptors, synaptic transmission and stem cell differentiation.

Terrie E. Inder, M.D. -

Mark Jacquin, Ph.D. - Molecular mechanisms of mammalian sensory system development, plasticity and repair.

Vladimir J. Kefalov, Ph.D. - Physiology of photoreceptors.

Daniel Kerschensteiner, M.D. -

Robyn S. Klein, M.D., Ph.D. - Molecular basis of inflammation-associated dysfunction in viral and autoimmune encephalitides

Vitaly A. Klyachko, Ph.D. - Mechanisms and regulation of neurotransmitter release and the roles of presynaptic processes in synaptic plasticity and information processing

Raphael Kopan, Ph.D. - Studies of cell fate determination in mammalian system with focus on Notch mediated signal transduction.

Paul T. Kotzbauer, M.D., Ph.D. - Mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease and related disorders.

Kristen Kroll, Ph.D. - Transcriptional regulation of neural cell fate, proliferation, and differentiation in embryos and embryonic stem cells.

Jin-Moo Lee, M.D., Ph.D. - Pathogenesis of amyloid fibrils and amyloid plaques in AD mouse models

Christopher J. Lingle, Ph.D. - Structure-function studies of Slo family K+ channels.

Arthur D. Loewy, Ph.D. - CNS control of autonomic functions and sodium regulation; brainstem and hypothalamic circuits regulating visceral functions

Peter D. Lukasiewicz, Ph.D. - Synaptic function and retinal neurobiology.

Joshua A. Maurer, Ph.D. - Chemical methods to understand problems in neurobiology and develop biosensors.

Kathleen B. McDermott, Ph.D. - Human behavioral and fMRI studies of memory

Steven J. Mennerick, Ph.D. - Physiology of glutamate and GABA neurotransmission in the CNS.

Timothy M. Miller, M.D., Ph.D. - Mechanisms of neurodegeneration and gene targeted therapies in motor neuron diseases.

Stanley Misler, M.D., Ph.D. - Electrophysiological approaches to stimulus-secretion coupling in endocrine cells and neurons.

Stephen M. Moerlein, Ph.D. - Development of radiopharmaceuticals for PET and SPECT.

Daniel W. Moran, Ph.D. - Neurophysiology of volitional arm movements and its application to neuroprosthetics.

Jeffrey J. Neil, M.D., Ph.D. - Use of magnetic resonance methods for understanding brain injury.

Jeanne M. Nerbonne, Ph.D. - Molecular determinants of ion channel expression, distribution and functioning

John W. Newcomer, M.D. - Research from this group concerns: 1) metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors in individuals with neuropsychiatric disorders; 2) metabolic effects of antipsychotics in adults and children; 3) neurochemical regulation of memory performance in humans; 4) therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly psychotic disorders.

Colin G. Nichols, Ph.D. - Ion channel biology in health and disease

Bruce L. Nock, Ph.D. - Stress and the pituitary-adrenocortical axis in drug abuse.

Michael L. Nonet, Ph.D. - Molecular genetic analysis of synaptic development and function.

John W. Olney, M.D. - Excitotoxicity, apoptosis, other mechanisms underlying neuropsychaitric and neurodegenerative diseases.

David M. Ornitz, Ph.D., M.D. - Growth factor signaling in lung, skeletal, cardiovascular and CNS development and physiology; Otopetrin in vestibular mechanosensory development

Karen L. O`Malley, Ph.D. - Mechanisms underlying the specification, regulation, and neurodegeneration of dopaminergic and glutamatergic systems.

Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, Ph.D. - Neuronal and cognitive mechanisms of economic choice and decision making

Joel S. Perlmutter, M.D. - Pharmacology, physiology and pathophysiology of basal ganglia and movement disorders.

Steven E. Petersen, Ph.D. - Behavioral and fMRI studies of attention and cognitive development.

Joseph L. Price, D.Phil. - Neuroanatomical analysis of Limbic Forebrain, frontal/temporal cortex, mood disorders.

John R. Pruett, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. - Developmental neuroscience studies of social attention and cognition, relational reasoning, and brain functional connectivity in autistic and non-autistic subjects.

Brad A. Racette, M.D. -

Marcus E. Raichle, M.D. - Functional brain imaging with positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance.

Naren Ramanan, Ph.D. - To understand the molecular basis of synaptic activity-dependent neuronal adaptation in the mouse brain.

Keith M. Rich, M.D. - Influence of trophic factors on neuronal dead and axonal regeneration.

Joshua B. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D. - Investigating the basis of CXCL12 actions in development and cancer.

Lawrence B. Salkoff, Ph.D. - How ion channels function in physiology and behavior.

Mark S. Sands, Ph.D. - Pathophysiology and novel therapies for lysosomal storage diseases.

Bradley L. Schlaggar, M.D., Ph.D. - Use fMRI to study typical and atypical cognitve development.

Robert E. Schmidt, M.D., Ph.D. - Study of the sympathetic nervous system in aging and diabetes.

Paul J. Shaw, Ph.D. - Molecular/genetic analysis of sleep function.

Yvette I. Sheline, M.D. - Neuroanatomical and functional changes that occur during major depression

Joshua S. Shimony, M.D., Ph.D. -

James B. Skeath, Ph.D. - Genetic analysis of neural and muscular development in the Drosophila embryo.

Lawrence Hugh Snyder, M.D., Ph.D. - Information processing in the cerebral cortex.

S.-K. "Victor" Song, Ph.D. - Biomarkers of CNS injury.

Paul S.G. Stein, Ph.D. - Sensorimotor integration; spinal cord neural networks; turtle hindlimb motor output.

Joe Henry Steinbach, Ph.D. - Function and regulation of transmitter-gated membrane channels.

Gina M. Story, Ph.D. - Molecular/genetic basis of thermosensation.

Paul H. Taghert, Ph.D. - Circadian physiology; neuronal development.

W. Thomas Thach, M.D. - Cerebellum and basal ganglia in motor learning and performance.

Kurt A. Thoroughman, Ph.D. - Psychophysical and computational investigation of human motor control and learning.

Lawrence Tychsen, M.D. - Development of binocular vision and eye movements in primates.

David C. Van Essen, Ph.D. - Organization and function of visual cortex in primates.

Mark E. Warchol, Ph.D. - Sensory regeneration in the auditory and vestibular systems.

Conrad C. Weihl, M.D., Ph.D. - The interplay between the ubiquitin-proteasome and autophagy pathways in skeletal muscle and neurodegenerative disorders.

Robert S. Wilkinson, Ph.D. - Synaptic structure and function, particularly vesicle processing pathways.

Michael Wong, M.D., Ph.D. - Mechanisms of epileptogenesis and seizure-induced brain injury.

Thomas A. Woolsey, M.D. - Function, development and neurovascular control and disease models in the central nervous system.

Dmitriy A. Yablonskiy, Ph.D. - Biophysical mechanisms behind MR signal formation in biological systems.

Jeffrey M. Zacks, Ph.D. - Human behavioral and fMRI studies of perception, attention and memory.

Gregory J. Zipfel, M.D. - Mechanisms and functional consequences of cerebral amyloid angiopathy and subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Charles F. Zorumski, M.D. - Modulation of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission.




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