Neurosciences

Program affiliation
Immunology
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Neurosciences

Research summary
Innate immune responses in infections, autoimmunity and tumors

Key words
immunology, inflammation, dendritic cells, lymphocytes, receptors, virus, gut, mucosa

Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Computational and Systems Biology

Research summary
Disease mechanisms and treatments for inherited childhood neurodegeneration

Key words
Batten Disease, Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis, NCL, Lysosomal Storage Disease, pathogenesis, pre-clinical therapies, enzyme replacement, gene therapy

Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary
We study how different types of neurons encoding somatosensory modalities are assembled into functional circuits in both humans and model organisms.

Key words
pain, optogenetics, imaging, electrophysiology

Program affiliation
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Neurosciences
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Computational and Systems Biology

Research summary
(1) transcriptional networks in the retina; (2) the mechanistic basis of color vision; (3) the cis-regulatory basis of human uniqueness and neuropsychiatric disease

Key words
neurobiology, genomics, transcriptional networks, systems biology, photoreceptors, brain, neuropsychiatric disease, disease, cis-regulation

Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Neurosciences

Research summary
Medicinal chemistry of steroids

Key words
cholesterol, ion channel, medicinal chemistry, neurobiology, pharmacology, steroids

Program affiliation
Neurosciences

Research summary
Leveraging synaptic physiology to treat addiction and affective symptoms of pain

Key words
electrophysiology, deep brain stimulation, dopamine, basal ganglia, reward and aversion, addiction, genetics, pharmacology, optogenetics, pain

Program affiliation
Human and Statistical Genetics
Neurosciences
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary
The goal of my lab is to understand the biology of neurodegeneration by using high-dimensional omic data and functional genomic approaches.

Key words
Neurodegeneration, Alzheimer, genetics, genomics, proteomics, system biology, molecular phenotyping, functional genomics

Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Neurosciences

Research summary
Molecular basis of bioelectricity and related diseases in nervous and cardiovascular systems; ion channel function and modulation; discovery of drugs that target ion channels

Key words
allosteric regulation, calcium, drug mechanisms, epilepsy, ion channel, structure-function analysis

Program affiliation
Neurosciences

Research summary
Non-invasive optical measurements for both functional- and molecular- biological imaging

Key words

Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Neurosciences
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Molecular Cell Biology

Research summary
My lab aims to establish the fundamental principles of intracellular physical chemistry and electrochemical functions of macromolecular complexes, and design synthetic proteins as therapeutics for condensate-dependent diseases.

Key words
molecular biology; physical chemistry; biochemistry; biophysics; synthetic biology; electrochemistry; phase transition; condensates