Graduate Rotation Openings

PI: Martha Bagnall, PhD

Posture is intimately dependent on signals from the inner ear, but we understand very little about how that information is mapped onto motor outputs. The Bagnall Lab studies how sensory information about orientation and movement drives appropriate body movements to adjust posture.

PI: Valeria Cavalli, PhD

The primary goal of the Cavalli Lab is to unravel the molecular events that dictate the regenerative response of neurons in the peripheral nervous system and to relate this information to the lack of regenerative capacity in the central nervous system. The lab's proposed research has broad clinical impact, since axonal damage can occur in traumatic spinal cord injury, stroke, and many neurodegenerative diseases.

PI: Yao Chen, PhD

The Chen Lab attempts to fill the gap between molecular neuroscience and animal behavior by elucidating the spatial and temporal dynamics of biological signals, because their dynamics carry critical information that explain subsequent modifications of cells, circuits, and behavior. Specifically, the lab aims to understand how the dynamics of neuromodulators and intracellular signals contribute to the function of neuromodulators, to learning, and to the function of sleep.

PI: Tom Franken, MD, PhD

How do you make sense of what you see? The patterns of light that the eyes receive are ambiguous. Consider the wavelength of reflected light: this could either indicate the color of the reflecting surface, or that of the incident light. The brain thus needs to actively reconstruct a representation of the external world. The Franken laboratory studies the brain circuits that perform these computations, using behavioral, electrophysiological, optical and viral targeting approaches.

PI: Harrison Gabel, PhD

The Gabel Lab studies molecular mechanisms of gene regulation that contribute to development and plasticity in the mammalian brain, and how disruption of these mechanisms can lead to neurological disease.

PI: Geoffrey Goodhill, PhD

The Goodhill Lab is interested in how brains process information, particularly during development. Our current focus is on the development of neural coding in the zebrafish brain. We are addressing this using a combination of behavioral analysis, calcium imaging of neural activity, and mathematical/computational modeling.

PI: Edward Han, PhD

The Han lab studies learning and memory processes in the hippocampus. The lab investigates the cellular and neuronal circuit activity supporting spatial navigation learning in mice. Major approaches in the lab include in vivo two- photon calcium imaging during virtual reality behavioral tasks, in vivo electrophysiology, optogenetics, and computational modeling.

PI: Timothy Holy, PhD

The Holy Lab combines a focus on understanding circuits and behavior with a willingness to pioneer new technologies to address the major challenges in the field. The lab's major scientific focus is on the olfactory system of mice. We choose this system because it presents a tractable “playground” for so many of the questions of modern neuroscience.

PI: Adam Kepecs, PhD

The long-term goal of the Kepecs Lab is to reverse engineer the computational and neurobiological processes underlying cognition and decision-making and apply these insights to biological psychiatry.

PI: Tristan Qingyun Li, PhD

The Li Lab is broadly interested in neuroimmunology with a focus on microglial biology. Particularly, the lab is interested in combining cutting-edge single-cell genomic technologies with in vitro and in vivo genetic, molecular and cellular tools to investigate microglial development, heterogeneity and mechanisms of neuro-immune interactions underlying brain structure and disease.