Graduate Rotation Openings

PI: Ilya Monosov, PhD

The Monosov Lab is interested in the neuronal basis of voluntary behavior. What are the neuronal mechanisms that control exploration and learning? How do different attributes of behavioral-options impact our decision-making?

PI: Michael Nonet, PhD

Research in the Nonet Lab focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating neuronal synapse development. The lab addresses this complex problem using a combination of genetic, molecular and image techniques using both the nematode C. elegans and the teleost Danio rerio.

PI: Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, PhD

Research in the Padoa-Schioppa Lab focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms of economic choice (a.k.a. neuroeconomics). The lab combines behavioral, neurophysiological and computational techniques to understand how the brain makes decisions.

PI: Thomas Papouin, PhD

Since its inception, neuroscience has focused on neurons as the single most relevant cellular component of the nervous system for understanding its inner workings. Yet, parts of the mammalian brain are only comprised of 10-20% of neurons. The Papouin lab explores the role played by the remaining 80-90% of “non-neuronal” cells, called glial cells, in brain function. The lab is interested in understanding the role of a glial subtype, astrocytes, in brain function from the perspective of brain states.

PI: Linda Richards AO, FAA, FAHMS, PhD, department chair

The Richards Lab focuses on the development, plasticity and function of long-range connections of the cerebral cortex. The corpus callosum is the largest fibre tract in the brain of placental mammals and connects neurons in each cortical hemisphere. The lab investigates how cellular and molecular/genetic mechanisms regulate brain wiring during development and how brain wiring is altered in congenital corpus callosum dysgenesis (CCD).

PI: Paul Shaw, PhD

The Shaw Lab uses the genetic model organism Drosophila melanogaster to elucidate the molecular mechanisms linking sleep to neuronal plasticity. The lab has demonstrated that we can fully restore cognitive functioning to a diverse set of classic memory mutants simply by enhancing their sleep. In these experiments, sleep was able to reverse cognitive deficits without restoring the causal molecular lesion or structural defect. In addition sleep reversed cognitive deficits in two separate models of Alzheimer’s disease.

PI: Lawrence Snyder, MD, PhD

The Snyder Lab studies small circuits underlying cognition in the non-human primate model. Currently, the lab has projects involving spatial representation, memory and movement; eye-hand and bimanual coordination; and correlation-based functional connectivity.

PI: Paul Taghert, PhD

The Taghert Lab seeks to understand the organization, regulation and outputs of circadian neural circuits in the Drosophila brain. The lab takes advantage of the remarkable molecular genetic methods that are available with this model system.

PI: Gaia Tavoni, PhD

The Tavoni laboratory develops theories and models to understand how information is represented and processed in neuronal networks, and how brain computations adapt to changing environments and conditions. Areas of focus in the lab include coarse-grained and biophysical models of perceptual learning, statistical physics approaches to memory consolidation and retrieval, Bayesian and complexity theories of high-level cognition, and data-driven models of decision circuits.

PI: David Van Essen, PhD

The Van Essen Lab develops and uses computerized brain mapping techniques to study the structure, function, and development of cerebral cortex in humans and nonhuman primates. The lab is heavily engaged in the Human Connectome Project, a 5-year project to map human brain circuitry in healthy adults.