Laboratory Research
The Department of Neurosciences spans a broad range of research interests; grouped into three major categories:

I. Several investigators are interested in the earliest periods of neurogenesis and lineage commitment, and are examining stem and progenitor cells in developing and mature brain:

Qiang Lu, Ph.D. – Neural Progenitor/Stem Cells in Brain Development
Dr. Lu’s research is concerned with intercellular signaling by ephrins and Eph receptors and their regulation of neuronal birth and migration during early development of the cerebral cortex.

Yanhong Shi, Ph.D. – Nuclear Receptors in Neural Stem Cells and Adult Neurogenesis
Dr. Shi is studying the nuclear receptors that control generation and differentiation of neural lineage stem cells in the adult nervous system.

Michael E. Barish, Ph.D. – Neurobiology of Development
Dr. Barish is investigating early electrical activity in the developing hippocampus and cortex and its relationship to neural birth, migration and maturation.

II. Several faculty have research foci in neural specification, processes that impart individuality to developing neurons, and in the functioning of mature neurons.

Paul M. Salvaterra, Ph.D. – Molecular Neurobiology
Dr. Salvaterra’s research is focused on the regulation of transmitter phenotype, how gene expression is coordinated to allow synthesis and release of individual neurotransmitters.

Toshifumi Tomoda, M.D., Ph.D.  – Axonal Trafficking / Neurodegeneration
Dr. Tomoda is interested in membrane transport and cycling, and its role in axon and dendrite growth, differentiation of synapses, and stress-induced autophagy.

Kazuo Ikeda, Ph.D. – Neurophysiology
Dr. Ikeda studies the mechanisms of synaptic transmission and plasticity, focusing on endocytosis of synaptic vesicle membrane from presynaptic terminals and processes of recovery from vesicle depletion as a consequence of activity.

III. Several faculty members also have projects that relate their fundamental research interests to mechanisms underlying diseases of the human nervous system.

• Dr. Paul Salvaterra is developing Drosophila models for Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases. 
• Dr. Lu is examining how alteration in the neural stem cell decision to proliferate or differentiate controlled by ephrin/Eph receptor signaling may be involved in the earliest stages of tumorigenesis. 
• Dr. Tomoda is investigating possible connections between genes involved in membrane cycling and autophagy, and several diseases including Huntington’s and schizophrenia. 
• Dr. Barish, in collaboration with Dr. Aboody (Hematology/HCT) and Dr. Glackin, is examining the molecular mechanisms of neural progenitor cell migration to glioma and tumors outside the brain, and targeting of these tumors with genetically-modified therapeutics using immortalized neural progenitor cells.
• Dr. Carlotta Glackin and her laboratory are investigating the molecular mechanisms of a bHLH transcription factor, TWIST, in regulating cellular invasiveness. Understanding these mechanisms has allowed her laboratory to develop novel genetically-modified therapeutics that interferes with TWIST function to competitively inhibit cellular invasion of tumor cells.