Sensory perception; molecular and neural basis of olfaction and taste in Drosophila

Human visual attention; associative learning; eye movements; addiction; neuroimaging

Cerebellar structure and networks in humans; motor and cognitive behavior; aging; neuroimaging

Neuropsychiatric disorders; physical/emotional stress; development; adolescence; animal models; second messenger systems

Genetics and genomics, impact of viral infection and environmental exposure on neurological diseases, immunology

Developmental affective neuroscience; emotional development; biomarkers of risk for mental illness; transgenerational transmission of risk

Physiology of reproduction

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); neuroimmunology; redox biology; physiology

Neural mechanisms of learning and adaptive decision-making; cortex-basal ganglia circuits; effects of alcohol and drugs on behavioral flexibility

NMDA receptors, glutamate delta 1-cerebellin1 trans-synaptic signaling; neural circuit analysis, slice electrophysiology, optogenetics, confocal imaging; mouse models of chronic pain, Parkinsonism, autism, drug addiction; biologics, peptide and small molecule drug discovery

Spinal cord injury; neural stem cell transplantation; connectivity mapping

Emotional development; Cellular and molecular mechanisms of mental and neurological diseases; rodent models

Astrocyte function, astrocyte-neuron interactions, molecular mechanisms of synapse development, mood disorders, rodent models.

Development of next-generation neurotechnologies for improved diagnosis, monitoring, and adaptive treatment of neurological diseases.

Learning, pain modulation, and recovery of function after spinal cord injuries in rodent models

Micro/nano systems for cellular and molecular analysis; microfluidics; lab-on-a-chip; organ-on-a-chip

Molecular genetics of biological clocks; Drosophila

Recovery of function; spinal cord plasticity; drug addiction; rodent models

Spinal cord injury; plasticity

Neural circuits underlying circadian rhythms in behavior and physiology; in vivo and in vitro imaging; rodent models

Neurophysiology, K+ Channels; Oxytocin and Vasopressin; Somatodendritic Exocytosis; Calcium Signaling; Heart Failure

Diabetic retinopathy; novel bioactive peptides; circadian regulation of retinal physiology; signal transduction and ion channel regulation

Sleep and wakefulness regulation, circadian clock, chronic stress, social isolation, learning and memory, genetics and genomics, in vivo imaging, genetic model organisms.

Glial biology; neuron-glia interactions; neuroinflammation; demyelinating diseases; myelin regeneration; mouse models

Emotions, stress and stress-related disorders; Regulation and dysregulation of stress response systems; Cognitive, functional neuroimaging, neuroendocrine and genetic approaches.

The neural basis of behavioral aging, individuality, and evolution; expansion-light-microscopy-based connectomics

Emotions in psychiatric health and disease; cognitive factors; neuroimaging and psychophysiology in humans

Stem cells, prenatal exposures, developmental origins of health across the lifespan, miRNAs

Cognitive underpinnings of law—how people create, understand, and reason with legal rules and concepts—as well as how emerging technologies affect those processes. To study these questions, I integrate doctrinal legal analysis with behavioral experiments, computational modeling, corpus analysis, and neuroimaging.

Disparities in pain in humans; social and cultural factors affecting pain experience and pain physiology

Spinal cord injury; mechanisms of acute inflammation; 3D imaging and circuit mapping

Fetal brain development; microRNAs; stem cells; alcohol; teratology; ovine, murine, zebrafish, neural stem models

Memory systems; psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of emotional memory; rodent models

Neural mechanisms of pain, reward, and addiction; opioid and cannabinoid signaling; neurodegeneration; effects of chronic pain and aging on motivated behavior

chronic orofacial pain, trigeminal system, preclinical pain models, TMJ disorders, trigeminal neuralgia, opioids, cannabinoids, chronic pain, substance use

Voluntary task selection behavior; prefrontal cortex; neuroimaging; addiction and psychosis in humans

Developmental biology; glycosylation and cell interactions

Cellular and circuit mechanisms of traumatic brain injury and epilepsy in awake, freely behaving animals; synaptic plasticity; slice electrophysiology; two-photon imaging

Translational pharmacology and neurotherapeutics for epilepsy and brain disorders; rodent models

Synapse formation, maintenance, and pathology; neuromuscular junction; mouse molecular genetics

Neuroanatomical, neuropathological, neuroimmune and peripheral contributions to neurodegenerative disorders, traumatic brain injury and epilepsy.

How parental substance use and prenatal exposures shape brain development and behavior across the lifespan, alcohol and cannabinoids, combined exposures, sex differences, and vulnerability to later alcohol use. Behavioral, molecular, and neural circuit approaches.

NF-kB regulatory proteins in cancer cells; gliomas; in vitro and animal models

Neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying drug addiction and compulsive drug use; maladaptive behavior; rodent models

Neurobiology and evolution of animal communication; echolocation in bats; neurocircuitry and behavior

Women's health and aging; hormones; stroke and blood brain barrier function; animal models

Uncovering early aspects of dementia (Alzheimer’s disease) and mechanisms of age-related cognitive impairment.

How people explore ideas, align opinions, and resolve conflict through conversation. fMRI hyperscanning, natural language processing, and computational modeling to understand how human (or artifical) minds become coupled in naturalistic interactions.
How conversation dynamics change across different internal states, social contexts, and clinical populations. For example, how substances such as alcohol may alter interpersonal alignment and exploration; how contexts such as dating shape the way people coordinate, disclose, and evaluate one another; and how these dynamics unfold in populations characterized by social difficulties, such as individuals with social anxiety.

Neurodegeneration, Parkinson’s disease, astrocytes and nicotine neuroprotection.

Obesity, diabetes, aging and Alzheimer's disease

Molecular mechanisms and neurocircuitry underlying substance use disorders; rodent models

Higher-order cognitive functions across adulthood, brain and cognitive aging, Alzheimer’s disease, non-pharmacological interventions, neuroimaging

Brain extracellular matrix (ECM), perineuronal nets (PNN), neuroplasticity, brain development, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease,

Molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation; HIV and Alzheimer's disease; effects of circadian disruption and psychostimulant exposure on brain function

Neurocognitive aspects of human language functioning; brain lateralization of language and bilingualism; language disorders

Neural circuit mechanisms of drug (cocaine & opioid) and alcohol addiction and Alzheimer's disease; synaptic transmission and plasticity; slice electrophysiology; basal ganglia; rodent models.

Protein structure and neurological disease; ion channels in animals and bacteria; molecular structure

Neuroimmunology; viral pathogenesis; animal models and therapies for autoimmune diseases

Nicotine; nicotinic receptors; brain development; gene-environment interactions; in vitro and rat models

Human development and learning; biometrics in social and health sciences; self-regulation

Glial function in health and disease; astrocyte role in neural circuits; neurodegeneration; anion channels; electrophysiology; rodent models

Gait, balance, dynamic systems theory, biological rhythms, resiliency in aging.

Biological basis of mental illness; PTSD; depression; schizophrenia; autism; clinical populations

Development and function of sensory-motor circuits controlling locomotor behaviors and action selection, Behavioral neurogenetics, Transcriptional regulation of neuronal properties