Groups whose research is focused in the area of Development, Plasticity, and Repair are interested in dissecting the cellular and molecular mechanisms that pattern the nervous system during development and following disease or injury.
In the Neuroscience Training Program, students use model systems such as Drosophila, zebrafish, and mice, as well as cutting-edge methods in vitro and in vivo to understand how individual molecules function in a variety of processes important for neural development.
Some specific areas of focus include:
- differentiation of specific neuronal and glial cell types
- axon pathfinding and the formation of neural connections
- neural patterning during nervous system development
- regeneration of axons following injury
- synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus
- vascular development and changes with disease
- nervous system response to stroke
- neural control of respiration
- embryonic and adult neural stem cell proliferation, growth, and differentiation
- CNS cell-type specific reprogramming in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)
