Institute of Neurological Sciences

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				Anesthesia \| Animal Biology \| Biochemistry and Biophysics \| Bioengineering \| Biology \| Cell & Developmental Biology \| Clinical Science/Vet School \| Drexel University\| Electrical Engineering \| Emergency Medicine \| Endocrinology \| Genetics \| Medicine \| Microbiology \| Monell Chemical Senses Center \| Neurology \| Neuroscience \| Neurosurgery \|Ophthalmology \| Oral Surgery \| Otorhinolaryngology \| Pathobiology/Vet \| Pathology/Dental \| Pathology & Lab Medicine \| Pathology & Medical Genetics/Vet \| Pediatrics/CHOP \| Pharmacology \| Pharmacology/Dental \| Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation \| Physiology \| Physiology/Nursing \|Psychiatry \| Psychology \| Radiology \| Wistar Institute Top of page Anesthesia William M. Armstead, PhD Control of cerebral hemodynamics during physiologic and pathologic conditions such as traumatic brain injury and cerebral ischemia/reperfusion Max B. Kelz, MD, PhD Genetic approaches to study the molecular and cellular basis of anesthetic induced loss of consciousness Top of page Animal Biology Tracy L. Bale, PhD Examine the effects of stress sensitivity on the development and treatment of depression. Determine the molecular mechanisms by which stress factors influence appetite and metabolism. Examine the effects of maternal stress-sensitivity on fetal development and long-term physiological and behavioral responses. Kendra Bence, PhD Elucidate the role of tyrosine phosphatases in CNS control of feeding, energy expenditure, and metabolism through the use of genetic mouse models; phosphatase regulation of cell signaling pathways Steven J. Fluharty, PhD Regulation of neuropeptide receptor gene expression and signal transduction in cultured neuronal cells and behaving animals Leszek K. Kubin, PhD Arousal; motor control; neural control of breathing; neurophysiology of sleep; raphe nuclei; REM sleep; serotonergic and adrenergic receptors Richard R. Miselis, VMD, PhD Neuroanatomy; visceral neuraxis; ingestive behaviors; homeostasis Adrian R. Morrison, DVM, PhD Neural control of sleep and wakefulness Jean-Pierre Saint-Jeannet, PhD Regulation of cell diversity in the developing spinal cord Top of page Biochemistry and Biophysics Roland G. Kallen, MD, PhD Ion channel mediated transmembrane signal transduction. What do channels look like, how do they work in the presence and absence of modifiers and what regulates their expression of voltage-sensitive sodium channels in normal and pathologic states? Harry Ischiropoulos, Ph.D. Oxidative stress, post-translational protein modifications and protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases. Non-invasive discovery and validation of disease biomarkers. Paul A. Liebman, MD Visual receptor transduction biochemistry and related neural receptor signalling systems Top of page Bioengineering Gershon Buchsbaum, PhD Visual signal processing and image coding, modeling of retinal and visual system architecture and function, computational neuroscience and neural networks Top of page Biology Ted Abel, PhD Genetic approaches to study the molecular basis of synaptic plasticity, memory storage and sleep/wake regulation Nancy Bonini, PhD Molecular genetics of neurodegenerative disease Dorothy L. Cheney, PhD Social behavior and vocal communication of free-ranging birds and mammals, especially nonhuman primates. Marc Schmidt, PhD Encoding of complex motor behaviors; auditory/motor integration; neural basis of vocal learning Top of page Cell & Developmental Biology Michael Granato, PhD Genetic control of axonal guidance and neural circuit formation in the zebrafish embryo Daniel S. Kessler, PhD Vertebrate development; signal transduction; transcriptional regulation; primary germ layers; Spemann's organizer. Top of page Clinical Science/Vet School Joan C. Hendricks, PhD Behavioral, gene expression profiling, and biochemical assays to characterize correlates of states of arousal in Drosophila; mutagenesis to identify genes involved in sleep-like rest homeostasis; drug testing and mutagenesis for novel mechanisms of wake promotion Thomas D. Parsons, VMD, PhD Cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter release Drexel University Graham Ellis-Davies, PhD The research in the Ellis-Davies group involves a multi-disciplinary approach to answering questions intracellular signalling using a combination of organic synthesis, photophysical techniques and applications of the photo-bioprobes to particular questions in cell physiology and neuroscience. Top of page Electrical Engineering Nader Engheta, PhD Biologically inspired polarization imaging and applications, electromagnetics, optics, electromagnetic aspects of brain cortical potentials Nabil H. Farhat, PhD The focus of my research is in Corticonics where I am applying concepts and tools from nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation theory, self-organized criticality, complexity, and chaos to the modeling and study of the cortex. In corticonics (echoing electronics) I am concerned with developing a dynamical approach to understanding the cortex and its collective codes for information processing Daniel D. Lee, PhD Computational neuroscience models, theoretical foundations of machine learning algorithms, as well as constructing real-time intelligent robotic systems Santosh S. Venkatesh, PhD Neural networks; statistical pattern recognition; computational learning theory; information and complexity theory Top of page Emergency Medicine Robert W. Neumar, MD, PhD Mechanisms of neuronal injury after cardiac arrest and stroke. Current research projects include investigation of: 1) the mechanism and consequences of disrupted calcium homeostasis in post-ischemic neurons, 2) the role of calpain and caspase proteolytic cascades in post-ischemic neuronal death. Top of page Endocrinology Rexford S. Ahima, MD, PhD Neural circuits for feeding and body weight regulation; interrelationship between central energy homeostatic mechanisms and hormones; neural basis of metabolic phenotypes Top of page Genetics Maja Bucan, PhD Genetic dissection of complex behaviors in mice; Functional genomics Top of page Top of page Medicine Joan C. Hendricks, PhD Behavioral, gene expression profiling, and biochemical assays to characterize correlates of states of arousal in Drosophila; mutagenesis to identify genes involved in sleep-like rest homeostasis; drug testing and mutagenesis for novel mechanisms of wake promotion Peter S. Klein, MD, PhD Mechanism of lithium action in behavior and development, Wnt signaling in vertebrate embryogenesis and neuronal signal transduction Scott A. Mackler, MD, PhD Molecular mechanisms of cocaine addiction Scott Manaker, MD, PhD Neural control of respiration, central integration of autonomic functions; brainstem neuroanatomy and neuropharmacology. Allan I. Pack, MD, PhD Neural control of respiration; effect of sleep on neural control of respiration, sleep apnea syndrome Top of page Microbiology Nigel W. Fraser, PhD Mechanisms of Herpes Simplex Virus latency and reactivation: application to gene transfer and cancer therapy Top of page Monell Chemical Senses Center Mark I. Friedman, PhD Metabolic control of feeding behavior; overeating and obesity Alan Gelperin, PhD Synaptic plasticity and learning. Olfactory information processing in the CNS. Electronic olfaction. Computational neuroscience. Charles C. Horn, PhD Feeding behavior; Nausea and vomiting; Drug side effects; Obesity; Diabetes; Nutrition; Taste; Peripheral nervous system; Systems neuroscience John H. Teeter, PhD Chemosensory transduction; synaptic organization of taste buds; pheromone communication; orientation to chemosensory cues Top of page Neurology Geoffrey K. Aguirre, MD, PhD The cognitive neuroscience of higher-level visual function, recovery of visual function following focal brain lesion or after treatment of ophthalmologic disease, perceptual learning Steven E. Arnold, MD Cellular and molecular neurobiology of schizophrenia and mood disorders, aging and neurodegenerative dementias Arthur Asbury, MD Peripheral nerve disorders - clinical and experimental Mark J. Brown, MD Peripheral nerve structure and function; diabetic and other peripheral neuropathies Anjan Chatterjee, MD The cognitive neuroscience of spatial attention and representation, the neural basis of language, and the relationship of space and language Akiva Cohen, PhD Injury-induced altered brain excitability, circuit rearrangement and synaptic function Edward C. Cooper, MD, PhD Regulatory mechanisms of ion channels; localization of ion channels in the mammalian CNS; molecular mechanisms through which abnormalities of CNS ion channels contribute to neurological disease H. Branch Coslett, MD My research is directed at understanding the architecture and neural bases for human cognition Peter B. Crino, MD, PhD Cortical maldevelopment as it relates to epilepsy, mental retardation, and autism; The Tuberous Sclerosis Complex; Brain tumors Josep Dalmau, MD, PhD Cancer induced neuroimmunological disorders, called paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes. John A. Detre, MD Cerebral blood flow and metabolism under normal and pathophysiological conditions; functional activation of human brain; cerebrovascular disease and stroke modeling Marc A. Dichter, MD, PhD Epilepsy; cortical physiology; regulation of synaptic function; Francisco A. González-Scarano, MD Viral determinants of neurotropism in two systems: human immunodeficiency virus and La Crosse Bunyavirus Joel H. Greenberg, PhD Cerebrovascular physiology in both normal states and pathophysiological states; positron emission tomography; metabolic tissue changes during cerebral ischemia; activation-flow coupling Judith B. Grinspan, PhD Origin and development of oligodendroglia and synthesis of myelin; control of proliferation, differentiation and survival of the oligodendroglial lineage; plasticity of oligodendroglia; programmed cell death in myelinating cells. Murray Grossman, MD, EdD Evaluating the cognitive and physiological basis for language and communicative processing in humans Brian Litt, MD Care and treatment of individuals with epilepsy and encompasses a number of related projects David R. Lynch, MD NMDA receptors Martin Reivich, MD Cerebral blood flow and metabolism and their regulation; cerebrovascular disorders; positron emission tomography; neuroreceptors Myrna R. Rosenfeld, MD, PhD Cancer induced neuroimmunological disorders, called paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes. Michael E. Selzer, MD, PhD Spinal cord regeneration in lamprey Steve Scherer, MD, PhD Axon-Schwann cell interactions in developing and regenerating peripheral nerve Donald Silberberg, MD Multiple sclerosis and related disorders, and on metabolic causes of neonatal injury Top of page Neuroscience Rita Balice-Gordon, PhD Activity-dependent synaptic plasticity during neural development, using neuromuscular and cns synapses as model systems; neurotrophic and other cell-cell signaling mechanisms underlying synapse formation and maintenance Greg Bashaw, PhD Molecular mechanisms of axon growth and guidance during nervous system development. We are interested specifically in how axon guidance receptors specify attractive and repulsive signals and transmit these signals to the navigating growth cone to generate a directed motile response. Diego Contreras, MD, PhD Representation of information in cortical and thalamocortical networks Matthew Dalva, PhD Cellular and molecular mechanisms guiding the process of synapse formation between CNS neurons; Roles of activity-dependent and activity-independent cues in cell-cell interaction in synapse development Tanya S. Ferguson, PhD Examining neurotransmission by studying proteins that interact and modulate the function of ion channels, transporters and pumps Marcos Frank, PhD The function of sleep in developing and adult animals Michael Freed, PhD Detailed structure of the retina's neural circuitry; Encoding of visual information by the retina George L. Gerstein, PhD Representationof information in auditory and visual systems, particularly with reference to function of assemblies of neurons; models of neuronal networks Joshua Gold, PhD How the brain forms decisions about sensory stimuli: What are the underlying neural computations? Where are the circuits that perform these computations? How are these circuits shaped by experience Kyunghee Koh, PhD Molecular genetics of sleep and circadian rhythms in Drosophila Irwin B. Levitan, PhD Modulation of neuronal activity and neuronal ion channels Jon M. Lindstrom, PhD The structure of nicotinic acetylocholine receptors from muscles and nerves; the autoimmune response to muscle nicotinic receptors in myasthenia gravis Minghong Ma, PhD Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the sense of smell. Michael Nusbaum, PhD Neural network modulation; motor pattern selection from multifunctional networks; local, presynaptic influences; neuropeptide function Ana Lia Obaid, PhD Optical measurements of electrical activity; excitation-secretion coupling; simple nervous systems in vitro; enteric nervous system Larry A. Palmer, PhD Cortical circuits mediating direction and orientation selective responses and responses from outside the classical receptive field in visual cortex Jonathan A. Raper, PhD Developmental neurobiology, axon guidance, synapse formation Alan C. Rosenquist, PhD Anatomy and physiology of the visual system Brian Salzberg, PhD Optical probes of membrane potential Amita Sehgal, PhD Genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms in Drosophila Robert G. Smith, PhD Understanding how the structure and biophysical properties of a neuron influence the signal processing function of the surrounding neural circuit Peter Sterling, PhD Microcircuitry of the visual system Noga Vardi, PhD Retinal processing - how anatomical and chemical circuit architecture code and transfer information Top of page Neurosurgery Gordon H. Baltuch, MD, PhD, FRCSC Novel surgical strategies for the treatment of epilepsy and degenerative diseases; the biology of glia in disease Peter D. LeRoux, MD, FACS Dissociated and organotypic culture, immunohistochemistry, cell biology, protein biochemistry Frank A. Welsh, PhD Molecular mechanisms of ischemic brain damage. Treatment of the ischemic brain. Role of stress proteins in the cellular defense against ischemia. Development of RNA therapy to overexpress specific proteins in the brain Top of page Ophthalmology Jean Bennett, MD, PhD Genetics, pathology and treatment of inherited retinal degenerations Joshua Dunaeif, MD, PhD Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), oxidative stress in retinal disease, retinal iron metabolism, apoptosis in the retina. Alan M. Laties, MD Ocular anatomy and physiology; myopia Eric A. Pierce, MD, PhD Molecular bases of inherited retinal degenerations Edward N. Pugh, PhD Photoreceptor transduction in rods and cones; early processes in human color vision; polarization vision in vertebrates; "polarization contrast" vision Richard A. Stone, MD Ocular pharmacology and innervation; neural regulation of eye growth and refractive error Top of page Oral Surgery Elliot V. Hersh, DMD, MS, PHD Randomized controlled clinical trials of analgesic and local anesthetic agents Top of page Otorhinolaryngology Bryan Crenshaw, PhD Analysis of the role of developmental regulatory factors during mouse embryonic development Richard L. Doty, PhD Olfaction; neuro-psychopharmacology; dementia-related diseases; chemosensory psychophysics Michael Anne Gratton, PhD Igor L. Kratskin, MD, PhD Neurobiology of olfaction; centrifugal innervation of the olfactory bulb; function of taurine in olfactory structures; olfactory bulb in health and disease Top of page Pathobiology/Vet Alan M. Kelly, BVSc, MRCVS, PhD Development of neuromuscular specialization Top of page Pathology/Dental Kelley L. Jordan-Sciutto, PhD Assessing mechanisms of neuronal death (apoptosis vs necrosis in response to neuroinflammotry mechanisms and oxidative stress and protection by neurotrophins to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal loss in neurodegenerative Disorders (i.e. Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's disease, and HIV encephalitis). We are specifically interested in the role of cell cycle proteins and transcriptional regulators in neuronal survival decisions. Top of page Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Youhai Chen, MD, PhD Autoimmunity, apoptosis, and gene therapy Mark S. Forman, MD, PhD Molecular pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease with emphasis on the frontotemporal dementias; role of glial cells; ubiquitin-proteasome system. Jeffrey A. Golden, MD Patterning and Cell Migration in the Developing Nervous System Nicholas K. Gonatas, MD Intrinsic membrane proteins of the neuronal Golgi apparatus; involvement of the organelle in the pathogenesis of motor neuron disease Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD Biology of tau, synucleins and amyloid beta precursor proteins (APPs) in health and disease William W. Schlaepfer, MD Post-transcriptional regulatory pathways leading to motor neuron degeneration John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD Protein misfolding and brain amyloidosis in aging and neurodegenerative diseases Top of page Pathology and Medical Genetics/Vet John H. Wolfe, VMD, PhD Somatic gene transfer and therapy for the central nervous system Top of page Pediatrics/CHOP Steven Altschuler, MD Sheryl G. Beck, PhD Effects of stress, antidepressants and corticosteroids on serotonergic-limbic system pathways Russel Buono, PhD Genetics of complex neurologic and psychiatric disease; (2) oxygen controlled gene regulation Douglas A. Coulter, PhD Epilepsy, neuronal excitability, CNS rhythm generation, GABA receptors, development of neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels, synaptic function Jeffrey A. Golden, MD Patterning and Cell Migration in the Developing Nervous System Harry Ischiropoulos, Ph.D. Oxidative stress, post-translational protein modifications and protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases. Non-invasive discovery and validation of disease biomarkers. Robert Kalb, MD Biology of nerve cells in the vertebrate central nervous system Brenda Porter, MD, PhD I am interested in understanding the cellular and molecular changes that contribute to the development of epilepsy in the immature brain Michael Robinson, PhD Signaling pathways that regulate glutamate transporters and the relationship of these transporters to acute brain injury Rita J. Valentino, Ph.D. Neurobiology of stress and mechanisms of stress-related psychiatric disorders; central control of visceral functions Top of page Pharmacology Julie Blendy, PhD Molecular basis of drug abuse James H. Eberwine, PhD Molecular basis of neuronal adaptation with emphasis on the following adaptive processes; tetanic potentiation, glucocorticoid-induced, age-induced as well as opiate-induced adaptation Irwin Lucki, PhD (1) Behavioral pharmacology; (2) Mechanism of action of antidepressant and antianxiety medications; (3) Stress neurobiology and psychiatric disorders Randall N. Pittman, PhD Polyglutamine repeat neurodegenerative diseases and cell signaling in the execution phase of apoptosis Teresa Reyes, PhD Central nervous system circuitry controlling food intake and metabolism; illness and infection associated anorexia and cachexia; development of obesity and metabolic syndrome in response to in utero programming (maternal and fetal undernutrition, stress or infection) Michael Robinson, PhD Signaling pathways that regulate glutamate transporters and the relationship of these transporters to acute brain injury Robert Siman, PhD Dept of Pharmacology Steven A. Thomas, MD, PhD The roles of neurotransmission in development, neurophysiology and ultimately behavior Top of page Pharmacology/Dental Elliot V. Hersh, DMD, MS, PHD Dept of Oral Surgery and Pharmacology and Director of the Division of Pharmacology and Therapeutics Top of page Physics Vijay Balasubramanian, PhD Dept of Physics Top of page Physiology Clay Armstrong, MD Ionic channels and their gating mechanisms Stephen M. Baylor, MD Excitation-contraction coupling in muscle; measurement of intracellular ionic concentrations Paul J. De Weer, MD, PhD Biochemical and biophysical mechanisms, kinetics, thermodynamics, and structure of the electrogenic sodium pump Kevin Foskett, PhD Dept of Physiology: Molecular physiology of the inositol trisphosphate receptor calcium release channel and the cystic fibrosis chloride channel Erika Holzbaur, PhD Molecular and cellular approaches to study microtubule-based motors and their roles in neuronal transport, vesicular motility, and cell division Toshinori Hoshi, PhD Oxidative regulation of neuronal excitability; ion channel gating; protein oxidative damage and aging Tejvir S. Khurana, MD, PhD Duchenne Muscular dystrophy, Synapse-specific gene regulation, Extraocular muscle, utrophin, myostatin, gene therapy Zhe Lu, MD, PhD Molecular mechanisms of potassium channels and retinal cGMP-activated channels Top of page Physiology/Nursing Nancy Tkacs PhD Neuroendocrine and autonomic responses to pathophysiological challenges; hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure Top of page Psychiatry Jay Amsterdam, MD Dept of Psychiatry Robert Berkowitz, MD Weight and eating disorders Edward S. Brodkin, MD Neurobiology of social behaviors, including aggressive and affiliative behaviors, studied using genetic analysis in mouse model systems. Neurobiology and genetics of autism spectrum disorders Wade Berrettini, MD, PhD Delineating genetic influences on behavior, including behavioral disorders Anna Rose Childress, PhD David F. Dinges, PhD Control of neurobehavioral functions by sleep and circadian processes; cognitive neuroscience and sleep; neuroendocrine and neuroimmune functions Dwight L. Evans, MD Determine if antidepressants, conventional and novel, can benefit HIV infected individuals and extend their survival rate Thomas N. Ferraro, PhD Genetic influences in complex traits and behaviors related to CNS diseases Teresa R. Franklin, PhD Drug craving provoked by stimuli associated with drug use Raquel Gur, MD, PhD Schizophrenia and gender differences in the brain Ruben C. Gur, PhD Human neuropsychology, emotion and cognitive processes, integration of neurobehavioral data with neuroanatomic and neurophysiologic data on regional brain function in healthy, neurologic and psychiatric populations; understanding sex differences in health and disease from a neurodevelopmental perspective Irwin Lucki, PhD (1) Behavioral pharmacology; (2) Mechanism of action of antidepressant and antianxiety medications; (3) Stress neurobiology and psychiatric disorders Caryn Lerman, PhD Human bio-behavioral studies employing laboratory-based methods, cohort studies, and clinical trials to investigate genotype-environment interactions in nicotine dependence Robert D. Nicholls, PhD Genes and imprinting in neurobehavioral syndromes R. Arlen Price, PhD Genetics of complex human traits, partilcularly obesity and psychiatric illness Richard J. Ross, MD, PhD Neuropharmacology of sleep; basic sleep mechanisms; clinical sleep disorders; post-traumatic stress disorder; depression Steven J. Siegel, MD, PhD Neurobiology of schizophrenia and development of new treatment modalities including long term delivery systems Albert J. Stunkard, MD Genetic, psychological, therapeutic and developmental studies of human obesity and eating disorders Top of page Psychology David Brainard, PhD Visual perception and its neural mechanisms; digital image processing Russell Epstein, PhD Neural bases of scene perception and spatial cognition in humans. Martha J. Farah, PhD Neural bases of vision and visual cognition in humans Lori Flanagan-Cato, PhD steroid-induced plasticity of neural circuits to control reproductive and ingestive behaviors Harvey J. Grill, PhD Neural control of nutrient intake; gastrointestinal physiology; pharmacology of intake and gastrointestinal function Amishi Jha, PhD Neural Basis of Human Memory and Attention Michael J. Kahana, PhD Human memory and its neural mechanisms; Brain oscillations Richard Murray, PhD Vvisual psychophysics, spatial vision, perceptual organization, visual attention; natural image statistics in relation to shape from shading and perceptual organization; signal detection theory, ideal decision theory, multiple spatial frequency channel theory Laura L. Peoples, PhD Behavioral pharmacology, neuropharmacology; electrophysiological recordings in freely-moving animals Robert Rescorla, PhD Behavioral study of elementary learning processes, especially Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental training Robert M. Seyfarth, PhD Social behavior and vocal communication of free-ranging birds and mammals, especially nonhuman primates. Saul Sternberg, PhD Human experimental and mathematical psychology Sharon L. Thompson-Schill, PhD Dept of Psychology: Neural bases of memory and language in humans Top of page Radiology Abass Alavi, MD Neuroimaging with positron emission tomography (PET); single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT); magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy Mark Elliott, MD Dept of Radiology Hank F. Kung, PhD Current research interests include 1) developing maging agents for CNS receptors (dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitter systems), 2) agents for imaging Alzheimer's disease, and 3) neuronal functional imaging of the heart Elias R. Melhem, MD Top of page Wistar Institute Kazuko Nishikura, PhD Molecular mechanisms and biological significance of A-to-I RNA editing Top of page Back to MINS Members For general inquiries and information, please contact Jane Hoshi.