|
 Neurobiology of Disease
The Neurology and Psychiatry departments in our medical school are both among the foremost clinical research departments in the nation and together represent a valuable resource and an integral part of our neuroscience program. These departments are complimented by strong divisions of Neurosurgery, Neuropathology, and Neuroradiology. Staffed by clinician-investigators trained in both the clinical care of neurologic and psychiatric disorders and in the techniques of modern research, these programs house programs dealing with the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases of the nervous system including AIDS, epilepsy, cerebrovascular disease and stroke, neuromuscular disease, and the pathobiology of dimentia,schizophrenia, and affective disorders. Each program involves active collaboration among clinicians, clinician-investigators, and basic scientists. They provide a unique training opportunity for the graduate student or postdoctoral fellow interested in research in the clinical neurosciences.
Labs at Penn that have neurobiology of disease projects:
Ted Abel, PhD Genetic approaches to study the molecular basis of synaptic plasticity, memory storage and sleep/wake regulation
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.
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.
Abass Alavi, MD Neuroimaging with positron emission tomography (PET); single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT); magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy
Arthur Asbury, MD Peripheral nerve disorders - clinical and experimental
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.
Gordon H. Baltuch, MD, PhD FRCSC Novel surgical strategies for the treatment of epilepsy and degenerative diseases; the biology of glia in disease
Sheryl G. Beck, PhD Neurocircuitry underlying stress and stress related pathology such as depression and anxiety; whole cell electrophysiology with anatomy, behavior and molecular analysis, serotonin neurotransmitter system; stress and sex hormones
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
Jean Bennett, MD, PhD Genetics, pathology and treatment of inherited retinal degenerations
Wade Berrettini, MD, PhD Delineating genetic influences on behavior, including behavioral disorders
Julie Blendy, PhD Molecular and genetic mechanism underlying addiction and depression
Nancy Bonini, PhD Molecular genetics of neurodegenerative disease
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
Mark J. Brown, MD Peripheral nerve structure and function; diabetic and other peripheral neuropathies
Youhai Chen, MD, PhD Autoimmunity, apoptosis, gene therapy, multiple sclerosis, and neuroimmunology
Akiva Cohen, PhD Injury-induced altered brain excitability, circuit rearrangement and synaptic function
Douglas A. Coulter, PhD Epilepsy, neuronal excitability, CNS rhythm generation, GABA receptors, development of neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels, synaptic function
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.
Richard O. Davies, DVM, PhD Neural control of respiration; upper airway function; sleep apnea; motor control
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;
Richard L. Doty, PhD Olfaction; neuro-psychopharmacology; dementia-related diseases; chemosensory psychophysics
Joshua Dunaief, MD, PhD Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), oxidative stress in retinal disease, retinal iron metabolism, apoptosis in the retina.
Martha J. Farah, PhD Neural bases of vision and visual cognition in humans
Thomas N. Ferraro, PhD Genetic influences in complex traits and behaviors
Mark S. Forman, MD, PhD Molecular pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease with emphasis on the frontotemporal dementias; role of glial cells; ubiquitin-proteasome system.
Nigel W. Fraser, PhD Mechanisms of Herpes Simplex Virus latency and reactivation: application to gene transfer and cancer therapy Francisco A. González-Scarano, MD Viral determinants of neurotropism in two systems: human immunodeficiency virus and La Crosse Bunyavirus
Michael Anne Gratton, PhD Dept of Otorhinolaryngology:
Joel H. Greenberg, PhD Cerebrovascular physiology in both normal states and pathophysiological states; positron emission tomography; measurement of nitric oxide in vivo
Michael Granato, PhD Genetic control of axonal guidance in the zebrafish; the zebrafish as a model system for motor behavior regulation in psychiatric diseases
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
Harry Ischiropoulos, PhD Oxidative stress, post-translational protein modifications and protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases. Non-invasive discovery and validation of disease biomarkers.
Kelly 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.
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?
Alan M. Kelly, BVSc, MRCVS, PhD Development of neuromuscular specialization
Peter S. Klein, MD, PhD Mechanism of lithium action in behavior and development, Wnt signaling in vertebrate embryogenesis and neuronal signal transduction
Leszek K. Kubin, PhD Respiratory, sleep and metabolic disorders associated with the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome
Hank F. Kung, PhD Current research interests include 1) developing imaging agents for CNS receptors (dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitter systems), 2) agents for imaging Alzheimer's disease, and 3) neuronal functional imaging of the heart
Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD Biology of tau, synucleins and amyloid beta precursor proteins (APPs) in health and disease
Peter Le Roux, MD, FACS Dendrites, neurodevelopment, bone morphogenetic proteins, glutamate excitotoxicity, neural regeneration
Paul A. Liebman, MD Visual receptor transduction biochemistry and related neural receptor signalling systems Irwin Lucki, PhD Behavioral functions associated with specific brain monoamine receptors David R. Lynch, MD NMDA receptors Scott A. Mackler, MD/PhD Molecular mechanisms of cocaine addiction
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.
Charles P. O'Brien, MD, PhD Pre-clinical and clinical psychopharmacology; mechanisms of drug dependence; endogenous opioids; conditioning; pharmacological treatment of addictive disorders
Allan I. Pack, MD, PhD Neural control of respiration; effect of sleep on neural control of respiration, sleep apnea syndrome
Randall N. Pittman, PhD Polyglutamine repeat neurodegenerative diseases and cell signaling in the execution phase of apoptosis.
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
R. Arlen Price, PhD Genetics of complex human traits, partilcularly obesity and psychiatric illness Martin Reivich, MD Cerebral blood flow and metabolism and their regulation; cerebrovascular disorders; positron emission tomography; neuroreceptors
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 Regulation of excitatory neurotransmitters and excitoxicity
Myrna R. Rosenfeld, MD, PhD Cancer induced neuroimmunological disorders, called paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes.
Richard J. Ross, MD, PhD Neuropharmacology of sleep; basic sleep mechanisms; clinical sleep disorders; post-traumatic stress disorder; depression
William W. Schlaepfer, MD Mechanisms whereby overexpression of a destabilizing element in NF-L RNA or cognate RNA-binding proteins lead to motor neuron degeneration
Steven Scherer, MD, PhD The molecular and cellular basis of inherited neuropathies
Michael E. Selzer, MD, PhD Spinal cord regeneration in lamprey
Donald Silberberg, MD Etiology and pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis
Richard A. Stone, MD Ocular pharmacology and innervation; neural regulation of eye growth and refractive error
Albert J. Stunkard, MD Genetic, psychological, therapeutic and developmental studies of human obesity and eating disorders
John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD Protein misfolding and brain amyloidosis in aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
Rita J. Valentino, Ph.D. Department of Pediatrics: Neurobiology of stress and mechanisms of stress-related psychiatric disorders; central control of visceral functions
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.
back to areas of research
|
