About Us

The primary focus of research in our laboratory is to develop a detailed understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in regulating chemical and electrical signaling in the central nervous system.

Such changes in neuronal function are likely to play important roles in all normal physiological processes in the brain and are critical for development of a variety of brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, epilepsy, drug dependence and other neurological and psychiatric disorders.

We are especially interested in understanding how signaling is regulated in identified neuronal circuits that are important for these human neurological and psychiatric disorders. This is a highly multidisciplinary endeavor in which we employ a broad range of techniques including electrophysiology, biochemistry, imaging, anatomy, molecular biology, and behavioral techniques. In addition, we employ high throughput screening (HTS), cheminformatics, and medicinal chemistry of novel small molecule reagents that aid in validating novel therapeutic approaches and in understanding the biology of signaling in the central nervous system.