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Members

Leadership


  • Ted Abel, PhD

    Director - Iowa Neuroscience Institute

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Psychiatry, Biochemistry, Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The primary focus of research in the Abel lab is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of long-term memory storage with a focus on the mammalian hippocampus. One of the hallmarks of long-term memory storage is that it requires the synthesis of new genes and new proteins, which act to alter the strength of synaptic connections within appropriate neuronal circuits in the brain. How are the various signals acting on a neuron integrated to give rise to appropriate changes in gene expression? How are changes in gene expression maintained to sustain memories for days, months and even years? What role does sleep play in memory storage? How is hippocampal function altered in mouse models of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders?


  • Christopher A. Ahern, PhD

    Molecular Physiology and Biophysics

    The Ahern lab uses chemical biology to study the ion channel proteins that support human motion, thought and the perception of our environment.  Inherited or acquired defects in ion channels cause a myriad of human diseases - such as epilepsy, pain syndromes, cognitive disabilities and muscle disorders - making them high value targets for therapeutic development.  We currently employ atomic scale analysis of ion channels through the synthesis and encoding of tailor-made amino acids with new functionalities, thus keeping pace with ongoing structural and computational breakthroughs.  We are currently focused on understanding how sodium channels are trafficking and composed in neuronal tissues, the basis for voltage-dependent gating, and elucidating the mechanisms of new therapeutics for pain management – with an eye adapting our chemical approaches to complex cell types and model systems. 


  • Georgina Aldridge, MD, PhD

    Neurology

    Dr. Georgina Aldridge is a neurologist and neuroscientist whose specializes in treating and diagnosing patients with cognitive disorders, including those with Lewy Body dementia and Parkinson's disease dementia. In these patients, the protein alpha-synuclein aggregates, leading to severe multi-system symptoms, including hallucinations, loss of smell, dementia, imbalance, fluctuating confusion, and anxiety/depression. The main goal of the Aldridge laboratory is to understand the role that pathology and protein misfolding in the cortex plays in the development of these symptoms. Aldridge and her team use 2-photon microscopy to image neuronal structure (dendritic spines, dendrites, and axons) and function (calcium imaging) over time in living mice to evaluate how alpha-synuclein and other proteins involved in neurodegenerative conditions lead to changes in cortical function.


  • Zahra Aminzare, PhD

    Mathematics

    Dr. Aminzare is interested in employing and developing mathematical models,  dynamical systems techniques, and numerical simulations to better understand the collective behavior of coupled cell networks. The main goal of this research is to study the effect of the intrinsic dynamics of network elements and their coupling interactions on the emergence of various patterns in networks. Part of my work is motivated by neuroscience applications, such as understanding the activity of central pattern generator networks in insects by studying the underlying mechanisms of gait patterns in insects and transition between the gaits. I am also interested in understanding the collective behavior of bacteria such as E. coli in response to external signals and the dynamics of their decision-making in response to multiple external signals.


  • Nancy Andreasen, MD, PhD

    Psychiatry (Emerita)

    The Andreasen lab focuses primarily on the study of mental illnesses, especially schizophrenia, but also has interests in mood disorder, disorders of aging, and creativity.  In addition to developing methods for descriptive psychopathology, it makes extensive use of neuroimaging tools.  These include structural and functional Magnetic Resonance imaging, with an emphasis on designing novel imaging protocols for functional imaging.  There is a strong interest in integrating imaging data, cognitive assessments, symptom measures, and genetic data.  The lab maintains a very large data set that includes a prospective longitudinal study that followed a very large cohort of schizophrenia patients for a time period lasting up to 15 years.  Fibroblasts have been obtained from a selected subset of patients which are considered to be especially informative and which are currently used for stem cell studies.  Its creativity research emphasizes the study of individuals who have received major awards (Nobel prize, Pulitzer prize, Fields medal), who are assessed using a novel imaging protocol.


  • Nikolai O. Artemyev, PhD

    Molecular Physiology and Biophysics

    The major research interest in the Artemyev Lab is in understanding the molecular mechanisms of sensory signal transduction via heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins. Heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins (G proteins) transduce a variety of signals from specific cell surface receptors to intracellular effector proteins. The laboratory utilizes one of the best model systems for studying the mechanisms of G protein signaling - the rod photoreceptor visual transduction cascade. Mutations in genes encoding key signaling molecules in photoreceptor cells are often associated with severe retinal disorders. A secondary focus is understanding the mechanisms whereby mutant forms of phototransduction proteins cause retinal diseases.


  • Jose Assouline, PhD

    Biomedical Engineering

    The Assouline Lab is focused on discovery of innovative and technologically advanced ways to diagnose and treat neurological diseases.  One approach is to select appropriate molecular makers (immunological and viral methods). It has been a life-long quest to use non-toxic markers which could be used simultaneously in vitro and in vivo. Our work has focused on silica-based nanoparticles as an ideal molecule for the dual purpose of diagnostic and therapeutic. Applications of this novel nanotechnology in our laboratories are aimed to elucidate fundamental aspects of neural regeneration, malignancy, demyelination diseases and environmental neuro-toxicity. Current ongoing research is dedicated to the improvement of quantitative, real-time measurement of disease processes with specifically targeted nanoparticles.   


  • Deniz Atasoy, PhD

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    The Atasoy Lab is interested in neural circuits that regulate feeding behavior and metabolism with a special emphasis on disease models of obesity and eating disorders. Using a variety of cutting edge circuit dissection approaches, we map and manipulate neuronal networks to understand synaptic and circuit mechanisms of body weight regulation in health and disease. Environmental conditions such as extended exposure to high fat diet, perinatal undernutrition, and aging, along with genetic factors, are well known to influence long term body weight and feeding behavior. A major focus of the lab is to understand cellular and circuit level maladaptations to such disease-state feeding behavior. We use cell type specific transcriptomics in combination with circuit dissection approaches to identify molecular and cellular basis of maladaptations. Dissecting out the molecular level alterations that have causal role in dysregulation of feeding behavior will likely lead to novel candidate targets for therapeutic interventions for obesity and eating disorders. Feeding behavior is also strongly influenced by global neuromodulators such as acetylcholine, serotonin as well as catecholamines. Circuit level mechanisms of how these modulators interact with hypothalamic feeding pathways are poorly understood. We are using transgenic mouse models to gain access to various neuromodulator-expressing neuron populations and to map out their interactions with key appetite regulating neurons.


  • Sheila Baker, PhD

    Biochemistry, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

    The Baker Lab is currently focused on two fundamental questions: how do different ion channels get localized to the correct part of these sensory neurons; and how is the development of the ribbon synapse orchestrated? Vision begins with the capture of photons by photoreceptors, structurally and functionally fine-tuned sensory neurons lining the back of the retina. Photoreceptors are arranged as a linear set of compartments each responsible for photon capture, energy production, membrane potential regulation, homeostasis, or communication. In many respects photoreceptors are extremely fragile and surprisingly work “backwards” from other types of neurons – for instance light does not cause release of neurotransmitter from the synapse, it stops it. Unraveling the details of photoreceptor cellular and molecular biology is needed to improve our ability to save and restore sight. 


  • Bengi Baran, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The overarching goal of Dr. Baran’s research program is to understand the role of sleep in symptoms and cognitive deficits in psychiatric disorders. This work is motivated by two lines of evidence: (1) Sleep oscillations are critical for cognitive processing, emotional regulation and synaptic plasticity, and (2) sleep disruption precedes or precipitates most major psychiatric disorders, contributes to cognitive impairment and putatively plays a causal role in pathogenesis. The Neurodevelopment and Psychopathology (NaP) Lab, directed by Dr. Baran, utilizes multimodal neuroimaging and electrophysiology techniques as well as cognitive testing and clinical assessments to study adult and developmental populations. Our previous work identifies sleep spindle deficits and abnormal connectivity of thalamocortical circuitry as correlated biomarkers of schizophrenia. We are interested in examining the developmental trajectory of the thalamocortical circuitry in individuals who are at familial high risk (i.e. have a first-degree relative with the disorder) or clinical high risk (i.e. exhibit prodromal psychotic symptoms) and characterizing the relations between functional connectivity of this circuitry with sleep physiology and cognition. The significance of this investigation is the potential to provide clues to etiology and actionable targets for treatment. A secondary focus is to identify sleep microstructure abnormalities in children and adults with anxiety disorders and to investigate the role of these oscillations in brain development, cognition and emotional processing.


  • Joseph Barrash, PhD

    Neurology, Psychological and Brain Sciences (Emeritus)

    The primary interest in the Barrash Lab concerns the nature of personality disturbances consequent to development of brain disorders, and issues regarding the assessment of acquired personality disturbances (APD). The method employs the Iowa Scales of Personality Change (ISPC) to obtain ratings of patients from family members with identified neurological conditions. Recent and current projects have investigated APD associated with damage to prefrontal cortex or associated with specific conditions such as behavioral variant-frontotemporal dementia, CVA, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tumors and traumatic brain injury, as well as personality changes associated with normal aging and their functional consequences. Ongoing investigation also aims to identify and validate specific subtypes of personality disturbance resulting from brain damage.


  • Bruce Bartholow, PhD

    Research in Dr. Bartholow’s lab generally focuses on the interplay between salience and cognitive control. This interplay is investigated across several domains, including neurobehavioral factors that contribute to alcohol use and addiction, acute effects of alcohol on cognitive control, and the influences of automatic and controlled processes in person perception and social behaviors. These topics are examined using a multimodal assessment approach that combines self-report, behavioral, and neurophysiological measures, especially event-related brain potentials (ERPs).


  • Alex Bassuk, MD, PhD

    Neurology, Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The Bassuk Laboratory focuses on the molecular biology, protein biochemistry, and genetic mechanisms in human diseases and in animal models. Along with a diverse cross-disciplinary team of researchers at the University of Iowa, we are pursuing a collaborative and innovative approach to use proteomics, fruit flies, zebrafish, and mice to rapidly translate basic science findings into clinical treatments. Our investigative group is well poised to leverage novel in vivo techniques into new treatments for epilepsy and other human diseases.


  • Kim "Avrama" Blackwell, PhD

    Biomedical Engineering

    The Blackwell lab focuses on the computational modeling of calcium dynamics and signaling pathways underlying neuronal plasticity, investigating how spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activity produce changes in synaptic plasticity and the function of neuronal circuits. 


  • Robert Block, PhD

    Anesthesia

    Dr. Block has research interests in adverse effects of exposure to general anesthesia during infancy on childhood brain and cognitive development; chronic and acute effects of drugs of abuse, such as marijuana, on memory and other cognitive functions, and on cognition-related changes in regional cerebral blood flow; cognition-related changes in regional cerebral blood flow; awareness and learning during general anesthesia; effects of general anesthesia on memory; effects of anesthetics (e.g., nitrous oxide) and anesthesia-related drugs (e.g., benzodiazepines) on memory and other cognitive functions.


  • Mark Blumberg, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences, Biology

    Every developing animal must learn to function within the context of an ever-changing body. Typically, investigations of sensorimotor development focus on waking movements. The Blumberg Lab considers another class of behavior: Twitching movements that occur exclusively during active (or REM) sleep. Twitches are particularly abundant in early infancy when critical sensorimotor networks and topographic maps are established. Based on behavioral, electrophysiological, neurophysiological, and computational investigations of this unique behavior, we investigate the roles that sleep and sleep-related twitches play in the development and maintenance of the sensorimotor system, as well as its repair after injury or disease.


  • Aaron Boes, MD, PhD

    Neurology, Pediatrics

    Research in the Boes Lab is at the interface of neuroimaging and noninvasive brain stimulation. The lab uses multi-modal neuroimaging techniques to better understand brain function at a macroscopic network level, and how network dysfunction contributes to clinical symptoms, including symptoms from focal brain lesions. The ultimate goal is to use advanced neuroimaging approaches to guide treatment using noninvasive brain stimulation, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We believe there is tremendous therapeutic potential in the combined use of advanced imaging to detect dysfunctional networks coupled with noninvasive brain stimulation to modulate these networks in a targeted way, which aligns with Dr. Boes's clinical role directing the Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Clinical Program.


  • Ryan Boudreau, PhD

    Internal Medicine

    The Boudreau Lab is currently investigating the role of endogenously-encoded microRNAs and novel micropeptides in Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathogenesis in mice. These projects incorporate a breadth of techniques, including viral-based (AAV) overexpression and inhibition (RNAi) of microRNAs and micropeptides in vivo, generation and characterization of CRISPR-derived knockout mice, and behavioral and neuropathological phenotyping in mice. Overall, the research program is balanced in basic and translational studies, wet-lab and computational methods, and resource- and hypothesis-driven research. This framework promotes multi-disciplinary and collaborative science, offering an excellent environment to foster the growth of current and future trainees, as well as make important biomedical discoveries that may translate to the clinical setting.


  • Gordon Buchanan, MD, PhD

    Neurology

    Research efforts in the Buchanan laboratory are focused on understanding basic mechanisms of epilepsy and sleep-wake regulation. We are particularly interested in the effects of seizures, vigilance state and circadian phase on cardio-respiratory control and how these may interact to lead to death following a seizure, or sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). We employ behavioral, surgical, electrophysiological, molecular, histological, and imaging techniques in conjunction with a variety of seizure induction methods in a variety of mouse models to address our research questions. Our goal is to understand factors that render a given seizure fatal in an effort to help prevent SUDEP. 


  • Kevin Campbell, PhD

    Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Neurology

    The Campbell lab is interested in elucidating mechanisms underlying muscular dystrophy. The lab is currently focused on why O-glycosylation of dystroglycan is essential for this protein’s function as an extracellular matrix receptor, and how abnormalities in the O-glycosylation of dystroglycan cause muscular dystrophy. The goal of this research is to generate new knowledge regarding the function of dystroglycan, to identify and define disease mechanisms that cause muscular dystrophy and to develop therapeutic strategies for these diseases.


  • Calvin Carter, PhD

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    The overarching goal of the Carter Lab is to map the biological effects of electromagnetic fields. We aim to address how fields interact with biology, and how fields may be harnessed to remotely control cellular physiology. We address these questions using an interdisciplinary approach in biomedical engineering, electrochemistry, biochemistry, molecular genetics, and neuroscience.


  • Snehajyoti Chatterjee, PhD

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    The long term goal of the Chatterjee Lab is to investigate the molecular mechanism through which transcription associated proteins contribute to long-term memory. The lab uses mouse models to examine the role of transcription factors and epigenetic regulation of gene expression in defining how transcription dysregulation can contribute to diseases associated with memory impairment.


  • Songhai Chen, MD, PhD

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    Research in the Chen laboratory focuses on the signaling mechanisms and functions of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and their regulation by WD40 repeat proteins, RACK1 and WDR26. The main areas of research include: 1) determine the role of GPCR signaling and neuronal control in cancer progression and pursue therapies that can sensitize current cancer therapeutics; 2) elucidate multifaceted functions of WD40 repeat-containing proteins in cancer, immune system and brain, by using genetically modified mouse models; and 3) identify new small molecule inhibitors of cancer stem cells to improve cancer therapeutics.


  • Amy L. Conrad, PhD

    Pediatrics, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

    Dr. Conrad is a psychologist who works clinically with children who have learning disorders. Her research focuses on the neural development in children with isolated cleft of the lip and/or palate, with special interest in language and reading development. The work has typically been with children in elementary school and junior high, using fMRI task-based designs, but now is expanding to earlier development (neonatal) and the potential use of fNIRS in this population.


  • Susan Wagner Cook, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The human capacity for learning and communication is fundamental to our success as a species. Humans represent and communicate knowledge, not only in language, but also in hand gestures, which are movements of the hands that typically accompany speech. Although gestures are ubiquitous and robust behaviors, seen in speakers of all ages, of all languages, and from all cultures, it is not at all clear why we gesture when we speak. Dr. Cook seeks to understand the nature and function of gesture. Findings suggest that human thinking emerges from the interaction of abstract, symbolic structures and visible, bodily behavior, and that this interaction draws on simultaneous activation of information across multiple memory systems. 


  • Huxing Cui, PhD

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    In order to maintain energy homeostasis, the central nervous system must sense and gather information from periphery on energy status and coordinate appropriate responses, ranging from mood and behavior to the autonomic nervous system activity, to keep balanced energy intake and expenditure. Any disruption in these physiological processes can lead to serious health problems including disordered eating behaviors, obesity and associated chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension. The goal of research in the Cui Lab is to uncover the complicated brain networks and signaling mechanisms that control metabolic homeostasis and cardiovascular function. To this end, we employee the state-of-the-art techniques, including optogenetics, chemogenetics and  in vivo Cre/loxP system, combined with behavioral neuroscience, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, molecular biology and biochemistry.


  • Rodica Curtu, PhD

    Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences (AMCS)

    Dr. Curtu's research combines methods from nonlinear dynamical systems with computer simulations and statistical methods to study the dynamics of neuronal networks induced by the properties of local network components, by the properties of the coupling, by the network topology, and by the stimulus structure. The lab employs a diverse range of techniques to identify and characterize relevant spatiotemporal patterns in brain data - human psychophysics, signal processing, classifiers, dimensionality reduction and manifold learning. Recent projects include modeling of human auditory perceptual switching informed by large-scale ECoG recordings, and dynamic models for auditory category learning.


  • Dao-Fu Dai, MD, PhD

    Pathology

    The long term goals of the Dai laboratory are to investigate the mitochondrial and metabolic signaling in cardiovascular and kidney diseases and aging, in order to discover novel therapeutics targets to prevent and treat diseases. One of the research projects in the lab is to investigate the molecular signaling underlying mitochondrial encephalopathy and cardiomyopathy, using a mouse model of Leigh Syndrome with mitochondrial complex I Ndufs4 mutation and human induced pluripotent stem cells derived cardiomyocytes and neuronal cells with Ndufs4 mutation to model Leigh Syndrome. They are particularly interested in metabolic signaling, such as NAD+, AMPK and inflammatory pathways.


  • Michael E. Dailey, PhD

    Biology

    The Dailey Lab utilizes in vitro and in vivo methods to study basic mechanisms of neuronal and glial cell development and plasticity in the mammalian brain using rodent models.  We have particular strength in applying time-lapse fluorescence confocal and multiphoton imaging approaches to investigate the dynamic behavior of neurons and glia in live brain tissues.  Current work in the lab utilizes a combination of cell biological, pharmacological, genetic, and imaging approaches to study the normal development of glial cells (microglia and astrocytes), and to investigate the roles of glial cells and neuroinflammation in developmental brain injury and pathological conditions including traumatic injury, developmental exposure to environmental toxicants including alcohol and pesticides, and cardiovascular conditions such as stroke and hypertension.


  • Sanjana Dayal, PhD, FAHA

    Internal Medicine

    Dr. Dayal’s primary research interest is in studying the mechanisms of vascular dysfunction and thrombosis related to risk factors such as hyperhomocysteinemia, aging, cancer and oxidative stress. Her research work over the years has been supported through several funding’s from American Heart Association and National Institute of Aging, NIH. She has actively published in the area of cerebrovascular phenotypes and is currently examining mechanisms of increased susceptibility to stroke in mouse models of hyperhomocysteinemia. She is recently funded to establish infrastructure for future homocysteine-lowering trials to prevent or decrease vascular incidents in Indian patients with ischemic stroke that will allow her to translate her basic research findings into human stroke. Currently, she is also defining the memory and learning deficits in murine models of hyperhomocysteinemia and aging; she will specifically define mechanistic role of oxidative stress. 


  • Ece Demir-Lira, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    Dr. Demir-Lira’s research program addresses the long-standing question of why do some children, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, fall behind their peers in academic achievement while others thrive. Her research addresses this question by combining behavioral methods that characterize children’s home experiences with neuroimaging measures that reveal the neurocognitive basis of children’s academic performance.  She leverages naturalistic, longitudinal observations and experimental designs to examine how the early parental language input in the home environment relates to children’s later literacy and arithmetic skills. She complements this approach with structural and functional neuroimaging measures to analyze how parental language input and parental background relate to the neurocognitive basis of children’s literacy and arithmetic skills, and how these neurocognitive correlates in turn relate to children’s academic success.  


  • Natalie Denburg, PhD

    Neurology, Psychological and Brain Sciences

    Research in the Denburg laboratory addresses the cognitive neuroscience of healthy and pathological (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease) aging.  One area of emphasis has been the investigation of real-world decision-making (i.e., consumer, medical, and financial decision-making) during older adulthood, to address why older adults are at risk of falling prey to deceptive and misleading sales tactics, and to examine the neurological substrates responsible for such errors in judgment.  Methods used include behavioral, neuroimaging (both structural and functional), and physiological (emotion) measurements.  Secondary interests include cancer survivorship, neuroepidemiology, and social neuroscience.  Our Lab’s research has been funded by both private and public agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), AARP/Andrus Foundation, and The Dana Foundation, and we have current funding from the NIH.  


  • Colin Derdeyn, MD, FACR

    Radiology, Neurology

    Dr. Derdeyn has long-standing interest in: 1. hemodynamic impairment and its relationship with stroke risk and 2. cerebrovascular disease. His work has spanned human physiological studies using PET and MR to investigate and measure cerebral blood flow, blood volume and oxygen metabolism in humans to large scale randomized multicenter trials of revascularization. These studies have included the Carotid Occlusion Surgery Study and the Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for the Prevention of Recurrent Ischemic Stroke Study. Most recently, we concluded a long-term prospective study of hemodynamics in patients with moyamoya disease, an occlusive vasculopathy that generally affects women in their 3rd and 4th decades. Current work is focused on investigating endovascular methods for revascularization in patients with complete atherosclerotic carotid occlusion, as well as developing a reproducible, validated method for quantifying brain aneurysm growth.


  • Brian J. Dlouhy, MD

    Neurosurgery

    The Dlouhy basic science and translational research lab focuses on understanding the mechanisms of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). We use animal models and study children and adults with epilepsy to identify the neural networks in the brain that influence breathing and to better understand how breathing is inhibited during seizures. Dr. Dlouhy also has a clinical interest and research interest in understanding the pathophysiology, genetics, and proper treatment strategies for Chiari disorders and disorders of the craniovertebral junction (CVJ).


  • Jonathan Doorn, PhD

    Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimental Therapeutics

    Research in the Doorn Lab focuses on the role of disrupted neurotransmitter (e.g., dopamine) metabolism and/or trafficking in neurotoxicity and neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson’s Disease. Altered neurotransmitter metabolism and trafficking produces numerous harmful species, including reactive oxygen species, quinones, and of particular interest, reactive and toxic aldehydes via monoamine oxidase. We hypothesize these harmful species, and especially the aldehyde metabolites of neurotransmitters, as chemical triggers and mechanistic links between insult (e.g., environment, pesticides) and conditions that initiate pathogenesis of disease. Goals of our work include: 1) determining mechanisms for aberrant levels of toxic neurotransmitter metabolites; 2) identifying cellular targets (e.g., proteins such as α-synuclein) of these reactive intermediates; 3) developing strategies to mitigate or prevent toxicity or downstream injury from toxic neurotransmitter metabolites. Our hope is that our findings can translate to novel/new drug targets and biomarkers for earlier disease diagnosis.


  • Daniel F. Eberl, PhD

    Biology

    Mechanosensation, an ancient and essential function, provides multicellular organisms with sensory information for hearing, balance and touch. Studying hereditary as well as environmental hearing loss is imperative, especially as our lifespan increases. The Eberl lab aims to understand genes associated with development, function and long-term maintenance of auditory organs, using the chordotonal organs in the Drosophila Johnston's organ as a model system. He studies conserved transcription factor cascades that specify these sensory organs. The chordotonal sensory neurons, as one of the few ciliated cell types in the fly, allow study of genes involved in ciliary development and function. Furthermore, his lab uses electrophysiology to test fly homologs of human hereditary hearing loss genes, and modeling of noise-induced hearing loss. He is also interested in specialized ion transport mechanisms that generate and maintain the receptor lymph, which resembles the endolymph compartments in the human inner ear.


  • Robert B. Felder, MD

    Internal Medicine (Emeritus)

    The sympathetic nervous system is overactive in heart failure, and contributes to morbidity and mortality by promoting fluid accumulation, vasoconstriction, cardiac remodeling and serious ventricular arrhythmias. The Felder Laboratory studies the central nervous system mechanisms that activate the sympathetic nervous system in a rat model of heart failure that simulates human heart failure that develops after a myocardial infarction. We are particularly interested in the effects on the brain of humoral factors that increase in the circulation in heart failure as a result of activation of the immune system (i.e., pro-inflammatory cytokines) and of systems that attempt to compensate for the reduced pumping function of the failing heart (i.e., the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system). Our molecular, immunohistochemical and electrophysiological and hemodynamic recording studies examine the effects of these humoral factors on the neurochemical milieu in central nervous system regions (in particular, the subfornical organ and the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus) that regulate sympathetic nerve activity. The overall goal is to identify central nervous system mechanisms that might become the targets of therapeutic interventions to reduce sympathetic activity in this devastating disease. 


  • Sarah Ferri, PhD

    Pediatrics

    The Ferri Lab is interested in the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Specifically, a main area of focus is on the neural mechanisms underlying social behaviors. The ability to engage in and interpret species-specific social behaviors is integral to an organism’s physical and psychological well-being. Social impairments are associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia, and these deficits can lead to decreased quality of life. We use mouse models and multi-disciplinary approaches, including behavioral, molecular, and in vivo imaging techniques. Another main area of focus is sex differences in health and disease, with a focus on the role of steroid hormones during development in the increased prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders in males compared to females.


  • Carrie Figdor, PhD

    Philosophy, Psychological and Brain Sciences

    Dr. Figdor's research covers theoretical issues arising from efforts to integrate neuroscience and psychology -- what used to be called "the mind-body problem". She starts from the problem of understanding how to interpret psychological concepts (such as decision-making, or anticipating) in the light of their uses to explain and characterize the behavior of a widening range of nonhuman species (including plants and bacteria). She considers the role of mathematical modeling in psychological conceptual change and the interplay of models and mechanisms in scientific efforts to explain the mind in material terms. She also writes on science communication and the epistemology of science journalism.


  • Rory Fisher, PhD

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    Research in the Fisher lab focuses on the molecular/cellular biology and signaling/physiological roles of Regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins.  RGS proteins function as essential negative regulators of G protein-coupled receptor signaling by virtue of their ability to terminate heterotrimeric G protein signaling.  Our recent studies have determined that one member of this family, RGS6, plays a critical role in numerous neuropsychiatric diseases including anxiety/depression, Parkinson’s, and alcohol seeking/dependence, as well as in cancer and heart disease.  While mice lacking RGS6 survive, they exhibit remarkably diverse phenotypes owing to the central role of G protein signaling in biology and the ability of RGS6 to signal by entirely novel G protein-independent mechanisms.  Together with a cross-disciplinary team of collaborators at the University of Iowa we employ a breadth of techniques in these projects, including CRISPR-generated mice, mouse behavioral analyses, brain region-specific viral manipulation of RGS protein expression, optogenetics, as well as molecular genetic and cellular biological approaches.


  • C. Andrew Frank, PhD

    Anatomy and Cell Biology

    Homeostasis is a robust form of regulation that allows a system to maintain a constant output despite external perturbations. In the nervous system, homeostasis plays a critical role in regulating neuronal and synaptic activity. Yet the molecular basis of this form of neural plasticity is generally unknown. In the Frank Lab we address this problem using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This model allows us to combine electrophysiology with powerful genetic and pharmacological techniques. The overall goal is to define conserved signaling mechanisms that direct synapses to maintain stable properties, like excitation levels. It is generally believed that molecules controlling the balance of excitation and inhibition within the nervous system influence many neurological diseases. Therefore, understanding synaptic homeostasis is of clinical interest. This area of research could uncover factors with relevance to the cause and progression of disorders such as epilepsy, which reflects a state of poorly controlled neural function.


  • John H. Freeman, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    Research in the Freeman Lab examines the neural circuitry underlying learning and memory. Our general approach is to use multiple systems neuroscience methods to identify neural circuits and neural circuit interactions necessary for learning. Our approach has shifted over the years from identifying the neural inputs and outputs necessary for learning to examining dynamic interactions among neural systems, including feedback loops and sensory gating. With this circuitry-based approach, our efforts primarily focus on three areas of learning and memory research: 1) associative motor learning, 2) categorization, and 3) the ontogeny of learning.


  • Marie Gaine, PhD

    Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimental Therapeutics

    One of the main goals of the Gaine lab is to understand the role of epigenetics in the development and treatment of psychiatric disorders, and how environmental factors can influence this. Projects specifically focus on suicidal behavior, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, and utilize a variety of large-scale sequencing techniques alongside region-specific sequencing to identify changes in DNA methylation and gene expression in human samples. Another goal of the Gaine lab is to generate mouse models for disease using CRISPR. Currently, we are characterizing a new mouse model for neurodegeneration that was generated using CRISPR to introduce a mutation in the Prkar1b gene. Ongoing work includes behavioral testing at different ages, and biochemical experiments to identify how this mutation leads to a Parkinsonism phenotype.


  • Phillip Gander, PhD

    Radiology

    Dr. Gander is director of the Multimodal Imaging in Neurological Disorders lab which investigates physiological processes for cognition and health in normal and abnormal conditions. The lab uses neuroimaging (PET, MRI/fMRI, EEG/ECoG) and brain stimulation to investigate mechanisms involved in human disorders, such as tinnitus, misophonia, hearing loss, Alzheimer's dementia, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and traumatic brain injury. Research areas: neuroimaging, neurophysiology, attention, cognitive neuroscience, electrophysiology, auditory cortex, auditory neuroscience, brain predictive coding, clinical neuroscience, Alzheimer’s disease, brain trauma, cochlea, epilepsy/seizures, hearing loss, hippocampus, learning, memory


  • Stephanie Gantz, PhD

    Molecular Physiology and Biophysics

    The mission of the Gantz lab is to discover and characterize novel interactions between G protein-coupled receptors and ion channels in the brain. We use patch-clamp electrophysiology in brain slices to record synaptic communication between neurons. We also record ion channel activity directly in dissociated neurons using a multi-barrel perfusion system that allows for better voltage-clamp to assay biophysical properties and high-throughput screening of interacting compounds. Electrophysiological studies are often complemented with histochemistry, microscopy, genetic strategies, and behavioral approaches. Recently, we discovered that alpha1-adrenergic receptors in serotonin neurons augment current carried by orphan delta glutamate receptor 1 (GluD1)-channels to promote action potential firing. Known more broadly as a scaffold protein, very little is known about the ionotropic nature of GluD1. There are no known agonists that gate the channel. Thus, our latest research raises an intriguing question: What is opening GluD1?


  • Joel Geerling, MD, PhD

    Neurology

    Deep in the brain, various circuits are constantly working to keep you alive – waking you from sleep, regulating your blood pressure, making you thirsty, and so on. Many age-related diseases affecting the brain, including Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s Disease, deteriorate of some of these circuits. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the neurons and wiring diagrams in these circuits remains primitive, severely limiting the development of effective treatments for symptoms like insomnia, incontinence, drops in blood pressure, lack of thirst, and other age-related neural circuit disorders. To better understand neural circuits responsible for many of these symptoms, the Geerling Laboratory uses cutting-edge neuroscience tools and genetic targeting to map out new types of neurons and circuit connectivity, and then probe each connection for effects on physiology (blood pressure, breathing, bladder control) and behavior (sleep/wake, drinking/eating, motivation/attention). We have identified neurons and connections that regulate sodium appetite, body temperature, hunger, and continence, and our primary focus now is the arousal system, which maintains conscious wakefulness.


  • Joseph Glykys, MD, PhD

    Pediatrics

    The Glykys Lab focuses on understanding how the inhibitory system works at the cellular level. Clinically, we are interested in how the dysfunction of the inhibitory system leads to seizures and the relationship between neuronal edema, seizures and altered chloride homeostasis. The long-term goal of our research is to enhance the inhibitory system to better treat seizures, especially neonatal seizures. Our areas of research include: studying changes in neuronal chloride concentration and cellular volume during pathological conditions, neonatal seizures, epilepsy, and GABA(A) receptor physiology. We approach these scientific questions using electrophysiology and two-photon imaging.


  • Oliver Gramlich, PhD

    Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

    A major hallmark of optic neuropathies and demyelinating disorders like glaucoma and multiple sclerosis (MS) is degeneration of retinal ganglion cells. The Gramlich Lab focuses on this pathologic process and ways to both rehabilitate current vision loss and prevent future vision loss. They aim to determine the pathobiology of initial neuroinflammatory processes leading to retinal ganglion cell and oligodendrocyte degeneration using animal models, human donor tissue, and in vitro systems. Current projects relating to glaucoma are investigating how activation of the complement system and immune cells accelerate retinal ganglion cell death by impairing GABAergic and glutamatergic signaling pathways. The goal is to inhibit the incipient inflammation and to supplement the high energy demands of retinal ganglion cells. This restores their function, prevents cell death and ultimately leads to improved visual acuity and lessened visual field deficits. A key opportunity for intervention in MS is the repair of the myelin sheath after an immune cell attack. Gramlich works on augmentation of cholesterol recycling and fatty acid metabolism to provide the highly-demanded energy to maintain signal transduction and reassemble the damaged myelin sheath. The strengthening of signal transduction in demyelinated axons significantly increases the likelihood of oligodendrocyte precursor cell differentiation and remyelination of those axons. This remyelination, in turn, improves conduction speed leading to better clinical outcomes for patients.


  • Jeremy Greenlee, MD

    Neurosurgery

    Research in the Greenlee Lab focuses on the cortical mechanisms subserving human language and vocalization.  Major goals of the research are to understand the representation of self-vocalization stimuli in primary and associated auditory cortices, elucidate and characterize the cortico-cortical interactions between auditory cortex and other cortical regions, including speech generating areas, during self-vocalization, and to characterize frontal lobe cortical processing of audiovisual stimuli.  These goals are accomplished using electrophysiological recording, including local field potentials and action potentials, in awake human patients undergoing invasive diagnostic and treatment of intractable epilepsy.


  • Banu Gumusoglu, PhD

    Dr. Gumusoglu's research utilizes translational approaches to understand the mechanisms by which complications of pregnancy such as infection, stress, and diseases like preeclampsia influence offspring and peripartum brain risk. Ongoing work examines prenatal and peripartum brain programming by neuroimmune and endocrine factors in the placenta-brain axis such as extracellular vesicles and immune cells. The lab's goal is to improve the specificity and efficacy of gestational prevention, detection, and treatment measures for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism in kids, and psychiatric disorders such as peripartum depression in birthing people.


  • Donna Hammond, PhD

    Anesthesia, Neuroscience and Pharmacology (Emerita)

    The Hammond Lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms that underlie the transition of acute pain to chronic pain.  Our studies emphasize a multidisciplinary approach to hypothesis testing in which several different methodologies are used in concert, e.g. behavioral pharmacology, electrophysiology, molecular biology, neuroanatomy, and neurochemistry.  We are currently examining the mechanisms responsible for the feed-forward relationship between smoking (chronic nicotine) and chronic pain in that each appears to worsen the other.  We are also investigating the ability of a nutraceutical, nicotinamide riboside, to alleviate chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in a bench-to-bedside research program.


  • Lyndsay Harshman, MD, MS

    Pediatrics

    The Harshman lab focuses on brain growth and development in the pediatric chronic kidney disease (CKD) population. Specifically, our current work includes an NIDDK K23-funded project utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantitatively characterize the structure of the brain (e.g., volumes of regions and tissues) in mild to moderate pediatric CKD prior to need for dialysis or transplant. In conjunction with standardized neurocognitive testing, specialized neuroimaging measures are used to evaluate brain structure, function, and metabolism in this population, as well as to understand the relationship to underlying renal disease.


  • Eliot Hazeltine, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    Dr. Hazeltine's research focuses on learning how people match external stimuli with internal states to choose responses and engage in flexible, goal-directed behaviors. He has approached this problem using a range of methodologies, including neuropsychology and neuroimaging. Although this work represents a diverse set of findings, a central theme is that response selection processes are not generic but instead depend on the specifics of the task and the context in which it is embedded. That is, tasks are represented as more than just a collection of stimulus-response associations. The brain appears to encode rich representations of the task and these representations have important effects on performance in terms of compatibility effects, learning, and control processes.


  • Marco Hefti, MD

    The Hefti lab is focused on the role of the tau protein in brain development and hypoxic-ischemic injury and how this relates to the mechanisms of tau aggregation in neurodegenerative disease. We use a combination of computational methods, human tissue-based assays and animal models to study how tau is expressed, translated and modified during development and in response to physiologic stress. Our long-term goal is to use these findings to better understand what triggers pathologic tau aggregates and cell death in Alzheimer disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), myotonic dystrophy and other related diseases. Dr. Hefti is also responsible for the brain banking effort at the University of Iowa, which seeks to make well-characterized disease and control human brain tissue available for research across the Iowa Neuroscience Institute and the University of Iowa as a whole.


  • Karin Hoth, PhD, ABPP

    Psychiatry

    Dr. Hoth’s research focuses on understanding physiological mechanisms that impact brain structure and function in adults with chronic cardiopulmonary diseases.  Research in the Hoth lab is highly interdisciplinary bringing together experts in neuroscience, internal medicine, radiology, and human physiology.  We are currently conducting a NIH/NHLBI-funded project utilizing behavioral measures and imaging techniques (neuroimaging, chest CT, vascular ultrasound) to examine the link between specific changes in lung and vascular physiology and the brain targeting smokers with early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).  Dr. Hoth is also involved in several other projects involving cognitive assessment including work with the multi-site COPDGene study, work with patients with interstitial lung disease, and research on coronary artery disease.


  • Matthew Howard, MD

    Neurosurgery

    Dr. Howard is a neurosurgeon-scientist and director of the University of Iowa Human Brain Research Laboratory (HBRL).  A broad range of experimental studies are carried out within the HBRL making use of the unique opportunities to study normal human brain functions in patient-subjects who are undergoing clinically necessary neurosurgical procedures. HBRL research projects are organized around multi-disciplinary collaborative teams of neuroscientist and clinician-scientists from leading neuroscience research centers in the U.S. and overseas. Researchers use novel combinations of invasive and non-invasive experimental methods to address questions about the functional organization of the human brain that cannot be answered using non-invasive methods alone.     


  • Rainbo Hultman, PhD

    Associate Director for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

    Molecular Physiology and Biophysics

    A primary difficulty in developing therapeutics for brain disorders is that the underlying etiological mechanisms are not well understood. We have made recent breakthroughs in our understanding of the relationship between electrical activity in the brain and behavior, which is promising for shedding light on these mechanisms. The Hultman lab studies networks of electrical activity in the brain using pre-clinical rodent models of disease and is working to identify the cellular and molecular factors that contribute to the organization of such networks. Our overarching goal is to promote the development of precision medicine (i.e. therapeutics targeted to specific individuals) by identifying therapeutic targets that promote healthy brain electrical network activity. Two brain disorders of primary focus in the lab include migraine and major depressive disorder. By probing the underlying electrical networks of these disorders and identifying molecular drivers of such activity, we will be better positioned to develop more effective treatments for these debilitating disorders


  • Kai Hwang, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The Hwang Lab conducts research to discover the neural, cognitive, and developmental dynamics of cognitive control. Specifically, we are interested in the neural architecture and dynamic processes that allow brain networks to select, inhibit, transfer, and integrate information for goal-directed behaviors. Together, these mechanisms support many important mental functions , such as attention, working memory, response selection and inhibition. Currently, our studies focus on two broad themes: the thalamocortical system and neural oscillations. We address our research questions with a comprehensive human neuroscience approach, combining multimodal research methodologies, including fMRI, EEG, TMS, lesion studies, eye tracking and behavioral testing.


  • Hildegard Janouschek, MD

    Psychiatry

    The Janouschek lab is interested in understanding the development of fear-related behaviors from a developmental perspective. Current projects focus on acid-sensing ion channels, brain-acidity and the emergence of different fear related behaviors during development. Another project investigates the influence of cerebellar manipulations on fear related behaviors and memory. The lab uses behavioral testing, genetic manipulations, molecular biology, biochemistry and neuropathology.


  • Jing Jiang, PhD

    Pediatrics

    The overarching goal of the Jiang lab is to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying social interaction and their relations to neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., autism, depression, and anxiety), and translate this knowledge to develop novel treatments.  We address this topic using an interdisciplinary approach, creatively combining naturalistic paradigms, neuroimaging (fNIRS, fMRI), neurostimulation (TMS), brain lesions, behavioral recording (eye-tracking, smartphone app), machine learning, and network analyses. One research focus is to design naturalistic interaction paradigms combined with fNIRS-based hyperscanning to identify neuromarkers of social and emotional skills acquisition during typical and atypical development. Another research focus is to determine the causal neural circuits relevant to social and emotional deficits and treatment effects by combining cutting-edge neuroimaging with brain stimulation / lesions.

     


  • Jiefeng Jiang, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The Jiang lab seeks to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms that enable goal-directed behavior using a combination of lab- and web-based behavioral studies, functional neuroimaging, computational modeling and virtual reality technology. Specifically, the lab focuses on the fundamental questions about how task-set –– the collection of cognitive control demands required to perform a task –– is learned, stored, retrieved and generalized to new tasks, contexts and experiences in both young and aging populations, with work consisting of three primary research themes: (1) the interaction between task-set mnemonic representation and task-set execution; (2) how age-related changes in goal-directed behavioral relate to altered neural representation of task-sets; and (3) how the changes in task-set representation and execution are related to mental disorders.


  • Zizhen Kang, PhD

    Pathology

    The Kang lab has two major research interests: Neuroimmunology and Mucosal Immunology. In Neuroimmunology, we focus on the immunobiology of Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) in Multiple Sclerosis by using animal models; we also study the immune function of LRRK2 in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In Mucosal Immunology, we focus on the role of LRRK2-mediated innate immunity in host defense and intestinal inflammation including inflammasome activation; in addition, we study LKB1-driven gut microbiota dysfunction (dysbiosis) in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal polyposis and tumorigenesis. To integrate this two research interests, our long-term goal is to understand how gut-brain axis modulates the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Our research will open novel avenues for the therapy of related diseases.


  • Bahri Karacay, PhD

    Pediatrics

    Dr. Karacay's research focuses on the abnormalities of the developing nervous system that are caused by two neuroteratogenic agents: alcohol, (fetal alcohol syndrome) and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (congenital LCMV infection). While these two research programs, particularly fetal alcohol syndrome, constitute the core of his scholarly efforts, he also has been interested in development of gene therapy for Alexander Disease, a disease of cerebral white matter that affects children. 


  • Randy Kardon, MD, PhD

    Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

    Research in the Kardon Lab include use of facial features of expression, reflex eyelid movements, gaze, and pupil light reflexes to diagnose and monitor eye and neurological disorders in humans and animals. Current funding focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of light sensitivity, traumatic brain injury, therapeutic interventions for preserving vision in blinding eye diseases. Structure-function relationships in the visual system are being investigatted using optical coherence tomography (OCT), ocular blood flow and autoregulation using laser speckle flowgraphy, image analysis, and structural MRI and functional MRI. We are actively involved in the development of telemedicine tools for objectively evaluating the status of the visual and neurological systems for testing in remote locations and home testing. Dr. Kardon is Director of the Iowa City VA Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss (CPTVL), funded by the VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Division.
     


  • Alan Kay, PhD

    Biology

    Ion and water fluxes play an important role in nervous systems; from generating action potentials to the damaging water fluxes induced by trauma. The sodium pump is a primary driver of these fluxes, establishing the asymmetry of sodium & potassium ions across the membrane, which is necessary from generating action potentials. Particular interests in the Kay Lab are how the pump stabilizes cell volume counteracting the Donnan effect induced by impermeant molecules and controls water flux. The coupling of ion fluxes by groups of cells also plays a central role in sensory transduction. In collaboration with Dr. Dan Eberl, we study how the coupling of different cell types in the fly ‘ears’, which are housed in its antennae, make it exquisitely sensitive to movement.


  • Youngcho Kim, PhD

    Neurology

    Dr. Kim studies the role of the dopaminergic system in cognitive function. The dopaminergic dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex contribute cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease and Schizophrenia. His current research focuses on the influence of dopamine on prefrontal networks controlling cognitive behaviors such as timing and decision making. By combining optogenetics and neuronal ensemble recordings in transgenic animals, he interrogates cell-type specific neuronal circuit in awake, behaving animals. This work contributes to the development of new treatment strategies for affected neurological diseases.


  • Toshihiro Kitamoto, PhD

    Anesthesia, Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    The Kitamoto Lab is interested in gene-gene and gene-environment interactions that have a significant impact on the regulation of physiological and pathological behaviors. Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as an experimental organism, our current projects aim at elucidating 1) how diet, gut microbiota, and genes involved in lipid metabolism affect neural development and function to modify neurological phenotypes of voltage-gated sodium channel mutants, and 2) how “non-genomic” steroid signaling via G-protein coupled receptors regulates complex behaviors in response to internal and external environmental factors.


  • Dorit Kliemann, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The Kliemann lab studies the neuroscience of human social behavior, from a basic research perspective, as well as in its applications to disorders (e.g., autism) and neurological populations (e.g., brain lesions). We are interested in the biological basis of cognition in the brain, especially how the brain compensates and re-organizes. How does variation in brain structure and function lead to intact or impaired social cognition? How can we use insights from neuroimaging to better understand the psychological mechanisms? We use a multimodal approach (including behavioral, eye-tracking, lesion studies, structural and functional MRI) to study brain-cognition-behavior relations that ultimately produce complex social cognition.


  • Ryan T. LaLumiere, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The La Lumiere Lab focuses on two related areas: The neurobiology of learning and memory and the neurobiology of drug addiction. In the first line of research, we focus on the mechanisms that underlie memory consolidation in rodents, with particular attention given to how the amygdala modulates such processes. In our approach to this issue, we target specific pathways connecting brain regions in combination with a variety of learning tasks in order to dissociate the roles of the pathways in different kinds of learning. For our drug addiction work, we take a learning-and-memory approach to understanding the neural mechanisms involved in drug-seeking behavior in rodents. For this work, rats undergo drug self-administration, followed by different paradigms that allow the animal to demonstrate its drug-seeking behavior. In particular, we are interested in understanding those systems, largely based in prefrontal cortex, that inhibit drug seeking.


  • Douglas R Langbehn, MD, PhD

    Psychiatry, Biostatistics

    Dr. Langbehn is a board-certified psychiatrist turned biostatistician. H is broadly interested in research design, analysis, and interpretation. More specifically, his goal is to use his dual expertise to match appropriate statistical design and analysis methodologies to specific goals in brain disease research. Over the past 16 years, he has focused on a variety of projects related to Huntington's Disease. These have included structural and functional brain imaging analysis, phenotyping and quantitative modeling of primary and secondary genetic effects, biomarker assay development, clinical trial design, and clinical descriptive research based on neuropsychology, psychiatric, and movement disorder measurements. While still active in these areas, his interests have recently broadened to include the statistical genetic and other etiologic modeling of both autism and familial substance use disorders.


  • Gloria Lee, PhD

    Internal Medicine (Emerita)

    Research in the Gloria Lee Lab focuses on tau protein, the main component of the neurofibrillary tangles found in several age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. We identify and investigate novel interactions of tau, with the goal of elucidating (1) basic structure and function of tau, (2) the function of phosphorylated forms of tau that are found during neurodegeneration, and (3) functions that are altered by the mutant forms of tau that cause frontotemporal dementia (FTDP-17). Previously, we found that tau potentiated NGF-induced MAPK activation and recently, we found an interaction between tau and the protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP2. Currently, we are probing the role of this interaction in tau’s ability to affect MAPK activation. Lastly, we have also been investigating the function of the interaction between tau and the non-receptor tyrosine kinase Fyn, by using a double knockout mouse that lacks both tau and Fyn. 


  • Hans-Joachim Lehmler

    Occupational and Environmental Health

    Dr. Lehmler is a Professor of Environmental Health in the College of Public Health and serves as the Director of the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center. His research employs novel animal models, including germ-free mice, transgenic animals, and population-based animal models, to characterize how the metabolism of chemical hazards, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, or environmental bisphenols, affects neurotoxic outcomes.


  • Enrique Leira, MD

    Neurology

    Dr. Leira is an experienced Board certified Vascular Neurologist with additional training in Epidemiology and translational research methods. He is the principal investigator of one of the 25 Regional Coordinating Centers for the national research network NIH-StrokeNet. His area of interest in developing interventions to improve the outcome of patients living in rural communities far away from a tertiary center. His epidemiological interest in stroke disparities based on location has led to the development of clinical trials where the intervention is delivered during helicopter transport. That research has created the need for a translational study testing the influence of unique physical factors present during helicopter transportation on an ischemic brain. That led to the development of a new experimental approach that combines animal models of stroke and reperfusion with actual helicopter transportation. He is also studying the effects of Uric Acid in mitigating the effect of reperfusion injury.


  • Yung-Wei Dennis Lin, PhD, NCC

    Counselor Education

    Yung-Wei Dennis Lin, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counselor Education. His research interests include play therapy, child and adolescent counseling, play-based parenting training, and suicide prevention/intervention. His play therapy related research mainly focuses on exploring the effectiveness of the interventions on children’s internalizing and externalizing behavioral concerns. His parenting training research focuses on enhancing parent-child relationship and further improving children’s behaviors. His suicide prevention/intervention research focuses on the effectiveness of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) on trainees’ (e.g., K-12 school personnel, college personnel, counselors in training) intervention skills and readiness for responding to suicidal situations. Currently, he is developing an innovative suicide prevention/intervention model specifically for professionals/paraprofessionals who work with young children (3-12 yrs) and expanding the play-based parenting training to Pre-K to 5 teachers.


  • Susan Lutgendorf, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The Lutgendorf lab studies biological mechanisms underlying the effects of stress and resilience on disease. The main projects in the laboratory examine effects of psychological stress on neuroendocrine function, inflammation, and tumor biology. Our collaborative research has established multiple molecular pathways linking psychological stress and tumor progression, particularly in the context of ovarian cancer. Dr. Lutgendorf is a Clinical Health Psychologist and a Professor in the  Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. She also has faculty appointments in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Urology and is a member of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is the Program Director of the NIGMS-funded T32 Mechanisms of Health and Disease at the Behavioral and Biomedical Interface Training Program. She recently served as the President of the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society and as the President of the American Psychosomatic Society. Her current research is funded by the National Cancer Institute.


  • Vincent A. Magnotta, PhD

    Radiology, Neuroscience

    The Magnotta Lab is currently focusing on the development of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging techniques that are sensitive to brain metabolism. Currently we are focusing on T1rho, CEST, and MR spectroscopic based techniques. Using these techniques coupled with other quantitative imaging markers (e.g. T1 and T2 relaxation measures) we are exploring metabolic changes associated with several psychiatric (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder) and neurological disorders (Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease). In addition, we are exploring how metabolism changes with symptoms and disease progression. Future work will accelerate these imaging measures allowing them to assess functional changes in the brain.


  • Ashutosh Mangalam, PhD

    Pathology

    Dr. Mangalam’s research program is focused on understanding Microbiome-Gut-Immune-Brain axis in health and diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS). The human adult gut contains approximately 1000 grams of bacteria with genomic and biochemical complexity of microbiota exceeding that of the brain. Recent studies from Dr. Mangalam’s group suggest that gut microbiota diversity might play a major role in CNS diseases.  His group has also shown that certain gut commensal bacteria can suppress disease in the preclinical model of MS. Gut microbes can communicate with the brain through a variety of routes including the vagus nerve, cytokines, and metabolites including phytoestrogens-derived compounds such as equol. The current focus of the lab is to determine the mechanisms through which diet and gut microbiota maintain immune homeostasis and regulate neurological functions. He utilizes unique transgenic mice expressing MS-linked HLA class-II molecules to decipher how adaptive immune responses determine host microbiota composition and modulate neuroinflammation.  


  • Merry Mani, PhD

    Radiology

    Research in the Mani lab is aimed at the development of new MRI-based neuroimaging technology that enables the detection of neurological disorders at early stages of disease progression. Changes in the tissue microstructure using diffusion MRI is being explored as an early biomarker. Novel MRI pulse sequences, combined with advanced reconstruction and analysis methods are used to synergistically improve the sensitivity of neuroimaging methods. Currently, these techniques are being applied for the studies of bipolar disorder, Huntington’s disease and major depressive disorder.


  • Catherine Marcinkiewcz, PhD

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    Dr. Marcinkiewcz's laboratory is focused on delineating the role of serotonin in complex brain disorders such as alcohol dependence, depression, and Alzheimer's disease. Serotonin neurons are mainly localized to the raphe nuclei of the brainstem, but their axons are widely distributed throughout the nervous system and have a ubiquitous role in physiological processes and behavior. Adding to this complexity is the diverse array of high-affinity receptors that bind serotonin, each having distinct effects on behavior. The lab is using a variety of intersectional tools for targeting, manipulating and monitoring the activity of discrete serotonin circuits in order to gain insight into how these circuits are disrupted in psychiatric disorders. We are also investigating the role of enteric serotonin in brain disorders such as autism and generalized anxiety disorder. The ultimate goal of this work is to identify new therapeutic targets for these often intractable conditions.


  • David Martin, PhD

    Chemistry

    Research in the Martin lab focuses on the development of new catalytic transformations and the synthesis of bioactive molecules for the study and treatment of human disease. Given that natural products have provided leads for many of the most effective drugs in current use, we are pursuing the synthesis of natural product families with neuroprotective properties to provide tools for determining their mechanism of action and future potential as treatments of neurodegenerative disease. Access to analogs and mechanistic probes will enable more detailed studies of neuroprotection and expand our knowledge of the underlying processes.


  • Katherine Mathews, MD

    Neurology, Pediatrics

    Dr. Mathews's research goal is to improve care of children and adults with neuromuscular diseases. As part of the University of Iowa Wellstone Center, she leads an ongoing longitudinal study of individuals with hypoglycosylation of alpha-dystroglycan resulting in muscular dystrophy with variable involvement of brain and eye formation (dystroglycanopathies).   This work will provide data necessary for planning clinical trials and to improve patient care.  She also has longstanding engagement in an epidemiologic study of muscular dystrophies in collaboration with the College of Public Health and funded by the CDC. This epidemiologic data will assist with planning trials and improving care across muscular dystrophies.  She is part of a Friedreich ataxia clinical consortium, collecting natural history data. She also directs Iowa's participation in several industry-sponsored clinical trials for neuromuscular diseases.


  • Amanda McCleery, Ph.D.

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    The McCleery Lab seeks to identify and understand predictors of functional outcome in severe mental illness within a lifespan developmental framework. Using a multimethod approach, combining performance-based and electrophysiological indices, the bulk of our research has focused on cognition (social and non-social), a reliable predictor of daily functioning. In addition, recent investigations examine the trajectory of cognitive impairment and functioning across phases of illness (i.e., recent-onset vs. chronic phase). This type of approach is critical for advancing our understanding of the bases of cognitive impairment in severe mental illness, for the development of targeted interventions for impaired cognition, and to inform questions surrounding optimal timing for such interventions during the course of illness. 


  • Bob McMurray, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    Dr. McMurray's research uses cognitive neuroscience and behavioral techniques to look at the fundamental mechanisms of speech perception and language processing and the development of these fundamental human abilities. He combines electro-encephalography (EEG), intercranial recordings on human epilepsy patients, and eye-tracking with computational models and machine learning techniques to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms of language. 


  • Jacob Michaelson, PhD

    Psychiatry, Communication Sciences and Disorders

    The Michaelson Lab focuses on computational psychiatry and genomics. We are interested in the use of computing to improve the understanding, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions.  We use a variety of data modalities: genomic, metabolic, pharmacological, medical record, imaging, audio recording, textual, and body movement to build predictive models that assist us in our mission of improving mental health through computing. We have extramurally-supported research programs involving computational methodology, animal models, and human subjects research. 


  • Isabel Muzzio, PhD

    The long-term goal of the Muzzio Lab s to advance the biological understanding of memory. Current efforts are focused on: 1) Effects of fear on encoding and stability of spatial representations in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus. 2) Strategies, representations, and circuits underlying spatial reorientation -the ability to regain one’s bearings after becoming lost. 3) Effects of sleep on memory and hippocampal representations. These research areas have strong impact on brain health because several neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by memory loss and/or disorientation. We have addressed these topics recoding single-units and calcium signals in freely moving mice in combination with genetic, optogenetic, chemogenetic, behavioral, and computational tools. 

     

     


  • Nandakumar Narayanan, MD, PhD

    Associate Director for Seminars and Workshops

    Neurology

    Our mission is to map the neural circuits that malfunction in brain diseases that impair higher-order thinking. This data will help generate new and highly specific treatments for these disorders.

    How does dopamine affect cortical circuits involved in cognition? We study the influence of dopamine on prefrontal networks controlling cognitive behaviors such as timing and performance monitoring. We combine ensemble recording from populations of neurons in awake, behaving animals with specific manipulations using techniques such as optogenetic stimulation, targeted pharmacology, or selective genetic disruption with RNA interference.

    How does the prefrontal cortex control downstream brain areas? The prefrontal cortex projects to brain areas such as the striatum and the subthalamic nucleus. These brain areas are involved cognitive processing, and we study how prefrontal projections to these brain areas control cognitive processing in these downstream brain areas.

    How can we protect and preserve circuits that malfunction in Parkinson's disease? Along with our collaborators, we study a variety of circuit-level and cellular processes in Parkinson's disease that lead to neurodgeneration and side-effects of current drugs for Parkinson's disease. This effort could lead to new and optimized treatments for Parkinson's disease.


  • Mark Niciu, MD, PhD

    Psychiatry

    The Niciu Lab is broadly interested in the pathophysiology and experimental therapeutics of major mood disorders, particularly glutamate and subanesthetic-dose ketamine in treatment-resistant major depression. Another major aim is the identification, replication and dissemination of antidepressant response biomarkers. As an example, our group and others have observed that treatment-resistant depressed subjects with a family history of an alcohol use disorder in a first-degree relative have a greater and more sustained antidepressant response to ketamine. We are currently studying potential alcohol-sensitive multimodal, e.g. psychological, neurophysiological and neuroimaging, biomarkers to predict antidepressant response with greater sensitivity and specificity than family history alone. On the translational front, we use human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based models, i.e. cortical-like spheroids, to study genetic, molecular and cellular mechanisms of disease and pharmacological response to racemic ketamine, bioactive ketamine metabolites and other compounds in the future.


  • Thomas Nickl-Jockschat MD

    Psychiatry

    The Nickl-Jockschat lab aims to characterize brain structural changes in psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or autism spectrum disorders. As shown previously, these neuroanatomical anomalies do not appear to be mere epiphenomena, but closely related to the actual symptoms level of these disorders. Thus, a better understanding of these brain structural changes and their molecular and environmental causes might decisively help to develop not only a better understanding, but also new therapeutic approaches for the respective disorders.

    Given the complex etiopathogenesis, the Nickl-Jockschat lab employs a wide range of methods, including human and animal imaging and advanced brain mapping techniques, including the use of cutting-edge gene expression atlases. A special focus lies upon a joint analyses of these various modalities. 


  • Peggy Nopoulos, MD

    Neurology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics

    Dr. Nopoulos’s research focuses on the study of brain and behavior.  Specifically, she studies aspects of understanding normal healthy brain such as differences in brain structure and function between the sexes as well as understanding how the brain changes with development through adolescence. In regard to the study of disease, her lab focuses on research into brain structure and function in two main areas:  prematurity, and neurogenetics with focus on triplet repeat disorders (Huntington’s Disease and Myotonic Dystrophy). This is done using state of the art neuroimaging techniques, specifically Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) which includes structural imaging, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, resting state fMRI, and novel sequences such as T1rho (pH imaging).  


  • Kirill Nourski, MD, PhD

    Neurosurgery

    Dr. Nourski works in the Human Brain Research Laboratory with a team of neurosurgeons and neuroscientists to understand how the human brain processes sounds. Our research program is among a handful in the world with expertise in working with neurosurgical epilepsy patients who undergo electrode implantation for clinical diagnostic purposes. This provides a unique opportunity for direct electrophysiological recordings from the human brain. Dr. Nourski's work focuses on studying the functional organization of human auditory cortex through systematic investigation of its basic response properties. This knowledge, in turn, serves as a foundation for understanding higher auditory functions, i.e. how the brain “makes sense of sound” to build a coherent percept of the environment. He also studies how attention, level of consciousness and degraded listening conditions affect sound processing. This line of work seeks to bridge my basic research with interventions for patient benefit.


  • Matthew J. O’Brien, PhD, BCBA-D

    Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

    Dr. O’Brien’s research centers on the underlying causes of severe and challenging behavior in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and effective treatments for those behaviors. The goal is to develop treatments that can be matched to the function(s) of challenging behaviors resulting in reductions of those behaviors, as well as increases in more adaptive, but functionally equivalent behaviors.  This line of research is also examining the impact of psychotropic medications on behavioral function and severity, and exploring novel assessment and treatment approaches, such as using neuroimaging to determine changes in brain activity during episodes of challenging behavior and using telehealth to deliver interventions directly into the home setting.


  • Hiroyuki Oya, MD, PhD

    Neurosurgery

    The Oya Lab studies functional and effective connectivity of the human brain focusing on the auditory, emotional network.  This information is important for the clinical application for the treatment for patients with various psychiatric condition and diseases in audition. We combine information both from invasive electrophysiology (ECoG) and non-invasive measure that reflects brain’s activation (fMRI) to map the functional connectivity in the same living human brain. External direct stimulation methods (direct electrical stimulation and trans-magnetic cortical stimulation) are also utilized to perturb the brain tissue and analyze the response to it. We are also interested in how the invasive or non-invasive brain stimulation can modulate or even recover the function lost in the disease, and ultimately, we hope the functional and effective connectivity information would guide the future treatment not only for the diseased human brain but also the spinal cord damage.


  • Krystal Parker, PhD

    Psychiatry

    The primary goal of the Parker Lab is to characterize cerebellar neural circuitry with the goal of improving treatments for complex and devastating cognitive and mood abnormalities that are common in neuropsychiatric diseases. Our research is highly translational as we interrogate cerebellar circuitry in animals using electrophysiology, optogenetics, and pharmacology and compare these data to EEG paired with cerebellar TMS administered in clinical populations. The cerebellum contains more neurons than the rest of the brain combined and although it is most famous for its role in motor control, its contribution to cognitive and affective processes is less clear. Schizophrenia, autism, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and bipolar disorder are all examples of disorders involving cerebellar abnormalities that are characterized in part by impairments in cognition and mood. Using cerebellar modulation, we hope to capitalize on the cerebellum’s diffuse connections with the rest of the brain to identify and restore patterns of neural activity that are aberrant in disease.


  • Stanley Perlman, MD, PhD

    Microbiology

    The Perlman Lab is interested in neurovirology and neuroimmunology. Specifically, we study demyelination induced by infection of mice with a neurotropic coronavirus. Our interests range from virus tracing to the innate and adaptive immune responses to the factors important in demyelination and disease severity. Recent work has focused on the inflammatory milieu in the infected brain and the role of prostaglandins and other lipid mediators in outcomes. We  also have projects studying the role of microglia in host defense and  in how regulatory T cell diminish myelin damage mediated by effector anti-viral T cells.


  • Isaac T. Petersen, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    Dr. Petersen's Developmental Psychopathology Lab is interested in how children develop individual differences in adjustment, including behavior problems as well as competencies.  Dr. Petersen is particularly interested in the development of externalizing behavior problems and underlying self-regulation difficulties.  His primary research interests include how children develop self-regulation as a function of bio-psycho-social processes including brain functioning, genetics, parenting, temperament, language, and sleep, and how self-regulation in turn influences adjustment and school readiness.  A special emphasis of his work examines the neural development underlying the development of self-regulation, school readiness, and externalizing problems, with measures of electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs).  To study the development of self-regulation and behavior problems, the lab follows children and their families longitudinally, from an early age, and examines multiple levels of analysis.


  • Alejandro Pezzulo, MD

    Internal Medicine

    The Pezzulo Lab is trying to uncover genetic, epigenetic, and environmental mechanisms of chronic disease susceptibility. The greatest medical challenge of our times is neurodegeneration and its toll on millions of people. While Dr. Pezzlo is trained as a pulmonary/critical care physician and his lab also studies lung diseases, they are now applying techniques developed in the Pezzulo lab to understand whether neurodegeneration is associated with the response profiles of patient-derived cells obtained non-invasively.


  • Robert A. Philibert, MD, PhD

    Psychiatry

    The focus of the research efforts by Dr. Philibert's academic research group and its commercial affiliate, Behavioral Diagnostics LLC, isepigenetics. Specifically, we have developed and are commercializing proprietary epigenetic tools for the assessment and treatment of tobacco and alcohol consumption. In addition, we are in the process of translating additional tools for the assessment and treatment of other forms of substance use as well as general medical diagnostics for disorders such as coronary heart disease. The academic group is the caretaker for several large longitudinally characterized, biologically informed cohorts and possesses state of the art equipment for many aspects of molecular inquiry.


  • Matthew J. Potthoff, PhD

    Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    Obesity and insulin resistance are major contributors to the epidemic of metabolic diseases including dyslipidemia, hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Research in the Potthoff Lab is focused on the physiological mechanisms that regulate energy homeostasis and insulin sensitivity.  We are specifically interested in unraveling pathways that govern systemic energy balance and glucose homeostasis in hopes of identifying a new therapeutic to treat obesity and metabolic disease. This has led  to studying the diverse functions of the endocrine hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) which acts in the brain to increase energy expenditure and regulate carbohydrate homeostasis. Utilizing novel mouse models, classical pharmacological methodologies, and state-of-the-art tracer techniques, we have uncovered novel mechanisms regulating glucose homeostasis and energy expenditure that could lead to new treatments for cardiovascular and metabolic disease.


  • Jason J. Radley, PhD

    Psychological and Brain Sciences

    Threats to safety, whether real of perceived, activate a set of physiological, behavioral, and endocrine responses that promote effective coping.  Known collectively as stress responses, these have adaptive value for the individual in the short term.  However, when stress responses are activated over a sustained period they can initiate the onset of or worsen a variety of psychiatric and systemic disease states.  Our research program uses anatomical, behavioral, neuroendocrine, optogenetic approaches to understand the neural circuitry and mechanisms that regulate stress responses in rodents, and how these systems malfunction through the course of chronic exposure, as a greater knowledge of these pathways and how they malfunction is needed to minimize or prevent the adverse effects of stress on health and disease.  


  • Kamal Rahmouni, PhD

    Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    The Rahmouni Lab seeks to understand the fundamental biological events in the central nervous system that controls metabolism and cardiovascular function in health and disease. Dr. Rahmouni is especially focused on the identification of the neuronal pathways that determine metabolic and cardiovascular regulation. Studies in the laboratory are also being directed towards uncovering how these pathways are dysregulated in disease conditions such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. The lab uses multidisciplinary approaches including basic cellular and molecular research tools, genetic models and sophisticated physiological techniques including direct sympathetic/parasympathetic recordings that allow us to address physiological questions at the molecular level.