George Richerson, MD, PhD

Neurology

One goal of the Richerson Lab is to determine the mechanisms by which serotonergic neurons sense changes in CO2, and how their downstream effects contribute to control of pH. Defining the mechanisms of central respiratory chemoreception may lead to specific treatments for diseases in which respiratory chemoreception is abnormal and provide a better understanding of how CO2 and pH affect CNS function. The team is also studying how GABA is released from neurons and glia, and how this release is affected by anticonvulsants. GABA is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.

Andrew Russo, PhD

Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Neurology

Dr. Russo's research interest is the molecular basis of migraine. The hallmark of migraine is altered sensory perception coupled with a debilitating headache. Clinical studies have established that the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a key player in migraine. Using mouse models, we have shown that CGRP acts both centrally and peripherally to induce light aversive behavior analogous to photophobia. CGRP also induces pain indicated by facial grimace and reduced voluntary movement. Our lab is currently using genetic and optogenetic tools to identify the neural pathways responsible for CGRP-induced photosensitivity and pain. We are also exploring how CGRP is elevated by cortical spreading depression, which is associated with migraine aura and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Recently, we have begun translational studies testing photosensitivity in migraine patients and veterans with mild TBI. Our overall goals are to develop effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for migraine and post-traumatic headache.

Rasna Sabharwal, PhD

Internal Medicine

Research in the Sabharwal Lab is directed towards understanding neurohumoral regulatory mechanisms in health and disease.  Ongoing projects investigate the role of renin-angiotensin system, sympathetic nervous system, and hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis in muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, dilated cardiomyopathy and stress-induced sudden death.  We utilize multidisciplinary and state-of-the art approaches such as radiotelemetry, echocardiography, in vivo viral gene transfer, optogenetics etc. to assess cardiovascular and autonomic functions, sleep-wakefulness patterns, behavior and neural circuitry in genetically modified mice.  Our ultimate goal is to identify novel therapies that can be translated to yield better clinical outcomes in neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases, cardiomyopathies and psychosocial disorders. 

Kelly Schieltz, PhD

Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

Dr. Schieltz is an Assistant Professor and psychologist in Pediatric Psychology, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, who specializes in the assessment and treatment of severe challenging behavior (e.g., self-injury, aggression, property destruction) displayed by children with and without developmental disabilities. Her programmatic research is focused in two areas that span the applied and translational research continuum in applied behavior analysis. The focus of her applied research is on coaching and training parents in their homes in-vivo and via telehealth to conduct behavioral treatments with their young children with developmental disabilities who engage in severe challenging behavior. Her translational research focuses on the application of Behavioral Momentum Theory to further understand and facilitate the long-term maintenance (i.e., behavioral persistence) of adaptive behavior (e.g., communication, academic responding) when treatment is disrupted, and the evaluation of changes in prefrontal brain activity (via fNIRS) during behavioral assessments and treatments of severe challenging behavior. 

Jordan Schultz, PharmD

Pharmacy Practice and Science & Psychiatry

The Schultz Lab engages in clinical and translational research involving patients with neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on Huntington’s disease.  We take an epidemiological approach to identify environmental factors, including medications, that may have an effect on disease progression.  Using this information, our lab uses novel neuroimaging techniques to test specific hypotheses to better understand the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration.  The Schultz Lab is also well-positioned to perform clinical trials on identified interventions.

David Shaha, MD

Neurology

Dr. Shaha is Director of the Sleep Lab in the Department of Neurology. He is interested in clinical interventions to address sleep disorders as well as understanding the impact of sleep on human performance.

Madeline Shea, PhD

Biochemistry, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics

The Shea Lab studies how allosteric interactions govern calcium-mediated signal transduction pathways essential to human health. The group dissects distinct roles of the domains of the essential calcium receptor protein calmodulin (CaM) to understand molecular mechanisms of regulation of voltage-gated ion channels, the Ser/Thr phosphatase calcineurin, the NMDA receptor, CaMKII, the ryanodine receptor and other target proteins found in neurons and muscle.  They develop and apply quantitative approaches of biophysical chemistry (including NMR, fluorescence, crystallography, CD, hydrodynamics, footprinting) to probe the linkage between energetic and structural determinants that control binding of calcium and drugs to CaM, and the resulting domain-specific conformational changes of CaM that control its regulation of protein targets.  The Shea Lab discovered the role of order-disorder transitions on the cooperativity within and between CaM domains, and explores how those are influenced by target interactions.

Susan Shen, MD, PhD

Psychiatry

Nature or nurture: which is more important for mental health? The weight of the research suggests that both play key roles. The Shen lab seeks to understand the complex interplay between genes and environment in neuropsychiatric disorders. They are particularly interested in the impact of early-life and cumulative exposures on later-life outcomes as related to mood disorders and psychosis. They draw upon tools and perspectives from diverse fields, including systems biology, drug discovery, and environmental health sciences. The current focus is on oxidative stress, a convergence point of cellular dysfunction across neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Using cellular models as a starting point, they are examining the combinatorial effects of genetic variants and environmental exposures (e.g., dietary antioxidants and smoking-related toxicants) on oxidative stress in brain cell types. By gaining a molecular understanding of exposures related to social determinants of health, they aim to bridge basic science and health services research to improve mental health outcomes.

Kathleen Sluka, PT, PhD

Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science

Dr. Sluka's laboratory studies the peripheral and central mechanisms of chronic musculoskeletal pain, and non-pharmacological treatment for chronic pain. These studies involve the use of animal models of muscle pain developed and characterized in Dr. Sluka's laboratory, as well as projects in human subjects. We use a variety of techniques to address these questions including cell culture, molecular biology, genetic manipulations, behavioral pharmacology, and standard clinical trial methodology. Our overall goals are to improve the management of pain for people with a variety of musculoskeletal pain conditions by discovering the underlying mechanisms that lead to the development of chronic pain, discovering new therapies for pain management, and improving the use of currently available treatment for pain.

Greta Sokoloff, PhD

Psychological and Brain Sciences

Humans sleep the most when they are young and yet very little is known about why. Importantly, during infancy we spend more time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep than at any other time in our life. Dr. Sokoloff is interested in understanding the role of sleep, especially REM sleep, in early brain development. Her work has found that the movements that accompany REM sleep, myoclonic twitches, result in strong activation of sensorimotor systems – activation that is rarely observed when infant rodents are awake. Following decades of research investigating the role of twitching on the development of the sensorimotor system in infant rodents, we are now investigating twitching in human infants. With an understanding of the quantity and patterning of twitches in early postnatal development, in concert with neural activity, we hope to leverage REM sleep twitches as an early assessment of brain and spinal cord function in typically and atypically developing human populations.

Levi Sowers, PhD

Pediatrics

 Dr. Sowers' research focuses on the pathophysiology of migraine in preclinical models, with an emphasis on the neural circuitry underlying photophobia and pain. His recent work concentrates on cerebellar-thalamic networks and how CGRP and CGRP-producing neurons within these networks contribute to headache-like hypersensitivity. He is also the cofounder and co-host of the Vets First podcast, which communicates research to Veterans. 

Hanna Stevens, MD, PhD

Psychiatry

The Psychiatry and Early Neurobiological Development Lab (PENDL) in the Iowa Neuroscience Institute seeks to understand molecular and cellular aspects of early brain development and their relevance to psychiatric disorders. We are particularly interested in understanding how prenatal stress, environmental exposures, and genes that play a role in early development have an impact on childhood behavior and act as risk factors for multiple psychiatric disorders. 

We use mostly basic science techniques including molecular, cellular, neuroanatomical, and behavioral assessment of mouse models. Specific mechanisms currently being examined in the lab are embryonic neuronal migration, telomere biology and oxidative stress, embryonic neurogenesis, fibroblast growth factor signaling, and branched chain amino acid metabolism. We also examine risk factors during prenatal development in family cohorts. Our goal is to advance mental health prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders across the lifespan. We particularly focus on the high risk times of pregnancy and early development. 

Stefan Strack, PhD

Neuroscience and Pharmacology

Research in the Strack Lab revolves around signal transduction mechanisms in neuronal development and neurodegeneration. We have two main areas of research interest. The first is regulation and substrate specificity of neuronal protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) holoenzymes. The second area is regulation of the mitochondrial fission/fusion equilibrium by protein kinases and phosphatases. Our research is relevant to the treatment of neurological disorders (in particular, peripheral neuropathies and spinocerebellar ataxias), ischemic stroke, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Daniel Summers, PhD

Biology

Neurons establish functional connections throughout the human body by projecting long structures called axons that can reach over a meter in length. Axons are highly susceptible to stress or injury such that axon degeneration is an early and prominent event in many neurological disorders. The Summers Lab investigates the biology of axons with a focus on proteostasis networks controlling axon integrity and vulnerability to pathological axon degeneration. The lab uses a combination of biochemistry, cell biology, and animal models to interrogate protein homeostasis pathways in the axon compartment. The primary goal of this research is to understand the cellular pathways responsible for axon survival and identify new therapeutic opportunities for intervention in neurodegenerative diseases.

J. Bruce Tomblin, PhD

Communication Sciences and Disorders (Emeritus)

Dr. Tomblin's research has been concerned with the causes and consequences of individual differences in language development and disorders.  With respect to the first topic, he has focused on pathways that run through multiple levels of causation ranging from genetic and environmental factors through brain and cognitive learning systems. His genetics research has been done in collaboration with Jeff Murray and recently Jake Mickelson searching for genetic factors that influence brain systems that support language development and contribute to developmental disorders. His imaging work has involved structural MRI and functional connectivity of brain systems cortical and subcortical) associated with language. This work has been done in collaboration with Dr. Peg Nopoulos and Dr. Brad Schlaggar at Washington University in St. Louis. Recently we have extended this work to use MRI to examine individual differences in auditory, speech and language brain systems in children with mild to severe hearing loss with a focus on the effects of variation in auditory and linguistic input on these brain systems.

James Traer, PhD

Psychological and Brain Sciences

The Traer Lab seeks quantitative models which “hear the world like a human”, that is, models which explain and predict human behavior in ecologically relevant listening tasks (i.e. scene analysis, localization, size and distance estimation, motion tracking, etc.) These models demonstrate the perceptual importance of specific stimulus features and thereby reveal features that the brain explicitly detects and encodes. As the stimuli are derived from basic hearing tasks common to both humans and animals this sheds new light on a fundamental component of auditory processing. We hope these methods will: explain how brains infer rich information from noisy scenes; uncover neural processes that underly perception; and help to replicate this performance to build better hearing-aids.
 

Nicholas Trapp, MD

Psychiatry

The Trapp lab is focused on the application and optimization of neuromodulation therapies for the treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions. Dr. Trapp has focused on using innovative methods of applying brain stimulation treatment to address difficult-to-treat conditions, employing the use of structural MRI, resting-state functional connectivity MRI, and neuronavigation. Dr. Trapp is Director, Electroconvulsive Therapy Services in the Department of Psychiatry.

Shaun Vecera, PhD

Psychological and Brain Sciences

Dr. Vecera is a specialist in visual cognition, with specific interests in visual attention. He is a professor in the cognition and perception area in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa. His main line of research relies on behavioral and psychophysical measures of attention, but Professor Vecera also relies on neuropsychological patients and neuroimaging to constrain his theoretical views of attention.  The underlying theme in most of the recent research from Professor Vecera’s lab is the role of longer-term learning and memory on the control of visual attention.  Recent results suggest that rewards—either direct monetary rewards or secondary reinforcers—can bias the deployment of visual attention and that visual regularities influence those items that are likely to be attended.

Yangyang Wang, PhD

Mathematics

Dr. Wang's broad research interest lies in the area of applied dynamical systems and mathematical neuroscience. She uses differential equations, geometric singular perturbation theory and computational modeling to understand how complex activity patterns are produced in neuronal systems, how they entrain input signals with a varying frequency, and how they drive patterns of movements for animal behaviors. In addition, she also explores the role that network structure plays in determining what dynamics are possible within a system. Applications of interest include respiratory rhythms, motor control in food-swallowing behavior in the sea slug Aplysia, role of astrocytes in chemosensory control of respiration, speech perception, and homeostasis in biochemical networks. 

Shunguang Wei, PhD

Internal Medicine

The Wei Lab seeks to advance our understanding of the central brain mechanisms underlying the regulation of cardiovascular function, hemodynamics, sympathetic nerve activity and neuroendocrine in cardiovascular diseases. Using a multifaceted approach including electrophysiology, molecular biology, immunofluorescence, pharmacology, and biochemistry in experimental animal models, our current projects investigate the central inflammatory mechanisms driving neurohumoral activation in heart failure and hypertension. Dr. Wei is particularly interested in inflammation-driven neuronal excitability, synaptic plasticity, and intracellular signaling associated with the productions of excitatory mediators in cardiovascular/autonomic brain regions like forebrain subfornical organ (SFO) and paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN). He also studies the potential neural pathways that mediate peripheral and central inflammatory cytokines-induced sympathetic excitation. 

John Wemmie, MD, PhD

Psychiatry, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Neurosurgery

Dr. Wemmie is interested in the role of brain pH and acid-sensing ion channels in brain function and behavior. This work has led to the discovery of critical roles for brain pH in synaptic plasticity, anxiety, and depression-related behaviors in mice. Current projects include investigating the synaptic mechanisms for acid-sensing ion channel action and also translating these discoveries to human behavior and brain function. For example, his laboratory is using non-invasive pH-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the roles of brain pH in psychiatric illnesses such as panic disorder and bipolar affective disorder.

Florence Williams, PhD

Chemistry

The Williams lab in the Department of Chemistry applies organic synthetic expertise to questions of cellular biology.  One area of focus is natural products which have been identified as neurotrophic – causing growth, proliferation and/or differentiation in neuron or neuron progenitor cells.  We synthetically produce the natural product molecules as well as variants which allow for structure-activity-relationship studies and cross-linking mechanistic studies.  Moreover, we perform biochemical analyses using PC-12 cell lines in order to elucidate signal transduction pathways.  Another area of interest is the development of bioorthogonal reactions – reactions that are exquisitely selective, where the reagents react only with each other and do not react with anything naturally present in a cell.  Bioorthogonal reactions allow for the control of a single bond forming process despite complex physiologically relevant environments and can be used for applications ranging from ligations to synthetic post-translational modifications.

Virginia L. Willour, PhD

Psychiatry

The primary goal of our laboratory is to identify genetic and epigenetic risk factors for suicidal behavior. Genetic epidemiological studies make it clear that suicidal behavior has a substantial heritable component. While there is evidence that this heritability is accounted for in part by a liability to mood disorder, other evidence suggests an independent heritable facet that may cut across multiple psychiatric disorders. With this in mind, we have been employing systematic genetic approaches including linkage analysis, genome-wide association study analysis, whole exome sequencing analysis, RNA-Seq analysis, and genome-wide methylation analysis, with the goal of identifying genomic regions, genes, and biological pathways influencing suicide risk. Our ongoing research has implicated a region on chromosome 2 (2p25) in the risk for suicidal behavior, and we are utilizing complementary genetic approaches, such as CRISPR-Cas9 based deletion mapping and bioinformatics assessment, to characterize the region and identify the functional elements conferring increased risk.  

Chun-Fang Wu, PhD

Biology

The long-term research goals in the Wu Lab concern the genetic framework underlying nervous system function and behavior in the context of nature-nurture interactions. Our research involves analyses at difference levels in Drosophila mutants and natural variant. A combination of electrophysiological, anatomical, cell biological, genetic and behavioral techniques is employed to study the neural basis of behavior in both in vivo and in vitro preparations.  Currently, our research projects center around neuronal, behavioral, and lifespan plasticity in Drosophila. We focus on mutants with altered nerve excitability and deficiencies in learning behavior. Mutants and transgenic flies are analyzed in identified neurons and neural circuits for consequences of altered ion channel functions and synaptic mechanisms, as well as their homeostatic adjustments under environmental stressors throughout the lifespan. For example, we found the short-lived SOD mutant flies could double their lifespan when co-housed with young, active “helper” flies. This striking social interaction effect improves stress resistance and motor coordination, opening opportunities to unravel the underlying molecular mechanisms and networks of interacting genes that confer the beneficial effects.

Samuel M. Young, PhD

Anatomy and Cell Biology

The Young Lab is focused on the fundamental question– “How do synapses enable neuronal circuits to transmit a wide diversity of information?”  Outcomes from our work will define the molecular principles that govern how synaptic properties drive neuronal circuit output which underpins organism behavior. These molecular principles uncovered may reveal the underlying causes of neuronal circuit dysregulation which results in neuropsychiatric or neurodegenerative diseases and have the potential to give rise to new therapeutic treatments.