Dr. Awatramani proposes that there is a developmental basis for dopamine neuron diversity. In other words, during embryonic development, the dopamine progenitor pool is parceled in a manner meaningful to…
Understanding how nerve cells are wired together into functional circuits is essential to understanding how the brain works. Traditional anatomical techniques can reveal the structure of neuronal circuits. However, determining…
Parkinson’s disease (PD), a severely debilitating adult-onset neurodegenerative condition, is characterized by a substantial depletion of a subset of midbrain dopamine neurons (mDA). This loss of mDA accounts for most…
Our lab is interested in understanding events that lead to chronic degenerative diseases that affect the brain. Currently we are studying a genetic disease that leads to cerebellar pathology called…
Investigation of molecular and genetic controls over survival and degeneration of sub-type specific neuron populations in relation to disease is critically important. Neurodegenerative diseases stem from progressive and cell-type specific…
More than 600,000 people in the U.S. have severely impaired motor function from disorders including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, brainstem stroke, and spinal cord injury. The cost of caring for these…
Schizophrenia is a debilitating developmental illness characterized by multiple symptoms including hallucinations, delusions and social withdrawal. Although drugs are available to treat some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, their profound…
The mammalian superior colliculus (SC) is a subcortical structure that integrates visual and other sensory information and controls eye and head movements to orient the animal towards novel sensory stimuli.…
Our body can handle most common stressors by adapting. However, chronic stress can wear down our body and cause us to become ill, both physically and mentally. If you are…
The size and shape of every part of the brain are determined by how much the neuronal progenitor cells divide during embryogenesis. In nematodes, we identified a gene that is…
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