Genetic abnormalities in synaptic proteins and abnormal brain connectivity are common in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). However, whether and how autism-related mutations cause abnormal 5 connectivity in the…
Patients with Parkinson’s Disease eventually develop complications of the main medical therapy available, levodopa, or L-dopa. These complications include disabling involuntary movements triggered by levodopa. We do not know why…
The goal of this project is to develop tiny devices the size of blood cells that can be injected into the blood stream and non-invasively activated in specific locations of…
Creatine transporter deficiency is a common cause of mental retardation and autism-related disorder that has no effective therapy to date. We have generated a mouse model that recapitulates clinical symptoms…
Synaptic plasticity is thought to be essential for normal cognition and is impaired in numerous neuropsychiatric disorders and diseases, including schizophrenia, autism, and Alzheimer’s. While plasticity defects likely underlie many…
Drug addiction is a major public issue worldwide because it strongly affects a person’s health and places a costly burden upon society. A consistent finding in addiction research is that…
The activity of neurons in the brain is determined by the interplay of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs to each cell. Alterations in neuronal inhibition are thought to play key…
Over 65 million people worldwide have epilepsy and suffer from debilitating seizures. Seizures result from clusters of neurons in a circuit to fire synchronously as the result of a lowered…
While Down Syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic form of intellectual disability caused by a birth defect, there is currently no effective treatment for it. Development of the cerebral…
Our overall goal is to define new mechanisms that sustain and enhance neuron viability and function during development and aging. The functional characterization of TFG, which has been implicated in…
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