PROJECT SUMMARY: Behavioral dysfunction in neurodevelopmental diseases often arises from aberrant neural circuit assembly. However, the developmental logic that dictates circuit organization, function, and ultimately behavior remains unresolved due to the complexity of most circuits.
Project Summary Mutation of HCFC1 causes a multiple congenital anomaly syndrome characterized by inborn errors of cobalamin metabolism, intractable epilepsy, intellectual disability, and motor dysfunction. Despite an implication for HCFC1 in these neurological impairments, a mechanism describing the function of HCFC1 during brain development has not been completely elucidated. HCFC1 encodes for a transcriptional co-factor protein known to regulate cellular proliferation of various progenitor cells including neural precursor cells (NPC).
PROJECT SUMMARY Stress and addiction are intricately linked neural processes. Acute stress can serve as a stimulus for relapse to compulsive drug seeking following abstinence, and chronic stress can induce escalated drug intake to multiple classes of drugs. The Jones lab and others have shown that the chronic psychosocial stressor of adolescent social isolation (aSI) leads to impairments in dopamine (DA) function in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and increased vulnerability to stimulant drug and alcohol taking that persists into adulthood.
PROJECT SUMMARY Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of inherited peripheral neuropathies that is characterized by damage to long motor and sensory axons. The overall goal of this project is to identify the molecular and cellular processes that are shared between different CMT genes to help address a common target for treatment for this currently incurable disease.
ABSTRACT Perturbations in redox signaling are associated with multiple neurological disorders, ranging from neurodegenerative diseases to brain tumors. The brain tumor glioblastoma (GBM) is a devastating disease and improved understanding of its altered bioenergetics and redox status is likely to improve treatment options. GBM is highly heterogeneous and includes cells that have altered redox states and similarities to neural stem cells, called brain tumor initiating cells (BTICs), that cause tumor recurrence.
Project Summary Significance. The human brain has a dedicated neural system for processing other humans. However relatively little is known about the basic mechanisms of this processing. Prior research has found that live human face viewing results in more activity in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) than does viewing a face simulation like a robot face. This suggests that live faces have characteristics that transcend appearance, motion, co- presence, and embodiment which give them access to sociocognitive systems that face simulations cannot access. Research question.
ABSTRACT Substance use disorder is a chronic relapsing disease that is characterized by repeated drug use despite negative consequences. Despite extensive efforts into examining the underlying molecular mechanisms of methamphetamine use disorder, there are currently no FDA approved therapeutics to treat this debilitating disease.
Project Summary/Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading health concern for both children and adults worldwide. Similarities between pig and human brain anatomy, development, and neuroinflammatory response have brought attention to the domestic pig as a highly promising model animal for studying age-specific responses to mechanical trauma. To date, I have quantified baseline behavioral data in healthy Yucatan minipigs.
1 PROJECT SUMMARY 2 Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia worldwide, incurring a projected healthcare 3 burden of $1 trillion in the United States alone by 2060. It is the 7th leading cause of mortality in the United States 4 and it disproportionately impacts minoritized racial and ethnic groups. Although many pharmacologic 5 therapeutics have been tested to slow or remove the hallmark amyloid and tau aggregates, none have proved 6 effective at reversing AD cognitive decline.
Project Summary (Overall: Cracking the Olfactory Code) Sensation drives perception, which informs decisions and actions. Olfaction is the main sense used by most animals to interact with the environment. However, olfaction remains shrouded in mystery — we do not know which molecular odorant features matter to the olfactory system and which do not, how information about these features is recombined to create holistic odor representations within the brain, or how those representations relate to perception.
