Neuroscience is by definition an interdisciplinary enterprise, with research interests ranging from the genetic to the behavioral levels. The breadth of approaches that must be employed to understand brain function in health and disease encompass electrophysiological, computational and biophysical methods, molecular biology and genomic technology, immunohistochemistry, and light and electron microscopic imaging techniques. The neuroscience laboratories associated with the BMS Ph.D. program use many of these techniques in in vivo and in vitro studies at the molecular, cellular and systems levels.

The faculty groups involved in neuroscience research are highly interactive, as are their research students. Individual laboratories are well equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation, and the Center for Brain Research provides access to additional resources for student and faculty research, including imaging workstations and confocal and electron microscopy expertise. A unique facility for hyperbaric studies is also the focus of much research in this track.

Faculty from the participating departments and the Center for Brain Research, sponsor exciting seminar series and regular national and international symposia that expose our students to diverse research areas and facilitate the 'networking' that is so valuable as students prepare for their postdoctoral careers. In addition, students in the neuroscience track are encouraged to attend and present at national meetings and in recent years have garnered several awards for the quality of their presentations at these meetings.

Research opportunities are available in several areas of interest including:

Ion channel, ion transporter, and neurotransmitter receptor expression and localization
Development of synaptic connections
Hyperbaric physiology, cardiovascular and respiratory control
Neuroendocrinology
Regulation of ion channel and receptor function, and cell volume

Participating faculty and areas of research
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Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Physiology

• Francisco Alvarez, Ph.D. Neurobiology: information processing in the spinal cord [home][e-mail]
• Timothy Cope, Ph.D., Chair. Electrophysiology of spinal neurons/synaptic plasticity/sensorimotor integration, motor control [home] [e-mail]
• Adrian Corbett, Ph.D. Ion channel structure and function. Dissertation qualified. [e-mail]
• Jay Dean, Ph.D. Respiratory/neural control of breathing in hyperbaric physiology. Dissertation qualified. [bio][e-mail]
• Robert E.W. Fyffe, Ph.D. Neuroscience. Dissertation qualified. [home][e-mail]
• Melvin Goldfinger, Ph.D. Models of impulse-based coding in axonal arborizations [bio][home][e-mail]
• John Pearson, Ph.D. Vice-Chair. Neuroanatomy and synaptology of the spinal cord. Dissertation qualified. [home][e-mail]

Clinical Departments, School of Medicine

• James Olson, Ph.D. [also Clinical Departments, School of Medicine]. Mechanism of brain edema. Dissertation qualified. [home][e-mail]

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

• Robert Grubbs, Ph.D. Regulation of muscarinic receptor expression by growth factor. Dissertation qualified. [home][e-mail]
• James Lucot, Ph.D. Neurotransmitters and pathways involved in different forms of stress [home][e-mail]
• Mariana Morris, Ph.D. Hypertension and how the brain regulates blood pressure. Dissertation qualified. [home][e-mail]
• Courtney Sulentic, Ph.D. Cellular and molecular immunotoxicology. [][e-mail]

Department of Psychology

• Michael Hennessy, Ph.D. Developmental psychobiology and stress. Dissertation qualified. [home][e-mail]
• Dragana Ivkovich, Ph.D, Neurocognitive development of learning and memory in rats and humans during infancy. [home][e-mail]
• Tamera Schneider, Ph.D. Physiological and psychological responses to stress. [home][e-mail]
• Scott Watamaniuk, Ph.D. Visual perception, motion perception, eye movements. [home] [e-mail]