Our research cluster focuses on factors that regulate communication within and between neural circuits. One underlying motivation is the compelling premise that animal behavior – sensory, motor, cognitive, and vegetative, whether normal or abnormal – ultimately depends on factors that regulate the distribution of electrically encoded information, and the resultant excitability of neurons and signaling at their synapses. Another motivation is our fascination with the complexity of cellular and subcellular mechanisms involved in neural communication and with the array of sophisticated methods for studying these mechanisms. The laboratories of each of our faculty, listed below, covers a unique set of topics in the general area of synapses and circuits. Follow the links below for each faculty member to discover more thorough descriptions of our research programs.

Participating Faculty:

Francisco Alvarez, Ph.D. Neurobiology: information processing in the spinal cord [home][e-mail]

Francisco J. Alvarez-Leefmans, M.D., Ph.D. Cell volume control; pathology and physiology; role of cation chloride co-transport in pain [home][e-mail]

Timothy Cope, Ph.D., Electrophysiology of spinal neurons/synaptic plasticity/sensorimotor integration, motor control [home] [e-mail]

Kathrin Engisch, Ph.D. Mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and plasticity of release [home][e-mail]

Robert E.W. Fyffe, Ph.D. Neuroscience [home][e-mail]

Melvyn Goldfinger, Ph.D. Central and periferal nervous system processing of digital and analog information [bio][e-mail]

Mark M. Rich, M.D., Ph.D. Synaptic function and modulation of sodium channel gating [bio][e-mail]