Doctoral Neuroscience Program

Neural activity in a Swamp swallow during singing and listening
Dr. Prather’s lab studies uses combined behavioral, anatomical, electrophysiological, optogenetic and neuroimaging approaches to investigate how the brain enables us to learn. Presently, his studies are focused on the neural mechanisms that underlie how male birds learn and maintain their songs, and how female birds evaluate song quality to choose their mates.

Neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration
Coeliac ganglia in two dogs that died from chronic (A) and acute (B) panautonomic degeneration (spontaneous disease in pet animals). Dr. Fox’s laboratory studies mechanisms of neurodegeneration. The main focus of his research is the role of persistent latent CNS infections in promoting neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in Huntington’s disease and brain aging. This work is a collaboration with Dr. Gigley in the department of molecular biology. As illustrated above, he also studies spontaneous dysautonomias in domestic animals.

Neural encoding mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex
A mouse brain expressing the calcium indicator GCamp6f in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is implanted with GRIN lens and mounted with a miniScope. B. Calcium imaging recorded through a miniScope from the mPFC of a freely behaving mouse. C. Representative calcium traces from twenty regions of interest. Dr. Li’s lab studies how neural activity carries information to guide behavior. The prefrontal cortex plays an essential role in planning, reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving. Disruptions in the PFC neural circuitry are associated with behavioral abnormalities in a variety of brain disorders. Dr. Li uses miniScope in-vivo calcium imaging in freely-behaving mice, in combination with optogenetics and viral-genetic tools, to study neural circuit mechanisms of depression, autism, and dementia.

Mechanisms of brain development
Photomicrograph of an intracellularly neurobiotin-filled glutamatergic neuron (green) surrounded by genetically labeled GABAergic parvalbumin-expressing interneurons (red, tdtomato) in a mouse barrel cortex layer IV. This 2D image was a maximum projection image derived from a 3-D z-stack confocal image acquired by Dr. Xinjun Wang, a neuroscience PhD graduate from Dr. Sun’s lab. The Sun lab combines mouse genetics, imaging and electrophysiology to understand the mechanisms underlying development and related developmental brain disorders.

Spinal cord injury in Zebra fish model
Zebrafish brain illustrating upper motor neurons (green) and oligodendrocyte precursor cells (red). Spinal cord neuronal tracts (green) and migrating oligodendrocyte precursor cells (red) and innervating motor neurons (red) in in normal zebrafish (B) and following spinal trauma (C). Zebrafish have a remarkable regenerative capability making them an excellent model to study CNS injury and neurodegeneration. Dr. Mruk's lab studies the mechanisms of spinal cord regeneration following injury. We use a combination of chemical probes, genetic manipulation, microscopy, and electrophysiology to understand how locomotion returns and what genetics factors govern this process.