Neurosciences
 

The Neurosciences Ph.D. Program is designed to accommodate all graduate students at Stanford with an interest in neural function and/or structure. Diverse approaches are being used to solve the mystery of the brain by a faculty renowned for its leadership in molecular neurobiology, signal transduction, cellular and developmental neurobiology, electrophysiology, systems and sensory neurobiology, neurological and behavioral sciences, and computational neuroscience. Our program trains a select group of students to become leaders in this exciting and growing field.
       Stanford provides a rich research environment in which to think, discuss, and solve some of the major biological questions of our time. In the neurosciences, these include the basis of learning and memory, the molecular and cellular basis of intracellular and intercellular communication, how genes control development and behavior, how neuronal networks give rise to perception and consciousness, and the etiology and treatment of disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. There is no better time to launch your career in neuroscience, and there is no better place to do it than at Stanford.
       Every student is trained in the fundamentals of neuroscience and allied fields of biological sciences. In addition to an introductory course in neurobiology, students select from courses in the areas above. Requirements and training are tailored to the needs and specialized research interests of the student. Students also participate in a weekly forum that introduces them to “survival skills” including the presentation of oral, written, and graphical information; effective grant writing; job hunting; and the responsible conduct of scientific investigation.
       Neurosciences is a cohesive interdisciplinary program with a unique esprit de corps because its students are of the highest quality and its 87 faculty members have a tradition of collaborating in every aspect of their education.

For more information contact:
The Neurosciences Program
300 Pasteur Drive
Alway Building, M-103D
Stanford, CA 94305-5121
(650) 723-9855
(650) 725-3867 (fax)
http://neuroscience.stanford.edu/education/phd_program/

Faculty and their Research Interests

Stephen A. Baccus. Visual processing in neural circuits of the retina, studied using multielectrode extracellular array recording, intracellular recording, imaging, and computational modeling.

Bruce S. Baker. Sex determination, sexual behavior, dosage compensation and imaginal disc development in Drosophila melanogaster, with the goal of understanding at a molecular level how these processes are brought about.

Ben A. Barres. Our lab is interested in the neuronal-glial interactions that underlie the development and function of the mammalian central nervous system.

Helen M. Blau. Regulating stem cell fate in vitro and in vivo. Stem cell therapies. Characterizing and bioengineering stem cell niches. Nuclear reprogramming.  Muscle development and disease. Drug delivery. Tracking cell behavior in vitro and in vivo. Understanding tissue degeneration and regeneration.

Kwabena Boahen. Our group has two synergistic goals: to understand how brains work, which will enable us to replace damaged neural tissue, and to build computers that work like brains, which will enable us to increase computational power a million-fold. To these ends, we model brains using an approach far more efficient than software simulation: we emulate the flow of ions directly with the flow of electrons. Thus, our work links electronics and computer science with neurobiology and medicine.

Lera Boroditsky. Language, cognition and perception; cross-linguistic differences in thought; effects of experience on cognition and perception; plasticity.
 
Anne Brunet. Molecular basis of longevity and age-dependent diseases. Role of the nervous system in the control of lifespan.

Axel Brunger. Axel Brunger’s goal is to understand the molecular mechanism of synaptic neurotransmission. He is particularly interested in the structure, function, and dynamics of key players in the synaptic vesicle fusion machinery. His lab is also working on the mechanism of action of clostridial neurotoxins that target this machinery. Other projects include the ATPases of the AAA family that are involved in protein complex disassembly and degradation. A molecular understanding of these complex protein machineries may ultimately lead to new therapeutics to treat human diseases.

Paul S. Buckmaster. Mechanisms of epilepsy; circuitry of temporal lobe structures.

Pak H. Chan. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of cell death after ischemia, trauma and neurodegeneration using transgenic and knockout strategies.

Thomas R. Clandinin. Genetic and molecular mechanisms controlling the development of precise patterns of neuronal connections in the central nervous system. Functional dissection of neuronal circuits controlling visual behaviors in the fruit fly.
 
Corinna Darian-Smith. Structural organization and function of peripheral and central neural pathways that underlie directed manual behavior. Capacity of these neural pathways to compensate/adapt following specific sensory manipulations.
 
Karl Deisseroth. Neural stem cells, neuroengineering, adaptive plasticity, electrophysiology, two-photon imaging, animal behavior, computational modeling, neuropsychiatry, developing noninvasive technologies for focal brain stimulation.

Luis de Lecea. We focus on the molecules and neuronal circuits controlling sleep and arousal and on the role of the hypocretins/orexins in addiction.

Ricardo E. Dolmetsch. Calcium channel regulation of neuronal motility, survival and differentiation; development of new technologies to study neural circuits.

Russell D. Fernald. In the course of evolution, two of the strongest selective forces in nature, light and sex, have left their mark on living organisms. I am interested in how the evolution and function of the nervous system reflects these events. In the visual system, we are studying how eyes evolved. In the reproductive system, we have identified a collection of cells in the brain containing gonodotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) that respond to changes in the social conditions by changing size.

Robert S. Fisher. Clinical manifestations of epileptic seizures. New technology for investigating and treating epilepsy.

Craig C. Garner. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of CNS synaptogenesis.

Rona G. Giffard. Cellular and molecular basis for neuronal and astrocyte vulnerability to ischemic injury; roles of chaperones and mitochondria in cell death.

William F. Gilly. Mechanisms involved in the cellular regulation of properties, density, and spatial distribution of voltage-gated Na and K channels and of ionotropic glutamate receptors cloned from the squid nervous system and expressed in frog oocytes and insect cells.

Gary H. Glover. Development of novel methods for imaging of brain function using MRI.

Miriam B. Goodman. Cellular and molecular basis of sensory mechano- and thermotransduction. We study sensation at the molecular, cellular and organismal levels, leveraging the complete wiring diagram of the C. elegans nervous system, advanced tools in classical and molecular genetics, electron microscopy, and in vivo electrophysiology. 

Ian H. Gotlib. Neural foundations of information-processing biases in affective disorders; psychophysiology of depression; depression in children and adolescents.

Isabella Graef. Signaling and transcription in neural development.

Kalanit Grill-Spector. High-level vision, object & face recognition, learning categories and concepts. Studying the neural basis of visual perception using functional imaging (fMRI) of the human brain. Computational modeling and behavioral investigations of visual perception.

James J. Gross. Neural and autonomic bases of emotion and emotion regulation: basic processes (emphasizing relations among behavior, physiology, and subjective experience); personality correlates; health implications, with particular emphasis on social anxiety disorder.

H. Craig Heller. Neurobiology of sleep, circadian rhythms, regulation of body temperature, mammalian hibernation, and human exercise physiology. Dr. Heller is co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology. The Center fosters multidisciplinary approaches and collaborations that will help us understand the neural mechanisms controlling arousal states and arousal state transitions, the function of sleep, and the neural mechanisms of circadian rhythms. Research on human exercise physiology focuses on the effects of body temperature on physical conditioning and performance.

Stefan Heller. Inner ear development, cellular function, and regeneration.

Shaul Hestrin. Cortical function reflects the interaction of external sensory inputs with internal dynamic states of the cortex. The long-term goal of my lab is to understand how local circuits within the cortex generate these internal states and respond to sensory stimulation. We study the physiological properties of known classes of cortical neurons both in cortical slices and in vivo. We monitor how physiological responses and the morphological structure of neurons are modified by visual experience.

Ting-Ting Huang. The role of stress response and mitochondria in neurodegeneration; identify genetic modifiers that modulate responses to oxidative stress in the mitochondria.

John R. Huguenard. Neurobiology of thalamocortical oscillatory activities in epilepsy and sleep. Mechanisms of hyperexcitability, neuronal hypersynchrony, and relevant antiepileptic drug actions.  Development of neocortical and thalamic networks. Computational models of realistic neural networks.

Terence A. Ketter. Brain imaging and pharmacological studies of emotion, mood, and temperament in healthy volunteers; mood disorders.

Eric I. Knudsen. Cellular mechanisms of learning, studied in the central auditory system in developing and adult animals, using behavioral, systems,
cellular and molecular techniques.

Brian D. Knutson. Role of biogenic amines in modulating emotional experience. Neural correlates of anticipation of reward and punishment in healthy humans and patients with affective disorders.

Brian K. Kobilka. Structure, function and physiology of adrenergic receptors.

Ron R. Kopito. Cellular mechanisms which monitor protein biogenesis and ensure that only properly folded and assembled proteins are deployed within the cell. Genetic biochemical and cell biological approaches are used to identify the machinery involved in recognizing and destroying misfolded proteins.

Richard S. Lewis. Calcium signaling by ion channels and cellular organelles; store-operated channels; calcium control of gene expression.

Frank Longo. Our studies are focused on elucidation of disease-related signaling mechanisms and development of novel small-molecule strategies for preventing neurodegeneration and promoting neurogenesis and neural function.  Disease areas include Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.

Bingwei Lu. Neural stem cell behavior; mechanisms of neurodegeneration.

Liqun Luo. We use molecular genetics to understand the logic of neural circuit organization and assembly in fruit flies and mice.

M. Bruce MacIver. The action of CNS depressants in hippocampal and neocortical brain slices; whole cell patch clamp and field EEG recordings are used to compare and contrast anesthetic actions on synaptic currents and local cortical circuit function.

Sean Mackey. Functional neuroimaging of pain focusing on behavior and plasticity.

Daniel V. Madison. Our laboratory uses electrophysiological techniques to study the mechanisms of synaptic transmission and plasticity in the mammalian hippocampus. One of the main focuses in the lab is in the study of synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP).

Merritt C. Maduke. Molecular mechanisms of chloride movement through channels and transporters. Integration of biophysical and electrophysiological methods.

Robert C. Malenka. Long-lasting changes in synaptic strength are important for the modification of neural circuits by experience. A major goal of my laboratory is to elucidate the molecular events that trigger various forms of synaptic plasticity and the modifications in synaptic proteins that are responsible for the changes in synaptic efficacy.

James McClelland. Models of memory, language, and cognitive development.
Susan McConnell. How individual neurons know where they should sit in the brain and with which neurons they should form specific axonal connections. Identify and characterize the progenitor cells that give rise to neuron and the processes by which young neurons locate their correct targets among hundreds of thousands of other neurons in the brain.

U. Jack McMahan. Cellular and molecular basis of synapse development and regeneration.

Vinod Menon. Theoretical and experimental systems neuroscience - dynamical basis of brain function and dysfunction; functional brain imaging of human cognition and its disruption by mental illness; timing of perceptual and cognitive processes; mathematical models of nonlinear information processing in neural systems.

Tobias Meyer. Signal transduction processes that underlie synaptic plasticity. Use of fluorescent microscopy techniques to dissect the complex signaling mechanisms in dendrites that regulate channel insertion and synaptic connectivity.

Emmanuel J. Mignot. Our laboratory studies sleep disorders at the molecular and neurophysiological level. Most of our work focuses on the sleep disorder narcolepsy and the neuropeptide system hypocretin/orexin.

William C. Mobley. Signaling and actions of neurotrophic factors.

Daria Mochly-Rosen. Mechanisms underlying the specificity of protein kinase C isozymes; role of protein-protein interaction in signal transduction.

Tirin Moore. Mechanisms of visual perception and cognition; visuomotor integration; control of movement.

William T. Newsome. Neural processes that mediate visual perception and visually guided behavior.

Theo Palmer. Neural precursor cells and the production of new neurons. Local cues that regulate precursor activity. How this information is used to recruit cells for CNS repair or to interrupt precursor signaling once it has gone awry in malignant growth.

Karen Parker. Oxytocin and social behavior; stress and HPA axis physiology.
 
Anna Penn. We focus on the role of placental factors in brain development, including the influence of steroids (estrogens and progestins) and protein hormones on cerebellar and hippocampal neurogenesis and connectivity.

David Prince. Altered properties of neurons/synapses in models of epilepsy.

Thomas A. Rando. Mechanisms of cell death and cell survival in muscular dystrophies; regulation of cellular antioxidant defenses; mechanism of age-related muscle atrophy; gene therapy for muscular dystrophies.

Jennifer L. Raymond. Study the neural mechanisms of learning, using a combination of behavioral, neurophysiological, and computational approaches. The model system we use is a form of cerebellum-dependent learning that regulates eye movements.

Lawrence Recht. Our laboratory focuses on two interrelated projects: (1) assessment of glioma development within the framework of the multistage model of carcinogenesis through utilization of the rodent model of ENU neurocarcinogenesis; and (2) assessment of stem cell specification and pluripotency using an embryonic stem cell model system in which neural differentiation is induced.

Richard Reimer. Molecular biology and physiology of neurotransmitter release; neuropathophysiology of lysosomal storage disorders; biosensors.

Allan L. Reiss. Neuropsychiatric-molecular associations in Fragile X syndrome. Brain MRI/MRS studies of Fragile X, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric disorders.

Anthony Ricci. Auditory hair cell mechanotransduction and synaptic transmission.

Terence D. Sanger. Movement disorders in children, computational neural networks, basal ganglia function and diseases.

Robert M. Sapolsky. How a neuron dies during aging or following various neurological insults; how such neuron death can be accelerated by stress; the design of gene therapy strategies to protect endangered neurons from neurological disease.

Mark Schnitzer. In vivo fluorescence optical imaging and electrophysiological studies of the mammalian brain towards understanding biophysical aspects of learning and memory. We are developing and applying novel imaging approaches such as multiphoton fluorescence endoscopy for examining individual neurons and dendrites, with emphasis on experiments in awake behaving animals.

Matthew P. Scott. Genetic regulation of animal development and human disease. We study homeobox genes, hedgehog/patched signaling and its links to skin and brain cancer, development of the neural tube and cerebellum signaling, and heart development.

Carla Shatz. The major goal of research in the Shatz Laboratory is to discover cellular and molecular mechanisms that transform early fetal and neonatal brain circuits into mature connections, and in particular to determine the extent to which neural function during critical periods of development is needed for these circuits to tune up into adult patterns of connectivity.

Kang Shen. We are interested in understanding how synapses are formed, the final step in wiring a nervous system. In particular, the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic specify: how neurons recognize each other and how they make decisions about forming synapses between contacting neurites during development. We use molecular, genetic and cell biological tools to study this question in the nematode, C. elegans, which has a very simple nervous system containing only 302 neurons and approximately 6000 synapses.

Krishna V. Shenoy. Sensorimotor integration. Neural population coding. Neural prosthetic systems. Neural basis of reaching plans and movements.

Stephen J. Smith. Imaging of synapse development and structural dynamics; cell signaling in neural development and plasticity.

Raymond Sobel. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of immune responses in the central nervous system; multiple sclerosis.

Gary K. Steinberg. Molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cerebral ischemia; development of neuroprotective and neurorepair strategies; stem cell transplantation for stroke.

Lawrence Steinman. Genetics basis of autoimmune neural disease. Immunotherapy. Gene and protein microarray analysis of neurological disease. The immune response in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease. The role of transglutaminase in the formation of aggregations in Huntington’s Disease.

Edith V. Sullivan. Brain structure-function relationships in normal aging and neuropsychiatric diseases, in particular, alcoholism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Components of cognitive, motor, and sensory processes are investigated with neuropsychological and structural and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging techniques.

Stuart Thompson. Signal transduction mechanisms in neurons with the goal of better understanding how neurons process information. Signal cascades initiated by G-protein coupled receptors and regional specialization of function in neurons and the role that localized clusters of ion channels play in the processing of information by the cell.

Richard W. Tsien. Molecular properties of ion channels in relation to function of nerve and muscle; calcium signaling and synaptic plasticity.

Anthony D. Wagner. Cognitive neuroscience of memory and cognitive control—encoding and retrieval mechanisms; interactions between memory systems; prefrontal and medial temporal lobe function; neurocognitve aging.

Brian A. Wandell. Development and plasticity of signals in the human visual pathways; current emphases on reading development and cortical plasticity following retinal disease. Magnetic resonance, behavior, and computational methods.

Jeffrey J. Wine. Regulation of ion channels by intracellular messengers and excitation-secretion coupling.

Tony Wyss-Coray. Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease.

Yanmin Yang. Elucidate biological functions of cytoskeletal organizing proteins in neurons. Define the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the neurodegeneration in BPAG1 null mice.

David C. Yeomans. Pain physiology and molecular biology; herpes vector-directed genetic alteration of sensory neurons; gene therapy for pain; cell transplantation as pain therapy.

Jaimie Zeitzer. My research concerns examination of human and primate circadian rhythms and sleep; notably, the neural mechanisms that underlie wakefulness and circadian photoreception. I am also involved in collaborative efforts in examining the role of sleep disruption in medical pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injury, and breast cancer.