Current Research and Scholarly Interests
The Giardino Laboratory of Circuits and Systems Neuroscience in Stanford's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. We aim to decipher the neural mechanisms underlying psychiatric conditions of stress, addiction, and sleep disturbances. Our work uses genetic, pharmacological, physiological, anatomical, optical, and computational approaches in freely-behaving mice to monitor, manipulate, and map the neural circuits, synapses, and signaling mechanisms that drive approach/avoidance behaviors, drug-seeking, food intake, social interactions, and sleep/wake cycles.
Research Topics:
Stress & Reward
Alcohol Addiction
Sex Differences
Wakefulness/Arousal
Neuropeptide Release & Signaling
Feeding & Metabolism
Research Approaches:
Neuromodulation (optogenetics, chemogenetics)
Neurophysiological recordings (fiber photometry, calcium imaging, EEG/EMG)
Neurogenetics (CRISPR/Cas9 editing, Cre/loxP recombination, viral gene transfer, mouse genetics)
Neuroanatomy (circuit tracing, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, confocal & light sheet microscopy)
Neuropharmacology (alcohol & drug self-administration, receptor mechanisms)
Computation (neural circuit modeling, machine learning analysis of behavioral & physiological datasets)
Behavior and Evolution (rodent model organisms, cross-species comparisons)
Translation (interdisciplinary and clinical collaborations, mental health treatment development)
