Integrative Neuroscience

Research includes:

Addiction
Alzheimer's Disease
Amyloid Plaques
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Anxiety Disorders
Auditory Neuroscience
Autism and Fragile X Disease
Axonal Growth & Transport
Behavioral Neuroscience
Blood-Brain Barrier Function
Central Nervous System
Chronic Pain
Cognition, Memory and Learning
Computational Cognitive Neuroscience
Dopamine
Epigentics
Epilepsy
Feeding Behavior
Genetic Engineering
Hearing and Vision Loss
Ingestive Behavior
Intracellular Signaling
Ion Channel Physiology
Lewy Bodies
Mental Illness
Metabolism and Food Intake
Mitochondria
Molecular Neuropharmacology
Molecular Psychiatry
Neural Development
Neural Networks
Neuroanatomy
Neurodegeneration
Neurofibrillary Tangles
Neurofilament
Neuron-glia Interactions
Neurons
Neuropsychopharmacology
Oxidative Stress
Parkinson's Disease
Peripherin
Pharmacology
Protein Aggregation
Receptor Signaling
Regulatory Behavior
Sensory System Neurobiology (emphasis on the auditory and vestibular systems)
Substance Use Disorder
Substantia Nigra
Superoxide Dismutase
Synuclein
Tourette's Syndrom
Traumatic Injury
Tyrosine Hydroxylase
Vision and Hearing

Training Group Mission:

Neuroscience is a truly integrative discipline as evidenced by the fact that faculty in this program are drawn from approximately 25 departments representing 6 colleges at Purdue University. Both the breadth and depth of the research programs among the Purdue faculty span the nervous systems of diverse species, e.g. fruit flies, zebra fish, mice, rats, and humans. Further, the research approach among these systems spans the molecular, cellular, physiological, and behavioral levels of analysis. Students enter the program from diverse undergraduate majors, with equally diverse research interests, and consequently receive training across the levels of analysis required to effectively understand the nervous system and its function. One of the special aspects of the Neuroscience Program is that the participating faculty are drawn from departments and schools within Purdue University not typically associated with training in the life sciences. This inherent diversity in the problem areas and technical approaches taken will offer students from other training programs within PULSe this broad perspective in a way that is relevant to their own disciplines and research.

Faculty Membership

Faculty

Research Area

Aguilar, Ruben C

Protein trafficking and membrane transport in relation to the processes of cell polarity establishment and carcinogenic transformation

Altman, Ryan

We are synthetic organic and medicinal chemists with three predominant interests: (1) Exploring physicochemical and biophysical perturbations imparted by fluorinated functional groups and applying these groups towards drug design; (2) Providing medicinal chemistry support for pharmacological experts, particularly towards treating pain, mood and anxiety disorders, aging, and inflammation; (3) Developing innovative synthetic organic reactions for accessing therapeutically relevant drug-like compounds.

Bartlett, Edward L.

Neural circuitry in sensory systems, especially auditory neural circuitry Neurophysiology using multichannel recordings, brain slice recordings, auditory evoked potentials How brain circuits change in aging and development How auditory circuits adapt and recover from noise or blast injury Computational models of thalamocortical and auditory circuits.

Bharadwaj, Hari

Systems Neuroscience of Audition, Human Neuroimaging and Electrophysiology, Phenomenological and Biophysical Models of Auditory Computations, Sensorineural Hearing Loss, Auditory Processing Disorders, Autism

Bowman, Aaron

Gene x Environment Interactions in Neurological Disease; Metal Neurotoxicity (manganese, methylmercury, copper); Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, Neurodevelopmental disorders

Brewster, Amy

Behavorial Neuroscience

Cannon, Jason

Neurodegeneration, neurotoxicology, Parkinson's disease

Chan, Deva

The Chan Lab believes that understanding the early response to injury is critical to diagnosis, assessment, and intervention in life-altering diseases, including post-traumatic osteoarthritis and traumatic brain injury. True to our biomedical engineering roots, we adopt a multi-disciplinary approach - using biomechanics, biomedical imaging, and matrix biology - to quantify the complex tissue responses to injury.

Chester, Julia A.

Dr. Chester’s research focuses on the development and characterization of animal models as tools to identify biological and behavioral mechanisms that influence risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and other comorbid psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in humans. Her research has identified factors such as developmental age, biological sex, and genetic factors that influence susceptibility toward alcohol- and anxiety-related behaviors including stress-related alcohol drinking and alcohol withdrawal. Dr. Chester’s research findings have contributed important pre-clinical findings to the literature that are crucial for identifying novel and effective targets to treat AUDs and other common co-occurring conditions.

Chopra, Gaurav

Chemical Immunology: Cell specific chemical perturbation of immune microenvironments in cancer, neurological and immunological disorders

Chubykin, Alexander

Neuronal circuits in visual perception and learning Optogenetics Neurotechnology Autism Alzheimer's Disease Stroke

Dadarlat, Maria

Sensorimotor integration and neuroplasticity; neural prostheses

Ekenstedt, Kari

Genetic and genomic investigation of naturally-occurring canine diseases and traits

Fekete, Donna M.

Inner ear development using zebrafish and chicken embryo animal models.

Fox, Edward A.

Sensory component of the vagus nerve; development and role in regulation of food intake and body weight

Francis, Gregory

Neural network models of human behavior, human-computer interactions, cognitive psychology

Freeman, Jennifer L.

Environmental and molecular toxicology, genomics, and cytogenetics

Giordano, Nicholas J.

Nanostructures and mesoscopic systems, musical acoustics, computational neuroscience, computational physics

Heinz, Michael

We seek to understand and quantify relations between physiological and perceptual effects of sensorineural hearing loss in order to advance diagnostics and rehabilitative strategies.

Hélie, Sebastien

Computational cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, neuroimaging

Hockerman, Gregory

Molecular pharmacology

Huber, Jessica E.

Jessica Huber, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Professor in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Purdue University. The broad aim of her NIH funded research
program is to understand the multiple factors that influence speech production and cognitive change in older adults with and without Parkinson’s disease (PD) and
to translate findings to clinical treatment. Dr. Huber is the inventor of a small wearable device, the SpeechVive device, to treat communication impairments in
people with PD.

Hudmon, Andy

Neuropharmacology, cell signaling, macromolecular machines, ion channels, kinases and calcium signaling.

Krishna, Jayant

Synaptic and dendritic integration in vitro and in vivo, sensory integration, two-photon imaging, optogenetics, sub-cellular patch-clamp recordings, nanotechology, bioelectronics

Kimbrough, Adam

We use translationally relevant preclinical animal models of substance use disorder to dissect how the brain responds to acute and chronic drug use. We pair behavioral models with whole-brain imaging of protein signaling and computationally based neural network analysis. These approaches can help us to better understand addiction and develop better treatment options.

Kinzer-Ursem, Tamara

Bionanotechnology and biosensors

Kinzig, Kimberly P.

Neural and endocrine factors involved in the control of food intake and regulation of energy balance

Krishnan, Ananthanarayan

Auditory physiology

Leung, Yuk Fai

Drug discovery for retinal degeneration Retinal degeneration is a group of inherited eye diseases including retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration that impair our vision. Although much has been learned about the molecular basis of these diseases, they are still incurable. To expedite discovery of new drugs for these diseases, our group at Purdue University studies zebrafish retinal-degeneration models. We screen drug libraries on these models using high-throughput visual-behaviour assay. We develop novel statistical and machine-learning tools to analyze the large-scale behavioural data, and to to determine which drugs helped the retinal-degeneration models. We then study how the positive drugs work at molecular, genomics and cell-biology levels.

Liu, Zhongming

Magnetic resonance imaging, image and signal processing,brain decoding and modeling

Lucas, Jeffrey R.

Use of optimality models in behavioral ecology; energy regulation and communication in birds and mammals

Mattoo, Seema

Cells function by carefully orchestrating communication between proteins, often via post-translational modifications (PTMs). Dr. Mattoo’s team studies PTMs carried out by the evolutionarily conserved Fic (filamentation induced by cAMP) enzyme family. Predominant amongst these PTMs is AMPylation/adenylylation, which entails breakdown of ATP to add an AMP to the target protein. Dr. Mattoo’s group has discovered roles for AMPylation in microbial pathogenesis, mammalian stress response, and neurodegeneration (Parkinson’s Disease). By manipulating AMPylation, her team aims to intercept detrimental signals to promote cellular health.

Paschou, Peristera

n/a

Pluta, Scott

Neural basis of sensory perception and sensory-guided behavior

Powley, Terry L.

Identification and mapping of the neural circuitry controlling feeding and drinking

Rickus, Jenna L.

NeuroEngineering / Cellular Neurobiology

Rispoli, Joseph

Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, electromagnetic modeling in tissue

Robles, Estuardo

The cellular basis of visual processing in zebrafish

Rochet, Jean-Christophe (Chris)

The Rochet lab has a long-standing interest in neurodegenerative disorders including PD, DLB, and AD. We have adopted the approach of detailed characterization of proteins linked pathologically and/or genetically to these disorders. We aim to elucidate mechanisms of neurodegeneration relevant to both familial and more common sporadic forms of these diseases.

Rossie, Sandra S.

Signal transduction and protein Ser/Thr phosphatases

Sangha, Susan

Identification of circuits mediating fear, safety and reward behaviors

Shah, Kavita

Drug Discovery in Cancer and Alzheimer's Disease Using Chemical Biology Tools

Shi, Riyi

Cellular and molecular underlying mechanism of nerve damage and recovery

Sjogren, Benita

Regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins regulation by ubiquitin-proteasomal degradation and post-translational, transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms. RGS protein drug discovery.

Strickland, Elizabeth A.

Psychoacoustics, auditory perception by normal and hearing impaired listeners

Suter, Daniel M.

Nervous system development and regeneration following injury, neuronal growth cone motility and guidance, cytoskeletal dynamics, signal transduction, ROS signaling, neuronal mechanics, advanced live cell imaging in vitro and in vivo

Swithers, Susan E.

Development of controls of ingestive behavior in rats

Talavage, Thomas

Applications and techniques to enhance clinical usage of functional neuroimaging; cochlear implant signal processing

Trader, Darci

The Trader laboratory seeks to develop tools to harness the proteasomal machinery to facilitate clearance of diseased cells, especially cancer and virus-infected cells. Our research program will seek to identify compounds that enable us to stimulate, rescue, inhibit, and direct protein degradation of the proteasome. We anticipate discovering compounds that target the proteasome through unprecedented mechanisms of action. Our innovative strategies for the discovery of small molecules that interact with the proteasome will be translated to new therapeutics and tools.

Rijn, Richard M. Van

G-protein coupled receptor pharmacology of addiction and neurological disorders

Watts, Val J.

Signaling of G protein-coupled receptors with an emphasis on dopamine receptors and adenylate cyclases

Weake, Vikki

Aging photoreceptors in the eye show characteristic changes in gene expression. Our lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms that drive these changes in gene expression. These studies provide a model for understanding how aging contributes to ocular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration. Our work is funded by the National Eye Institute of the NIH. We are actively seeking new graduate students, so please contact us if you are interested in joining our group.

Yang, Yang

Specialization: pharmacogenomics, ion channels, electrophysiology, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), neurological diseases (e.g., chronic pain, epilepsy, and autism)

Zelaznik, Howard N.

Theoretical issues in movement coordination and movement timing

Zheng, Wei

Blood-brain barrier and neurotoxicology of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinsonian disorders

Integrative Neuroscience

Research includes:

Training Group Mission:

Faculty Membership

Student Membership

Communication

Campus

Services

Other