Funded Projects

Studying the brain circuits involved in aggression will help us tackle big social issues like hate crimes, antisocial behavior, and violence. Imagine if we could better understand why some people act aggressively towards others—we could use this knowledge to protect people from harm and create a world where everyone feels safe. Chemicals in our brain, such as dopamine and serotonin, affect neural activity to modulate behavior. When we experience something rewarding, like having good food or meeting friends, dopamine is released in the brain.

Over half of pediatric stroke survivors develop cognitive impairment, limiting their educational attainment and imposing significant financial and emotional burdens on survivors and their families. However, children’s chronic cognitive symptoms are poorly explained by stroke size or location.

Commonly used measures of interoception—the brain’s perception of the body’s internal state—only subjectively capture the body’s interpretation of hunger and satiety signaling. The Coleman Lab is developing objective, noninvasive, electrophysiologic approaches to assess human hunger and satiety signaling and how external senses modulate this signaling.

This project focuses on the brain’s “glycocalyx”—a complex network of sugars on the cell surface, which plays a crucial role in many brain functions including how neurons connect and communicate and how memories are formed and stored.

In epilepsy, a disease affecting 1% of all children, brain networks undergo maladaptive change (plasticity) and become predisposed to seizures. In the 30-40% of children with epilepsy who have medication-resistant seizures, the seizures become more frequent and severe over time, with concurrent loss of cognitive ability.

This team is developing a cutting-edge mixed reality application to improve the targeted delivery of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS is increasingly being used as a treatment for psychiatric conditions, but the success of the treatment depends critically on its precise delivery.

There are over 6000 rare diseases which together affect millions of Americans. Many ultra-rare diseases are ‘orphan’ diseases, without any viable treatment strategies, one of these being human RhoBTB2 variants associated with severe developmental epileptic encephalopathy (DEE64).

This study will introduce a vascular-like electronic system that merges seamlessly with neural organoids, establishing an integrated vascular-electronic-neural network. This envisaged platform holds the promise of heralding a transformative phase in the evolution of human neural organoid research and elucidating the fundamental understanding on the roles of oxygen and nutrient perfusion during neural development.

Myelin, traditionally thought of as the brain's electrical insulator, has emerged as an active and dynamic regulator of brain functions including neuroprotection, learning, and memory. Myelin dysfunction and loss is increasingly found to be central to brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's.

Maintaining the health and function of the aging brain is crucial to improving the quality of older people’s lives and reducing societal burden. Aging is often accompanied by a decline in memory for life events (episodic memory), especially in those at risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Yet some at-risk individual’s manage to maintain memory function, which raises important questions about the brain mechanisms that underly memory resilience.

This proposal addresses three interconnected, yet independent aims focused on the neural mechanisms implicated in age-associated miscarriages. First, the proposal aims to construct a comprehensive neuro-uterine atlas delineating neuronal subtypes innervating the uterus, elucidating how innervation patterns and transcriptome profiles evolve with age. Second, the proposal aims to implement cutting-edge tissue clearing techniques on extracted uteri to discern alterations in uterine innervation patterns and signaling across the rodent estrous cycle and the first trimester of pregnancy.

The intricate workings of signaling pathways are well-established with regard to neurodevelopment. Yet, the implications of these pathways for sustaining brain health and resilience during the aging process are not clear.

This team is working on understanding which patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) will best benefit from cognitive training. They are researching a multimodal approach to understand this question and will use their Koret pilot grant award to evaluate high-density EEG biomarkers for successful cognitive training in MCI. 

This project's goal is to enhance brain resilience by promoting vascular brain health during aging. The research team's overarching hypothesis is that many people experience cognitive decline and dementia due to pathological aging.

This team is developing new transcranial magnetic stimulation methods that optimize neuromodulation effects using music-induced brain state dynamics.

This team is developing a small molecule that targets a voltage-gated ion channel within the inner ear for the symptomatic relief of peripheral vertigo attacks. They will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to further develop this molecule to restore normal function and improve activities of daily living for patients experiencing peripheral vertigo.

This team recently discovered that a small molecule they had originally developed to treat Parkinson’s disease can also reduce the volume of glioblastoma tumors – the most common form of aggressive brain tumor — by targeting the mitochondrial protein Miro1. They will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to study the mechanisms of the compound’s anti-tumor action and prepare to apply for investigational-new-drug status to move this discovery toward the clinic.

Fang Wang has been developing novel steady-state EEG techniques to reveal the underlying neural dynamics involved in the acquisition of reading skills in children. She will use the Koret award to extend her findings in typically developing children to children with dyslexia, illustrating how cortical challenges in the temporal dynamics of visual processing can contribute to dyslexia.

More and more studies suggest that infections may be an important cause of dementia and possibly brain aging more generally. The most convincing evidence exists for herpesviruses, which “hibernate” in the nervous system. Recently,  an innovative causal approach in data from the United Kingdom has been used to suggest that shingles (herpes zoster) vaccination prevents or delays dementia.

Normal aging and neurodegenerative disease are typically characterized by accumulation of waste products inside the brain and in particular by aggregation of various types of proteins like Amyloid-beta outside of cells or the proteins Tau, alpha-synuclein, and TDP-43 inside cells.

Current treatments for neurodegenerative disorders (proteinopathies) offer limited efficacy and typically target specific genetic forms. The goal of this research project is to discover targets shared across proteinopathies and advance the development of early diagnostic/prognostic tools and disease-modifying pan-proteinopathy approaches.

Psychedelics profoundly alter human consciousness through activation of 5-HT2A receptor proteins in the brain. This team aims to develop a molecular probe to permanently illuminate 5-HT2A receptors without modifying their function or expression, allowing scientists to better study the effects of psychedelics on these receptors.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and there is a tremendous need for improved therapeutic strategies to treat this prevalent neurodegenerative disease. A devastating symptom of AD is progressive memory loss; this particular disease feature has proven difficult to treat. However, research has begun to unravel novel drivers of AD, including the important role the body’s immune system plays in promoting memory loss.