Funded Projects

Controlling brain activity using chemicals and drugs is instrumental in neuroscience research, but current delivery methods for these compounds are imprecise. A proposed synthetic neural interface will allow for more controlled chemical and drug release by using ultrasound to precisely penetrate neural tissue.

A major goal in systems neuroscience is to discover how patterns of activity in neural circuits produce and regulate behavior. Using synthetic biology tools, this team aims to develop first-in-class genetically encoded voltage integrators (GEVIns) capable of sensing and responding to both activation and inhibition of neurons.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a complex, heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder whose prevalence is increasing rapidly. Not only do patients experience motor symptoms, but many experience debilitating nonmotor symptoms caused by peripheral degeneration in the autonomic nervous system, including atrophy of the vagus nerve, and the enteric nervous system.

Understanding representational drift—the brain’s evolving representation of its environment—is pivotal to gaining insights into neural computation. Despite its significance, the study of representational drift has been constrained by the scarcity of suitable datasets and methods.

The medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), the brain’s “inner GPS”, contains an internal map of external space. Rather than representing a static spatial map, however, MEC neurons can spontaneously switch between multiple maps (Low et al., 2021). In this project, we will investigate if spontaneous map switches reflect changes in an animal’s latent internal state.

Constipation and diarrhea, caused by aberrant water absorption in the colon, impose substantial health burdens. The enteric nervous system (ENS) harbors a specialized circuit for water absorption, the secretomotor/vasodilator circuit, but its role in the proximal colon remains poorly understood.

Navigation through an environment to a remembered location is a critical skill we use every day. How does our brain accomplish such a task? Over the last few decades, several lines of evidence have suggested that a brain region called medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) supports navigation by encoding information our location and movement within an environment.

Many neurological diseases feature the death of neurons, but the mechanisms that mediate cell death in these disorders are unknown. Astrogliosis, the response of a cell-type called “astrocytes” to injury, is common to most diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), and recent studies in our lab suggest that some reactive astrocytes may release a protein that is potently toxic to neurons.

The purpose of this collaborative project is to study neuronal mechanisms associated with social stress. In particular we will test whether the energy producing systems, known as mitochondria, in a specific set of brain cells are important to confer resilience to stressful stimuli. This research may lead to treatments of stress and anxiety disorders. 

Our goal is to develop the next generation of neural interfaces that match the resolution and performance of the biological circuitry. We will focus on two signature efforts to spearhead the necessary advances: high-density wire bundles for electrical recording and stimulation, and analog and digital bi-directional retinal prostheses for restoration of vision.

The Stanford Brain Rejuvenation Project is an initiative by leading aging researchers, neuroscientists, chemists, and engineers to understand the basis of brain aging and rejuvenation and how they relate to neurodegeneration.

Combining a detailed understanding of brain circuits with technology that modulates neural activity to develop improved ways of treating mental health conditions.

The goal is to forge an inter-disciplinary collaboration between physicists, biologists, chemists, and translational medical scientists by inventing new ways of visualizing the brain, from individual molecules to neuronal circuits to entire brain regions, from a normally functioning neuron to a diseased brain.

Creating an incubator for next-generation neural interface platforms.

Developing technology to interface with the brain and create intelligent prosthetics.

Breaches barriers in our understanding of stroke to develop therapies and improve stroke recovery.

One in three people will develop Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia during their lifetime, but effective treatment still does not exist despite intense efforts. Recently, blood from young mice has been found to rejuvenate several tissues of old mice, including the brain.

Precise neural circuit assembly is critical for appropriate function of the nervous system. A functional circuit requires proper targeting and matching of axons and dendrites of pre- and post-synaptic neurons. However, our understanding of the mechanisms that establish wiring specificity of complex neural circuit is far from complete.

    More than 60 million people in the United States currently suffer from a serious mental illness, and the associated financial, productivity and human suffering costs are only projected to rise in the near future.

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is an important intracellular messenger that plays a critical role in the development of the central and peripheral nervous system. However, the mechanisms of action of cAMP in the nervous system development are poorly understood and there are currently no suitable methods to visualize cAMP in the cells of living animals.

Ion channels in the membranes of neuronal cells are the key regulators of neuronal signaling. An ion channel works as a gate that can open and close to allow specific molecules to enter or leave the cell. One important type of ion channels are voltage-gated sodium channels (NaVs), which are essential for many processes in our brain.