Developmental Neuroscience
J. Fernando Garcia Diaz
Department: Physiology and Biophysics
Website: http://biophysics.bumc.bu.edu/faculty/garcia_diaz/
Research: Research in this lab centers on the regulation of ion channel expression during neuronal differentiation and on the modulation of ion channel activity by certain neurotransmitters. Cell culture techniques, electrophysiology and fluorescence microscopy are used to analyze the expression pattern and regulation of ion channels in cochlear ganglion (CG) neurons during development. Spiral or cochlear ganglion neurons are responsible for the faithful transmission of sound information from the hair cells in the organ of Corti (the sound transducing elements) to the cochlear nucleus in the brain and, thus, are endowed with a set of fast activating voltage-gated ion channels. The lab has analyzed the temporal pattern of expression of voltage-gated sodium, calcium and potassium channels in chick embryo CG neurons and found functionally relevant correlations between the development of membrane currents and the innervation pattern of the cochlea (Garcia-Diaz et al., 1998; Garcia-Diaz, 1999). The lab is also investigating whether certain members of the nerve growth factor family of proteins (neurotrophins), released by the target cells of neurons, regulate the expression of ion channels during embryonic development (Jimenez et al., 1997; Garcia-Diaz, 1999). On the other hand, efferent innervation acting through muscarinic and purinergic receptors modulates the firing response of CG neurons to sound information. Presently the lab is investigating whether the activation of these receptors, and the ensuing signaling events, modulate a cloned non-inactivating potassium channel transfected in a heterologous system.
Working in the lab: Research techniques learned include: electrophysiology
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Robert Joseph
Department: Anatomy and Neurobiology
Website: http://www.bumc.bu.edu/anatneuro/our-people/faculty/robert-m-joseph-phd/
Research: Research on the neuropsychology and neurobiology of social disability in children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. His current research focuses on the ways in which children attend to, perceive, and respond emotionally to information from faces, such as shifts of gaze and facial expressions of emotion. To study these questions, he uses computerized behavioral tests, eye tracking, psychophysiological measures, and functional magnetic neuroimaging.
Working in the lab: Research techniques learned include: behavior & psychophysics, and neuroimaging
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Helen Tager-Flusberg
Department: Anatomy and Neurobiology
Research: Research on autism for over 25 years, with special emphasis on language and social-cognitive impairments in this population using both behavioral and brain imaging methodologies. Her research also focuses on children with other genetically based neurodevelopmental disorders, including specific language impairment, and Williams syndrome. Her research explores the connections between genes, brain pathology and cognitive and language impairments in these populations, as well as in autism.
Working in the lab: Research techniques learned include: behavior & psychophysics