Cell Biology and Neuroscience

Molecular mechanisms underlying sensory and cognitive function in mouse models of human diseases; understanding how mutations in chromatin remodeling proteins results in hyperactivity and circling behavior in mutant mice with the goal of bridging the molecular changes in neurons to the abnormal behavior observed in these mouse models

Trying to understand the cellular and synaptic substrates underlying innocuous touch perception by elucidating the functional organization of sensory neurons in mouse hairy skin and uncovering the neural codes of touch perception in the spinal cord dorsal horn

Modeling of human neurodevelopmental disorders in mouse with a particular focus on Tourette Syndrome (TS); using CRISPR-based approaches to generate mouse models that harbor recently discovered human point mutations found in sporadic forms of TS; using these models to investigate how circuit development and function in the brain are perturbed by the human mutations using a combination of mouse genetics, circuit labeling techniques, optogenetics, electrophysiology, and mouse behavior

Sensory processing, decision-making, and neural plasticity in mice; recording and manipulation of specific neurons and neural circuits as mice perform learned tactile behaviors to understand sensory-guided decision-making from the synaptic to the network levels; how brain injury and neurological disorders impact neuronal activity and behavior