Neuroscience

We study how neuronal axons and their terminals respond to stress and damage, and how the molecules activated by stress and damage execute decisions about whether to repair themselves or self-destruct. We hope to identify target molecules that could be used to prevent axon and nerve terminal loss in diseases ranging from diabetic neuropathy to Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Haijiang Cai's lab studies neural circuitry mechanism of behaviors in health and disease, and develop research tools as well as disease therapies. Recently, the lab has identified specific neural circuits in a brain region called amygdala that play important roles in both emotion and feeding behavior, which could be targeted to treat eating disorders or depression.

I am a neuroscientist who studies the impact of aging and neurodegenerative disease on voice and speech. My laboratory seeks a better understanding of the molecules, cells and circuits in the brain that support vocal production.

Dr. Pires is an Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator in the Department of Physiology, University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson. Dr. Pires received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology at Michigan State University and completed his training as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. Throughout his career Dr. Pires has published numerous research articles on the impact of chronic cardiovascular diseases in development of cerebral vascular disorders, such as ischemic strokes, as well as mechanisms regulating cerebral vascular function. In his laboratory, Dr. Pires' research focuses on the vascular component underlying neurodegenerative diseases, such as cerebral amyloid angiopathy and Alzheimer's diseases, as well as the brain waste clearance system, the glymphatic / cervical lymphatic system.

The Wohlgemuth Lab is focused on how circuits in the brain contribute to sensory-guided adaptive behaviors. The goal is to study how an integrated bottom-up and top-down cortico-fugal network controls behavior on multiple time-scales: from the rapid reactions to arriving sensing information indicative of bottom-up processing, to the longer time-scale governance of categorical behavioral control that is directed by top-down signaling. To study these phenomena, the lab uses the model system of the echolocating bat. The bat provides a way to study how the brain evolved to perform under controlled, laboratory experimentation. To research these questions, the lab employs computer modeling of behavior, multi-channel electrophysiology to relate changes in behavior to changes in brain activity, and optogenetics to test causal hypotheses about the role of different circuit components in sensorimotor integration across time-scales. By combining computational ethology and modeling, electrophysiology, calcium imaging, and optogenetics, the Wohlgemuth Lab offers new insights into circuit-level processing for both rapid control of sensory-guided adaptive behaviors and long-term goal-planning.