ABOUT THIS KIND OF RESEARCH

The brain can be considered as an information processing and storage machine whose power relies on vast and multi-tiered communication networks that link far-flung domains of individual cells, cells to their neighbors and ever more complex neuronal ensembles. However, these networks are not mere relays. Each is a potent locus of information processing. Most astonishingly, the processing machinery itself changes in response to the information flowing through it. Understanding these networks and their plasticity requires the elucidation of the genes encoding their component parts. Prominent among these gene products are ion channels and receptors. These large and complex classes of molecules are the primary means by which cells communicate with one another. Research at Brown includes the characterization of new genes important for learning and memory, elucidation of the structure and function of key channels and receptors and discovery of how such genes are turned on or off in response to information flows in the brain. The tools of molecular genetics, biochemistry, biophysics, physics, and computational biology are brought to bear on these fundamental questions.

FACULTY INVOLVED
 

• Elaine Bearer
  Research: Molecular mechanisms of acting dynamics in growth cones and in axoplasmic transport.
  
  Graduate programs: Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry; Pathobiology; Neuroscience; Physiology
   
• Barry Connors
  Research: Understand the neocortex by studying its individual neurons, synapses, and transmitters and their collective behavior.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology
   
• Anna Dunaevsky
  Research: Molecular and cellular mechanisms of synapse formation.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
  
  
• Justin Fallon
  Research: Synapse formation and plasticity. Mechanisms of muscular dystrophy and Fragile X mental retardation.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry
   
• Edward Hawrot
  Research: Structure-function analysis of neurotransmitter receptors and neurotoxins.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry; Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology
   
   
• Diane Lipscombe
  Research: Molecular and cellular studies of neuronal calcium channels.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry; Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology
   
• John Marshall
  Research: Modulation of ion channel function by phosphorylation and trafficking of receptors.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry; Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology
  
   
• Robert Patrick
  Research: Effects of psychoactive drugs on brain transmitter utilization.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
   
   
• Anita Zimmerman
  Research: Structure and function of Ion channels; photoreceptors.
  
  Graduate programs: Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology; Neuroscience