Faculty

Research in the Department focuses on signal transduction at the molecular, cellular, and whole animal levels. Faculty members employ a wide variety of experimental approaches including computational, electrophysiological, biochemical, molecular biological, and behavioral techniques to understand the linkage between a signal and the resulting response, which can occur at levels ranging from the molecular to whole-animal level. Current projects include structure/function studies of the properties of the ligand-gated ion channels, signal transduction mechanisms in smooth muscle, development of photoactivatable probes (caged compounds), the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on behavior, neurotransmitter systems involved in feeding behavior, alterations in neurotransmitter systems with disease and aging, and the use of sophisticated mathematical and computer tools to analyze complex nervous system signals in normal and diseased patients with a view towards their implementation in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases.