Diversity in Life Sciences

Neurons are exquisitely sensitive to cellular stress due to the metabolically demanding processes underlying synaptic transmission. My lab studies the regulation of synaptic plasticity and cognition by metabolic stress at the behavioral, electrophysiological, and cellular levels. We define 'metabolic stress' broadly to encompass responses to exercise and caloric restriction at one extreme, and changes occurring in obesity and diabetes at the opposite end of this continuum. Our long-term goal is to understand how neurons, glia and cerebrovascular cells sense and respond to homeostatic challenges.