Diseases of the Nervous System – USC Neuroscience Graduate Program

Michael Bienkowski

Alexandre Bonnin

Food intake and body weight regulation
Hindbrain
Neuroendocrinology
Neuroanatomy and circuits
Nausea and Emesis
Anorexia and cachexia
Chemotherapy
Cancer
Diabetes
Obesity

Matthew Thomas Borzage

Quantitative neuroimaging for neurovascular and metabolic applications
Effects of trauma and chemical exposures on brain physiology
Neurological disorders in development and aging
Clinical trials with neuroimaging biomarkers

Meredith Braskie

Alzheimer’s Disease Risk – Genetic and Environmental
Resting State Functional MRI
Structural MRI
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Inflammation

Drosophila models for Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease
Mechanisms regulating synaptic vesicle endocytosis
Mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity
Mechanisms of mitochondrial trafficking
Mitochondrial dynamics in neurological disorders

Karolina Charaziak

Systems neuroscience
Physiology of hearing
In vivo imaging and electrophysiology
Inner ear mechanics & wave propagation
Mathematical modeling

Christopher Ching

Neuropsychiatric disorders
Multimodal neuroimaging
Machine learning, deep learning for clinical neuroscience
Large-scale consortium neuroscience
Neuroimaging genetics
Neurodegeneration and aging

Constanza Cortes

Muscle-to-brain Axis
Exercise-mimicking therapeutics for disease of the nervous system
Neurogenesis
Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

Dion Kai Dickman

Synapse development, function, and plasticity in Drosophila

Locomotor adaptation and learning
Optimality principles underlying the control of healthy and pathological gait
Elucidating cortical contributions to human gait
Developing virtual-reality based approaches for neurorehabilitation

Sensory organ development and disease
Hearing & Balance
Retina
Cellular and molecular basis of regeneration
Gene therapy

Cognition
Decision Making
Aging
Neuropsychology
Neuroimaging

Eleanor Hayes-Larson

Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
Cognitive Aging
Epidemiology and Statistics
Stress and Trauma
Social Determinants of Health
Health Disparities

Bruce E. Herring

Synaptic function
Synaptic plasticity
Neuropsychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Daniel P Holschneider

Functional brain mapping of animal behaviors
Behavioral and neurophysiologic characterization of animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders
Technology development

Mark S. Humayun

Electrical stimulation of the retina
Retinal prosthesis
Retinal disease
Instrumentation for vitreoretinal surgery

traumatic brain injury in older adults
brain aging
connectomics
cerebral plasticity prompted by traumatic brain injury
neuroimaging
blood-brain barrier
cerebral microhemorrhage
aging in atypical populations

Michael W. Jakowec

Animal models of Parkinson’s disease
Molecular mechanisms of exercise-induced neuroplasticity in the basal ganglia
Interactions between dopamine and glutamate within the basal ganglia and their role in control of motor behavior
Development of new therapeutic modalities for Parkinson’s disease

cochlear mechanics, acoustics, nonlinear wave phenomena
otoacoustic emissions and noninvasive testing of cochlear function
sensory transduction in the auditory and vestibular periphery
biophysics of sensory neurons

Synaptic structure, function, formation, repair, and maintenance
Synapse-glia interactions at the neuromuscular junction
Cellular and molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)

Neural mechanisms for muscle activation
Engineering of non-invasive systems to study human motor function
Neuromuscular disorders

Changhan David Lee

Metabolism
Mitochondrial biology
Cellular homeostasis and stress response

Recovery and high-profile characterization of extracellular vesicle (EV), also know as exosome
Evaluating the role of EV in retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and inherited retinal diseases
Developing EV-mediated intraocular therapeutics using bioengineering of EV, cargo loading (small molecular or genes) of EV, and stem cell-derived EV

Neural plasticity and neurorehabilitation
Motor learning and recovery
Stroke rehabilitation
Neuroimaging
Noninvasive brain stimulation
Neurofeedback
Brain computer interfaces
Virtual reality

Lauren McElvain

Cellular and circuit mechanisms of movement
Synaptic and cellular physiology
Neural circuit connectivity maps
Circuit mechanisms of movement disorders

Imaging (human and animal brain imaging)
Rodent and Human Behavior Measures
Tissue and Cell Cultures

Christian J. Pike

Regulation of Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis
The role of sex steroid hormones in Alzheimer’s disease
Relationships between obesity, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease
Signaling pathways regulating neuronal apoptosis and neuroprotection

Infant Development
Physical Therapy
Neuromotor Control

Huizhong W. Tao

Cellular neurobiology
Developmental neurobiology
Sensory neurobiology
Central visual processing

Paul Matthew Thompson

Alzheimer’s
HIV
Development
Connectomics
ENIGMA
Genetics
Neuroimaging Methods
Diffusion Imaging
Mathematics
Bipolar Illness
Lifestyle/Save the Brain See http://igc.ini.usc.edu

Brain organoids/assembloids
Neurological disorders
Single-cell genomics
Gene-environment interactions

Systems neuroscience
Neural control of metabolism
Ingestive behaviors
Diabetes & Obesity

Medical Imaging Computing
Machine learning & Artificial Intelligence
Multi-omics (genetics & proteomics)

Synaptic circuitry mechanisms for sensory information processing
Technical innovations for tracing brain circuits
Neural circuits for innate behavior
Synaptic and cellular basis for development and plasticity of neural circuitry
Neural circuitry basis for sensory processing disorders

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia
Blood brain barrier and vascular-neuronal interaction
The role of innate immunity in CNS diseases and injuries

Berislav V. Zlokovic, MD, PhD

Alzheimer’s Disease
Ischemia and Stroke
Activated Protein C System
Amytrophic lateral sclerosis
Blood-Brain Barrier
Cerebral microcirculation and regulation of cerebral blood flow