Cardenas-Iniguez, Carlos
Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez (pronouns he/him/his) is the Director of the Context, Complexity, and Impact (CCI) Lab, where his research focuses on using large-cohort datasets, such as the ABCD Study, to explore how social stratification shapes the environments in which people live and, in turn, how these environments affect neural and cognitive development and mental health. Dr. Cardenas-Iniguez is also involved with the Geospatial Hub of the Network for Exposomics in the US (NEXUS) Coordinating Center, where he leads efforts to develop consensus-based metadata standards for environmental exposures in human exposome research. His broader work emphasizes integrating environmental and social responsibility into neuroscience and psychology, including applying critical methodologies to illuminate the role of systemic forces in shaping developmental outcomes.
Chang, Karen T.
Associate Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience
Our lab is interested in understanding how neurons communicate with high fidelity to support complex brain functions. We aim to uncover the molecular and cellular mechanisms that enable precise synaptic signaling and to explore how disruptions in these processes contribute to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Using Drosophila melanogaster as a genetically tractable model system, we integrate electrophysiology, molecular biology, confocal imaging, proteomics, and behavioral analysis to investigate synaptic function and plasticity.
Chen, George
The Chen Lab at Children's Hospital Los Angeles integrates functional genomics, bioinformatics, and basic neuroscience to advance our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorder pathogenesis and to accelerate treatment development.
Coba, Marcelo
Neurodevelopmental neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease are complex brain disorders, and a multitude of genes have been described to contribute to their pathology with different penetrance. Human genetic studies have discovered many genes associated with disease susceptibility that are usually described as risk factors. For each of these disorders, synaptic proteins have been implicated, in particular those involved in synaptic plasticity and protein complexes associated to the post-synaptic density (PSD). Despite these discoveries, there has been a gap in understanding the underlying mechanisms that contribute to cellular dysfunction in these disorders. Our long-term goal is to determine how candidate risk factors are functionally integrated and how mutations affect their function, not individually, but in developmental signaling networks.
Herring, Bruce
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
The Herring lab integrates in vivo calcium imaging, machine learning-enhanced behavioral analysis, and ex vivo brain slice electrophysiology to understand the development of ASD/ID and psychiatric disorders in the brain.
Kircanski, Katharina
The Multi-method Emotion Science and Outreach (MESO) Lab integrates affective and cognitive neuroscience, clinical science, and quantitative methods to study mechanisms of mood and anxiety disorders. We are particularly interested in parsing shared vs. specific mechanisms of symptoms that manifest across childhood and adolescence. Our research utilizes a multi-modal approach that includes fMRI, behavioral paradigms, and ecological momentary assessment (EMA).
