A list of the Neuroscience Program faculty, with their contact information and a brief description of their research interests, is provided below. More details of faculty research and current laboratory rotation opportunities and projects can be found at the Graduate School faculty directory website.
| Name | Contact | Location | Research | Summer 2023 |
Fall 2023 | Winter/
Spring |
| Srdjan D. Antic, M.D. | antic@uchc.edu
860-679-8468 |
Main Building
E3052 |
Dendritic integration of synaptic inputs; dopaminergic modulation of dendritic excitability. | X | X | |
| Byoung-Il Bae, Ph.D. | bbae@uchc.edu
860-679-8955 |
Main Building
L4075 |
We aim to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying human cerebral cortical development. | X | X | X |
| Jenna Bartley, Ph.D. | jbartley@uchc.edu
860-679-8322 |
Main Building | Translational research into human aging with a focus on how immune responses and physical function. | X | X | X |
| Alice Burghard, Ph.D. | burghard@uchc.edu
Phone: 860-679-2549 |
Main Building
L3042 |
Neurons and neural circuits in the auditory system. Tinnitus and hearing loss. Therapy for hearing loss and tinnitus. Using morphology, electrophysiology, and molecular biology. | X | ||
| Manuel Castro-Alamancos, Ph.D. | mcastro@uchc.edu
860-679-7390 |
Main Building
E4041 |
Synaptic, cellular and network mechanisms involved in sensorimotor information transmission, coding and storage during motivated behaviors. | X | X | X |
| Stephen J. Crocker, Ph.D. | crocker@uchc.edu
860-679-8750 |
Main Building
E4054 |
Brain injury/repair; neurodegenerative diseases; neuroinflammation; myelin injury; neural stem cell differentiation; signal transduction; glia; matrix metalloproteinases/inhibitors. | X | X | X |
| Breno Diniz, M.D., Ph.D. | diniz@uchc.edu
860-679-2476 |
Main Building
L3091 |
How age-related changes in biological processes (the Pillars of Biological Aging) affect the development and outcomes of late-life mental and neuropsychiatric disorders and how it translates into the repurpose or development of novel interventions to treat and prevent these disorders across the lifespan. | X | X | X |
| Andres D. Grosmark, Ph.D. | grosmark@uchc.edu
860-679-3041 |
Main Building
E4018 |
Local circuitry in the hippocampus, and how its functions during active behaviors and during passive memory consolidation. Also, circuit mechanisms of long-term memory deficits in mouse models for schizophrenia. | X | X | X |
| Rosaria Guzzo, PhD | guzzo@uchc.edu
860-679-3026 |
Main Building
E4032 |
Epigenetic mechanisms underlying pluripotent stem cell differentiation, musculoskeletal development, and tissue homeostasis. | X | X | X |
| Jaime Imitola Herrera, M.D. | imitola@uchc.edu
860-679-3186 |
X | X | X | ||
| Eric S. Levine, Ph.D. | eslevine@uchc.edu
860-679-2145 |
Main Building
E3053 |
Synaptic plasticity; role of endogenous cannabinoids and nerve growth factors in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. | X | X | X |
| Yuanhao “James” Li, Ph.D. | jali@uchc.edu
860-679-3836 |
Main Building
E3014 |
Development of the central nervous system; cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying formation of the mammalian cerebellum. | X | X | X |
| David Martinelli, Ph.D. | davidmartinelli@uchc.edu
860-679-2271 |
Main Building
L4003 |
Genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, and behavioral neuroscience in synaptic adhesion proteins and their role in neuropsychiatric disease. | X | X | X |
| Royce Mohan, Ph.D. | mohan@uchc.edu
860-679-2020 |
Main Building
L4023 |
Developing treatments for conditions and diseases of the eye that involve angiogenesis, fibrosis and gliosis. Developed first pharmacological probe of type III intermediate filaments (IFs), demonstrating the effective targeting of vimentin and glial fibrillary acidic protein by the natural product withaferin A. | X | X | X |
| Patrick Murphy, Ph.D. | pamurphy@uchc.edu
860-679-282 |
Main Building
E3501 |
Unraveling the complex interplay between recruited immune cells and the endothelial lining of the vasculature in chronic inflammation, with a focus on alternative splicing and changes in the sub-endothelial matrix as critical determinants of that interaction. | X | X | X |
| Timothy Spellman, Ph.D. | tspellman@uchc.edu
860-679-8114 |
Main Building
L3077 |
Physiological substrates of executive functioning within higher-order association areas of the brain. | X | X | X |
| Feliks (Ephraim) Trakhtenberg, Ph.D. | trakhtenberg@uchc.edu
860-679-7819 |
Main Building
L4005 |
Neuroregeneration: Integrating molecular, genetic, bioinformatic, and translational approaches in studying neuronal development, towards engineering gene therapy and nanotechnology-based therapeutics for regenerating injured nerve/brain tissues and connections. | X | X | X |
| Sebnem N. Tuncdemir, Ph.D. | tuncdemir@uchc.edu
860-679-2057 |
Main Building
L4001 |
How neural circuits that encode specific features of contexts are organized in adults and developmental mechanisms by which this network is formed. | X | X | X |
| Rajkumar Verma, Ph.D. | raverma@uchc.edu
860-679-4552 |
Main Building
E5050 |
Stroke research, Drug target validation, behavioral pharmacology and neuroimmune interaction. | X | X | X |
| Zhao-Wen Wang, Ph.D. | zwwang@uchc.edu
860-679-7659 |
Main Building
L4017 |
Molecular mechanism of neurotransmitter release regulation, and molecular mechanisms of gap junction function, assembly and regulation using C. elegans as a model system. | X | X | X |
| Ming Xu, Ph.D. | mixu@uchc.edu
860-679-4338 |
EM013 | Discover novel interventions to slow down the aging process, and thereby alleviate a number of diseases simultaneously. | X | X | X |
| Yulan Xiong. Ph.D. | yxiong@uchc.edu
860-679-4116 |
L4087 | Mechanisms underlying aging and neurodegenerative diseases, with specific emphasis on Parkinson’s disease (PD). | X | X | X |
| Riqiang Yan, Ph.D. | riyan@uchc.edu
860-679-3527 |
L4040C | Focuses on the study of how Alzheimer’s disease patients develop the pathologies in their brains and explores therapeutic treatment for this most common neurodegenerative disease. | X | X | X |
| Lixia Yue, Ph.D. | lyue@uchc.edu
860-679-3069 |
Main Building
EG024 |
Calcium signaling mechanism and its physiological/pathological functions in various systems. | X | X |