Research

Understanding how the nervous system gives rise to perception, thought, memory, emotion, and action is one of biology’s greatest challenges. Meeting this challenge requires driving scientific breakthroughs that connect discoveries across genes, cells, circuits, and behavior.

Faculty Labs

Neuronal Control of Locomotion

Bidaye Lab

The Bidaye Lab decodes how locomotor decisions are executed at the level of neurons, circuits, and systems, using the power of the fruit fly to understand brain circuit logic for purposeful movement.
Disorders of Neural Circuit Function

Bolton Lab

The Bolton Lab investigates how diverse genetic mutations and environmental factors alter brain circuitry to cause common symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Functional Architecture and Development of the Cerebral Cortex

Fitzpatrick Lab

The Fitzpatrick lab investigates principles of visual cortex development, uncovering how the brain develops the ability to transform patterns of light into coherent visual scenes.
Neural Dynamics and Cognitive Functions

Inagaki Lab

The Inagaki lab reveals the brain computations behind movement initiation and timing, and how the brain flexibly adapts to generate precise and complex behaviors.
Neuroenergetics

Rangaraju Lab

The Rangaraju Lab investigates how neurons produce energy where and when it’s needed to meet the high demands of information encoding.
Integrative Neural Circuits and Behavior

Stern Lab

The Stern Lab investigates how the brain integrates information about internal body states, learned experience, and the external context to drive adaptive behaviors, such as feeding.
Molecular Biotechnology for Neural Dynamics and Therapeutics

Tian Lab

The Tian Lab develops novel tools to visualize neural communication in real time, revealing how information flows in the brain to shape thought, feeling, and behavior.
Neuronal Mechanisms of Episodic Memory

Wang Lab

The Wang lab investigates how the continuous flow of lived experience is encoded in the brain, identifying the neuronal patterns that encode and recall events to guide decision making.
Neuronal Signal Transduction

Yasuda Lab

The Yasuda lab creates and uses tools to watch molecular signaling events in the brain during neuroplasticity, the process through which information flow is altered in the brain during learning.

Labs by Topics

  • All Topics
  • Addiction
  • ALS/ Lou Gherigs Disease
  • Alzheimer's Disease/ Dementia
  • Anxiety
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Biotechnology
  • Cellular Function and Communication
  • Depression
  • Learning and Memory
  • Modeling and Computation
  • Motivation and Emotion
  • Movement Control and Disorders
  • Obesity and Eating Disorders
  • Parkinson’s Disease
  • Schizophrenia
  • Sensory Processing and Perception
The Wang Lab

Neuronal Mechanisms of Episodic Memory

The Wang Lab studies the neural activity across circuits that encodes the ability to remember, think and plan and is investigating how these circuits deteriorate in diseases of dementia.
Bidaye Lab

Neuronal Control of Locomotion

The Bidaye lab discovers the neural code of movement and motor decisions in the fruit fly, uncovering fundamental principles of movement to advance rehabilitation and brain-computer interface strategies for motor impairments.
Inagaki Lab

Neural Dynamics and Cognitive Functions

The Inagaki Lab studies how the brain coordinates neural activity across multiple regions to plan and execute purposeful movement with the goal of identifying circuit-level mechanisms that could guide therapeutic strategies in developmental and movement disorders.
Tian Lab

Biotechnology for Neural Dynamics and Therapeutics

The Tian Lab develops and uses cutting-edge platforms to develop and screen biosensors to visualize signaling of diverse brain chemicals in real time during behavior and disease. Their novel approach is uncovering disease mechanisms and accelerating new treatments for depression, neurodegenerative disease, and addiction.
Yasuda Lab

Neuronal Signal Transduction

The Yasuda Lab studies the molecular machinery that strengthens synaptic connections during neuroplasticity, offering insights into learning and memory and how to prevent neural dysfunction in diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Fitzpatrick Lab

Functional Architecture and Development of Cerebral Cortex

The Fitzpatrick lab discovers how brain circuit development shapes perception and behavior, providing insight into neurodevelopmental disorders.
Rangaraju Lab

Neuroenergetics

The Rangaraju Lab investigates how mitochondria fuel synaptic activity and memory formation with the ultimate goal of preventing energy failures that lead to neurodegeneration in diseases like dementia, Alzheimer's and ALS.
Stern Lab

Integrative Neural Circuits and Behavior

The Stern lab studies how the brain integrates internal signals, like hunger or fear, with learned associations to regulate adaptive and maladaptive behaviors, research that can inform the neural causes of eating disorders, addiction, and compulsive behavior.
Bolton Lab

Disorders of Neural Circuit Function

The Bolton Lab investigates how diverse genetic mutations and environmental factors alter brain circuitry to cause common symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Recent Papers

Complementary roles of cell-type-specific plasticity in shaping neocortical dynamics for learning action timing

Majumder, S., Hirokawa, K., Yang, Z., Jain, A., Paletzki, R., Gerfen, C. R., Fontolan, L., Romani, S., Yasuda, R., & Inagaki, H. K. (2026). Complementary roles of cell-type-specific plasticity in shaping neocortical dynamics for learning action timing. Nature Communications.
 

Activity-regulated circSamm50 modulates mitochondrial dynamics and spine structural plasticity

Chanda, K., Bapat, O., Wingfield, J. L., Avchalumov, Y., Kazantzis, M., Carter, J. P., Sharma, N., Davis, R., Yuan, J. X.-J., Rangaraju, V., & Puthanveettil, S. V. (2026). Activity-regulated circSamm50 modulates mitochondrial dynamics and spine structural plasticity. Cell Reports, 45(6).  

Synchronous climbing fiber activity enables instructive signaling for cerebellar learning through modulation of disinhibitory circuits.

Park, C., Yang, Z., Nashef, A., Gim, J., Bahn, S., Kim, G. H., Zhang, K., Cathala, L., Hong, S., Im, Y., Lee, S.-H., Lee, K., Kim, M.-S., Arnold, D. B., Lee, K. J., Christie, J. M., & Kim, J. S. (2026). Synchronous climbing fiber activity enables instructive signaling for cerebellar learning through modulation of disinhibitory circuits. Nature Neuroscience.
 

argeting the cGAS-STING pathway mitigates Huntington disease pathogenesis in a knock-in mouse model.

Kesharwani, A., Dagar, S., Zuniga, I., Monet, M. C., Halade, G., Upadhyay, G., Nimrod Ramírez-Jarquín, U., Gisselle Lopez-Huerta, V., Mirza, E., Quan, N., & Subramaniam, S. (2026). Targeting the cGAS-STING pathway mitigates Huntington disease pathogenesis in a knock-in mouse model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 123(24), e2535879123.
 

Functional imaging of nine distinct neuronal populations under a miniscope in freely behaving animals.

Phillips, M. L., Urban, N. T., Salemi, T., Dong, Z., & Yasuda, R. (2026). Functional imaging of nine distinct neuronal populations under a miniscope in freely behaving animals. eLife, 15, RP110277.  

Central versus peripheral neural control of a coordinated walking pattern in Drosophila

Sapkal, N., Kumar, D. S., Sunke, S., Mancini, N., Pitchford, J., Murakami, K., & Bidaye, S. S. (2026). Central versus peripheral neural control of a coordinated walking pattern in Drosophila. (p. 2026.04.29.721658). bioRxiv.

 

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