My laboratory is interested in how biological environments are constructed on a cellular level, and explores the architecture of specialized environments, also called niches, that contain and regulate stem cell function. We focus on niches in the adult mammalian brain, housing self-renewing stem cells that can give rise to new neurons. Our current research projects center on neural circuit wiring diagrams, and interactions between electrical activity and stem cell proliferation control. An understanding of these processes will increase our abilities to model and enhance behaviorally-driven hardware upgrades to the brain in health and disease.

Doctors using harmful cells to fight traumatic brain injury

Awards and Achievements

  • NIH Director’s New Innovator Award ( 2008)
  • Sontag Distinguished Scientist Award ( 2008)
  • Basil O’Connor Scholar Award ( 2009)
  • Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship ( 2010)
  • Kavli Frontiers Fellow NAS ( 2010)
  • Ruth and Morris Williams Faculty Research Prize ( 2015)

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