My lab investigates how animals sense their environment, and how they translate this information into changes in behavior and development. Current research in our lab focuses on three research areas, primarily in the C. elegans experimental system. In the first, we study how the cilia of sensory neurons acquire their unique morphologies and how these … Continued
Our group has done influential research in both computer science and neuroscience. Over the past decade, we helped pioneer the new field of connectomics, applying deep learning and crowdsourcing to reconstruct neural circuits from electron microscopic images. Our lab created EyeWire.org, a site that has recruited over 250,000 players from 150 countries to a game … Continued
My lab studies the neuronal circuitry and functional organization underlying visual and tactile behavior in awake, behaving monkeys. To map these functions in the brain, we use an array of optical imaging, fMRI, electrophysiological, anatomical and optogenetics methods. Chronic implanted windows on the brain permit: 1) study of sensory and attentional processes and 2) methods … Continued
Research in the Littleton lab is aimed at characterizing the mechanisms by which neurons form synaptic connections, how synapses transmit information, and how synapses change during learning and memory. Our lab combines molecular biology, protein biochemistry, electrophysiology, and neuroimaging approaches with Drosophila genetics to address these questions. A major effort has been to characterize the … Continued
I study the brain mechanisms of behavioral flexibility. Using high resolution imaging techniques in intact, task-performing mice, my laboratory aims to reveal the dynamics in brain circuits that allow an animal to interact with the environment in an adaptive manner.
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 … Continued
I study animal development using the nematode C.elegans as an experimental organism. We study cell migration, pattern formation, and aging.
Erich Jarvis investigates the neurobiology of learned vocal communication in the rare group of animals that have this ability, as a model for the study of how the brain generates, perceives, and learns complex behaviors, such as spoken language. His specific quest is to determine the molecular mechanisms that construct, modify, and maintain neural circuits … Continued
Understanding how light influences physiology and behavior is a fundamental biological problem, with significant relevance to human health. A critical discovery in the last decade was the identification of a new photoreceptor in the mammalian retina, the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell. ipRGCs are pivotal for light to influence behavior. My laboratory has been at … Continued
Research in our lab focuses on the intrinsic and extrinsic regulation of stem cells in the adult mammalian brain. Using novel approaches to purify stem cells directly from their in vivo niche, we are defining the in vivo heterogeneity and potential of adult neural stem cells, and the gene regulatory networks underlying stem cell quiescence … Continued