Members

Name & Title	Research Description	Research Areas
Bianca Acevedo Researcher	Dr. Acevedo’s research focuses on the neural and genetic basis of attachment and sensory processing sensitivity (and related disorders), and mind-body interventions.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias
Andy Alexander Assistant Professor	Dr. Andy Alexander's research focuses on interactions between the neocortex, thalamus, and extended hippocampal formation that subserve spatial cognition and mnemonic processes.
Dennis Clegg Professor Wilcox Family Chair in BioMedicine	Dr Clegg's research focuses on developing cures for blindness using embryonic, iPS, and adult stem cells.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Development of the Nervous System, Stem Cells, The Visual System
Peter Coffey Researcher	Two major groups of diseases termed retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration are the leading causes of blindness.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Development of the Nervous System, Stem Cells, The Visual System
Siddharth Dey Assistant Professor	The goal of our lab is to develop novel single-cell sequencing technologies to understand how variability in the epigenome regulates gene expression heterogeneity and cell fate decisions.	Stem Cells, Tools & Technology Development
Adele Doyle Assistant Professor	Neural & cardiovascular tissue engineering/regenerative medicine. Stem cells, mechanobiology, molecular control systems.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, Development of the Nervous System, Stem Cells, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, Tools & Technology Development
Stuart Feinstein Co-Director, NRI Professor	Normal and Pathological Action of the Microtubule-Associated Protein Tau; Alzheimer’s and related dementias.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
Steven Fisher Professor Emeritus	Structure and function in the vertebrate retina with an emphasis on mechanisms underlying photoreceptor degeneration and the role of glial cells in normal and injured or diseased retina.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Stem Cells, The Visual System
Michael Gazzaniga Professor	Dr. Gazzaniga conducts research on how the brain enables mind.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity
Michael Goard Assistant Professor	The overarching goal of my research is to better understand how the mammalian neocortex processes and stores incoming sensory information.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, The Visual System
Songi Han Professor	The Han lab uses advanced electron and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy tools to pursue the study of biomolecular structure, molecular interactions, dynamics and functional processes with atomic and molecular-level insight.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Tools & Technology Development
Paul Hansma Professor	The goal of our lab is to build useful gadgets. Current projects include multi-electrode probes for neuron cell cultures and multi-sensor biofeedback devices to help people overcome chronic pain.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Tools & Technology Development
Emily Jacobs Assistant Professor	Uses human brain imaging techniques (fMRI) and endocrinology to determine the impact of sex steroid hormones on brain morphology and function.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity
Skirmantas Janusonis Associate Professor	Spatial and temporal organization of stochastic axon systems in the brain.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, Development of the Nervous System
Mary Ann Jordan Adjunct Professor Emeritus	Mechanism and regulation of microtubule polymerization and dynamics; mechanism of action of microtubule-targeted anticancer drugs and microtubule-regulatory proteins.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
Patrick Keeley Assistant Researcher		The Visual System , Development of the Nervous System
Ron Keiflin Assistant Professor	Behavioral and neural mechanisms that guide associative learning and decision-making.
Sung Soo Kim Assistant Professor	Neural circuit dynamics and behavior; navigation in a visual environment; neural mechanisms of object selection and decision-making.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, The Visual System
Tod Kippin Associate Professor	Neuroscience and Behavior.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology
Kenneth Kosik Co-Director NRI Harriman Professor of Neuroscience	Neural plasticity including the molecular basis of plasticity, the evolution of synapses, and disease-related impairments of plasticity such as occurs in Alzheimer's disease.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Development of the Nervous System, Stem Cells, Tools & Technology Development
Tonya Kydland Project Scientist	Add Research Teaser.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias
John Lew Associate Professor	Molecular mechanisms of signal transduction; Alzheimer's Disease and other protein aggregation/misfolding diseases; molecular biology, enzymology, and protein structure/function.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
Geoff Lewis Researcher	My current research involves developing treatment strategies for diseases and injuries of the retina.	Stem Cells, The Visual System
Matthieu Louis Associate Professor	Combining theory and experimentation to understand how navigational decisions come about in terms of neural-circuit computation.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, Tools & Technology Development
Dzwokai (Zach) Ma Associate Professor	Trafficking regulation of receptors and channels in the nervous system.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
B.S. Manjunath Professor	Computer vision, machine learning, microscopy image analysis, image segmentation, classification, tracking.	Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, The Visual System , Tools & Technology Development
Craig Montell Duggan Professor and Distinguished Professor	Decoding the receptors and channels required for animal behavior in Drosophila and the mosquito, Aedes aegypti.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, The Visual System
Denise Montell Duggan Professor and Distinguished Professor	Combination of molecular, genetic, and state-of-the-art imaging approaches to define and solve fundamental questions in cell and developmental biology with implications for neurodegenerative disease, ischemic diseases and cancer.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Development of the Nervous System, Stem Cells
Arnab Mukherjee Assistant Professor	Genetically encoded biomolecular sensors for probing neural activity and cell function noninvasively in living animals using  magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, Tools & Technology Development
Todd Oakley Professor	Macroevolution, phylogenetics, bioluminescence, vision, molecular evolution, complexity, marine organismal biology.
Stan Parsons Professor Emeritus	Add Research Teaser.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
Linda Petzold Mehrabian Distinguished Professor	Computational methods, mathematical modeling, and machine learning, with application to a wide range of problems from systems biology, neuroscience and engineering.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, Tools & Technology Development
Monte Radeke Project Scientist	Add Research Teaser.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Development of the Nervous System, Stem Cells, The Visual System
Benjamin Reese Professor	Organization, development and plasticity of the retina and visual pathway.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Development of the Nervous System, The Visual System
Joel Rothman Professor	Molecular and genetic analysis of development, stem cell biology, apoptosis, and behavior in the nematode C. elegans.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Development of the Nervous System, Stem Cells
Charles Samuel Research Professor, and C.A. Storke II Professor and Distinguished Professor, Emeritus	Antiviral innate immunity and interferon action, with focus on the roles of double-stranded RNA in translational control by the PKR kinase and A-to-I RNA editing by the ADAR1 deaminase.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
Joan-Emma Shea Professor	Theoretical and computational biophysics; protein folding and aggregation in Alzheimer's.
Julie Simpson Associate Professor	Systems neuroscience, neuroethology, and genetics, applied to dissecting the neural circuits that control a flexible motor sequence of grooming in fruit flies.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Tools & Technology Development
Ikuko Smith Assistant Professor	Information processing by neural circuitry with a special focus on the role of active dendrites in nonlinear modes of synaptic integration.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, The Visual System
Spencer LaVere Smith Co-Director, UCSB Brain Initiative Associate Professor	Neuroengineering multiphoton imaging systems. Studying how neurons and their networks compute. Mouse visual system, behavior, large scale networks with subcellular resolution.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, Tools & Technology Development, The Visual System
William Smith Professor	We research in two primary areas: (1) the mechanisms of neural tube closure in Xenopus and Ciona; (2) and behavior and neural circuity in Ciona.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Development of the Nervous System
Tommy Sprague Assistant Professor	Studies how the brain represents information in support of goal-directed behavior using computational neuroimaging.	Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, The Visual System , Tools & Technology Development
Sebastian Streichan Assistant Professor	Dr. Streichan’s research focuses on understanding the physical mechanisms of morphogenesis using embryonic development and iPS based synthetic systems.
Karen Szumlinski Professor	Dr. Szumlinski's research focuses on the neuropsychopharmacology of substance use and related disorders.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity
James Thomson Professor	Dr. Thomson's research areas of focus are differentiation of vascular progenitors for transplantation therapies and mammalian developmental clocks.	Stem Cells
Megan Valentine Professor	Prof. Valentine’s research focuses on the mechanics of cells and tissues and the design of bio-inspired materials.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System, Stem Cells, Tools & Technology Development
Carol Vandenberg Professor Emeritus	Cell biology of the nervous system and muscle. Mechanisms of ion channel trafficking; function and regulation of potassium channels; polarized targeting of membrane proteins and neuronal cell polarity.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
René Weber Professor	Attention disorders and media-multitasking, moral judgment and conflict in narratives, media violence and aggression, persuasion neuroscience, cognitive control and flow experiences.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience & Imaging Neural Activity, Tools & Technology Development
Thomas Weimbs Professor	Molecular mechanisms underlying polycystic kidney disease, and SNARE fusion proteins.	Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
Leslie Wilson Professor Emeritus	Mechanism and regulation of microtubule polymerization and dynamics; mechanism of action of microtubule-targeted anticancer drugs and microtubule-regulatory proteins.	Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System
Max Wilson Assistant Professor	Combines tools from Biology, Engineering, and Physics to understand the cell’s perceptual field.	Stem Cells, Tools & Technology Development
Soojin Yi Professor	An evolutionary biologist who uses genomic and epigenomic approaches.	Behavioral Neuroscience & Neuroethology , Cell Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics of the Nervous System