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Neuroscience (NEUS) Faculty

  • Jessica Ausborn, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Computational modeling of neurons and their interactions; brainstem and spinal control of locomotion and respiration; sensorimotor integration

  • Peter Baas, PhD

    Professor; Director, Graduate Program in Neuroscience
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Degeneration, dysfunction, injury and repair of the nervous system

  • Jacqueline Barker, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: Addiction, learning and memory, behavioral neuroscience, habits, compulsivity, sex differences, drug and alcohol exposure, substance and alcohol use disorders

  • Jessica Barson, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Alcohol use disorder, binge eating disorder, sex differences, individual differences, limbic system, neuropeptides, dopamine, serotonin

  • Marie-Pascale Côté, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Plasticity of spinal networks after spinal cord injury

  • Timothy Cunningham, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Neuron survival and death, neuroinflammation, central nervous system repair

  • Simon Danner, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Computational modeling of neural control of locomotion

  • Megan Detloff, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Neuropathic pain, spinal cord injury, neuroimmune interactions, neuroplasticity, nociceptors, behavior

  • Kimberly Dougherty, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Spinal locomotor network organization, rhythm generating mechanisms, plasticity of spinal circuits following spinal cord injury and following treatment with potential therapeutics aimed at restoring function after injury

  • Rodrigo España, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Neural basis of motivated behavior, hypocretin/orexin, dopamine, norepinephrine, behavioral pharmacology, sleep/arousal, substance abuse, fast scan cyclic voltammetry, fiber photometry, multi-unit electrophysiology, optogenetics, DREADDs

  • Itzhak Fischer, PhD

    Professor and Chair
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Cellular and molecular strategies in promoting regeneration; structure and function of neuronal cytoskeleton

  • Wen-Jun Gao, MD, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Synaptic signaling in the prefrontal cortex: impact on cognition and social behaviors related to neurobiology of psychiatric disorders

  • Peter Gaskill, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: HIV, drug abuse, neuroimmunity, neurotransmission, macrophage immunology, dopamine, serotonin, catecholamines

  • Simon Giszter, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Spinal cord organization, modularity, motor primitives, control of limb biomechanics, brain machine interface (BMI), comparative motor physiology, corticospinal functions, electromyography, motor control, motor cortex, neuroengineering, neuroprosthetics, neurorobotics, neurobiology, neurorehabilitation, reflex behaviors, rehabilitation, spinal cord injury, systems neurobiology, theoretical and computational neuroscience, trunk/axial controls

  • Shaoping Hou, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Autonomic dysfunction after spinal cord injury, micturition reflex and cardiovascular function, neural stem cells, axon regeneration, serotonin and dopamine

  • John Houle, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Neurotransplantation strategies to promote structural and functional recovery after spinal cord injury

  • Joshua Jackson, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: Astrocyte biology, neuro-glial interactions, neurovascular coupling, synaptic development, calcium signaling, mitochondrial dynamics, brain metabolism

  • Pooja Jain, PhD, MS

    Professor; Co-Director, Master of Science in Immunology Program
    Department: Microbiology & Immunology
     Research Interests: Retrovirus-associated cancer and neuroinflammation, myeloid/dendritic cell-based immunotherapy, extracellular vesicles

  • Sandhya Kortagere, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Microbiology & Immunology
     Research Interests: Biased signaling of dopamine D3 receptor agonists; developing symptomatic and disease-modifying therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease; etiology of mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease; role of dopamine receptors in neurocognitive impairment in HIV and other neuronal infections

  • Michael Lane, PhD

    Associate Professor; Co-Director, Neuroscience Camp for High School Students; Co-Director, T32 NIH Spinal Cord Injury Training Program
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Spontaneous and therapeutically enhanced neural plasticity following cervical spinal cord injury

  • Sergey Markin, PhD

    Research Assistant Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Computational neuroscience, motor control, modeling neural control of respiration and locomotion

  • Olimpia Meucci, MD, PhD

    Professor & Chair
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and drug abuse, chemokine-based therapeutics, neuroprotective pathways in neuroinflammation

  • Andréia C.K. Mortensen, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: Excitatory amino acid transporters, astrocytes, neurological disorders, excitotoxicity, allosteric modulation, stroke, epilepsy, neuropathic pain

  • Ole Mortensen, PhD

    Associate Professor; Director, Pharmacology & Physiology Graduate Program
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: Neurotransmitter transporters, drug addiction and affective disorders

  • Hazel Murphy, PhD

    Professor Emerita
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: CNS development, mechanisms that control the effects of in utero drug exposure on the developing CNS

  • Liang Oscar Qiang, MD, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Neurological disease modeling and potential therapies using iPSC-derived neurons, as well as other cellular reprogramming strategies

  • Ramesh Raghupathi, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Cell death and plasticity after traumatic injury to the mature and immature brain

  • Ilya Rybak, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Computational neuroscience, motor control, modeling neural control of respiration and locomotion

  • Antonio Sanz-Clemente, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: Synaptic protein content, glutamate receptors, synaptic/extrasynaptic NMDA receptor balance, excitotoxicity, excitatory neurotransmission, synaptic maturation, autism spectrum disorder, post-translational modifications

  • Francis Sessler, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy

  • Natalia Shevtsova, PhD

    Research Assistant Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Computational neuroscience, motor control, modeling neural control of respiration and locomotion

  • Jed Shumsky, PhD

    Professor, Neurobiology and Anatomy; Chair, Academic Affairs Committee; Senior Associate Dean of Educational and Academic Affairs, Graduate School
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: While no longer engaged in active research, he is serves as a consultant for students and faculty who would like help with behavioral testing, animal modeling of human conditions, and statistical analysis.

  • Kenny Simansky, PhD

    Professor of Pharmacology; Senior Vice Dean for Research
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: Cellular mechanisms involved in regulation of eating

  • Veronica Tom, PhD

    Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Axon regeneration and plasticity after spinal cord injury

  • Kazuhito Toyooka, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Analysis of neuronal morphology in the developing cerebral cortex - neurite formation and synaptogenesis

  • Elisabeth Van Bockstaele, PhD

    Professor of Pharmacology & Physiology; Chief Strategy Officer; Senior Vice President for Graduate and Online Education; Dean, Graduate College
    Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
     Research Interests: Role of monoaminergic systems in stress-related illness and substance abuse disorders

  • Dong Wang, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
     Research Interests: Neural ensemble dynamics underlying learning and memory consolidation; emotion; learning and memory; neurobiology; prefrontal neuronal circuitry; sleep neurobiology; systems neurobiology

  • Brian Wigdahl, PhD

    Professor and Chair; Director, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease
    Department: Microbiology & Immunology
     Research Interests: Immunopathogenesis and neuropathogenesis of HIV-1 and HTLV-I infection; transcriptional regulation of retroviral expression; viral sequence diversity and correlations to disease; development of microbicidal agents

Please note: Drs. Barrett, Cunningham, Markin, Murphy, Sessler, Shevtsova, Shumsky and Simansky are not accepting graduate students.

 
Drexel College of Arts and Sciences Faculty
 

John Bethea, PhD

Area of Study: Spinal cord injury

Felice Elefant, PhD

Area of Study: Understanding the mechanisms that govern epigenetic regulation of higher order brain function. Epigenetic-based mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders, and broad insights into HAT (histone acetyltransferase)-based drug design for early therapeutic intervention of cognitive deficits.

Denise Garcia, PhD

Area of Study: Spinal cord and brain injury, cellular neurosciences

Aleister Saunders, PhD

Area of Study: Cellular neurosciences; biochemistry; genetics; biology

 
Drexel School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems Faculty
 

Vikas Bhandawat, PhD

Research Interests: Sensorimotor integration, whole-cell patch clamp and imaging in behaving animals, optogenetics, neuromechanics, locomotion

Catherine von Reyn, PhD

Research Interests: Sensorimotor transformations, sensory processing, action selection, neural circuit engineering, neural circuit development

An image of DRG Neurons from the neuroscience program at Drexel University College of Medicine.