Areas of Research
While the program's coursework introduces students to the broad study of neuroscience, the program's research projects focus on four specific areas of study.
For more than 30 years, we have been running a vibrant and diverse research program focused on understanding sequelae of spinal cord injury (SCI) and investigating strategies for repair and functional recovery. Our collaborative faculty members apply contemporary cutting-edge advances in stem cell transplantation, physiology of locomotion and respiration, gene therapy, rehabilitation protocols and pharmacological interventions to open new avenues for more effective treatments for acute and chronic SCI. Learn more.
The cells that comprise the nervous system are among the most remarkable in nature. The Neuroscience graduate program includes several laboratories with robust research programs in the cellular aspects of neuroscience. We are addressing fundamental questions such as how axons grow, branch and navigate during development, how dendrites become different from axons, and how neurons migrate from their sites of origin to their final destinations in the developing brain. Learn more.
The Systems and Behavioral Neurobiology group includes faculty from diverse fields whose fundamental goal is to understand the biological basis of behavior. Faculty members in this multidisciplinary group share common interests in the neurobiology of monoamine systems, peptide transmitters and psychostimulant drug actions. Ongoing research projects employ an array of sophisticated neurochemical, electrophysiological, neuroanatomical and behavioral assays, as well as computer modeling, to investigate primary mechanisms of normal brain function and their application to neurological, neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. Learn more.
Faculty members at the College of Medicine and the School of Biomedical Engineering are combining strengths in this highly interdisciplinary area of research. The Neuroengineering tracks in both the Neuroscience program, and in the School of Biomedical Engineering PhD programs, each provide entry into this dynamic field. Entry through neuroscience emphasizes the neuroscience and neurophysiological applications of novel technologies, and quantitative and computational techniques. Learn more.
The Computational Neuroscience Center at Drexel’s Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy brings together a group of computational and experimental researchers with a common interest to understand nervous system function. Members of the center work in close collaboration on multidisciplinary research projects combining experimental and computational strategies. Dr. Ilya Rybak serves as the current director of the Center. Learn more.