Research

Neuroscience faculty have a wide range of interests and expertise and receive over $22,000,000 in external funding annually. The department is consistently ranked in the top 10 of Neuroscience departments in NIH funding by the Blue Ridge Medical Institute.

Research investigations range from molecular to systems neuroscience and are detailed in the Faculty Research section of this website. Each faculty member is profiled, with a summary of research interests, publications, and contact information.

The faculty have offices and laboratories located in Jackson Hall, Nils Hasselmo Hall, Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) building, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR), Lions Research Building/McGuire Translational Research Building (LRB/MTRF), Wallin Medical Sciences Building (WMBB), and the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.

Institute for Translational Neuroscience

Autism Spectrum Disorders

Dr. Patrick Rothwell’s laboratory focuses on autism spectrum disorders and drug addiction - two seemingly distinct brain conditions that appear to affect overlapping elements of striatal circuitry.

Brain Circuits & Seizures

Dr. Esther Krook-Magnuson's work aims to help scientists and physicians better understand brain circuits so that they can develop targeted therapies to help stop seizures.

Huntington´s Disease

Research in Dr. Rocio Gomez-Pastor's laboratory aims to understand the molecular pathways that drive neuronal death in Huntington´s disease (HD), an inherited neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG triplet repeat expansion within exon-1 of the huntingtin gene (HTT).