Programs: Neurobiology

Our program provides broad training in neuroscience and related basic sciences and prepares students for career opportunities in academia, research, or the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Faculty in this Section have active research programs in the areas of neural development, synaptic function and plasticity, cardiac reflexes, and mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Graduate students will use experimental systems ranging from whole animals and postmortem human tissue to brain slices, primary neuronal culture, neural membranes and organelles, and isolated proteins.

Students can also participate in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. This Program involves about 50 faculty members on the Lawrence campus and University of Kansas Medical School in Kansas City, a 40-minute drive from Lawrence.

Interactions between neurons and their environment.
Dr. Brian Ackley

Differentiation of neurons and muscle cells
Dr. Vicoria Corbin

Role of tau in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders
Dr. Chris Gamblin

Designing small-molecule modulators of protein function using computational and experimental techniques
Dr. John Karanicolas

Synaptic transmission in the hippocampus
Dr. Paul Kelly

Developmental morphogenesis of the nervous system and other organs
Dr. Erik Lundquist

Thromboxane-mediated neural reflexes in the heart and lung
Dr. Jim Orr

The cytoskeleton in cell division, development and neuromuscular function
Dr. Kathy Suprenant