Neuroscience Faculty

All of our faculty members have active research programs and are involved in graduate student training. Feel free to contact any of our Neuroscience Program faculty listed below by clicking on the link to their email address.

Name Email Campus Specialty
** indicates accepting students      
Kenneth Boyd Baker

bakerk6@ccf.org

CCF More on Baker
Jianxin Bao

jbao@neomed.edu

NEOMED Aging, Auditory Neuroscience, Gene Therapy, Stem Cell Therapy, Presbycusis, Noise-Induced Hearing Loss, Tinnitus. More on Bao
Lynn Bekris

bekrisl@ccf.org

CCF Identifying and evaluating the functional impact of genetic and epigenetic factors in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. More on Bekris
Cornelia C. Bergmann

bergmac@ccf.org

CCF Immune responses to viral infections in the central nervous system. More on Bergmann
Heather K. Caldwell

hcaldwel@kent.edu

Kent Neuropeptide regulation of social behaviors and neuropyschiatric disorders. More on Caldwell
**Wilson Chung

wchung@kent.edu

Kent Neuroendocrine brain, androgens, fibroblast growth factor signaling. More on Chung
Robert Clements

rclement@kent.edu

Kent More on Clements
**Lique Coolen

jcoolen@kent.edu

Kent Mechanisms by which spinal cord injury affects urogenital and sexual function, neurobiology of addiction and understanding neural circuits that mediate female reproductive function and dysfunction. More on Coolen
Christine Crish

ccrish@neomed.edu

NEOMED Glaucoma, neurodegeneration, and bone loss in Alzheimer's disease. More on Crish
Samuel Crish

scrish@neomed.edu

NEOMED Glaucoma, axonal transport, structures and functions. More on Crish
Derek Damron

ddamron@kent.edu

NEOMED Cardiac myocytes, signal transduction, protein kinases, contractility, anesthetic agents, calcium, cardiovascular disease. More on Damron
**Hod Dana

danah@ccf.org

CCF More on Dana
Altaf Darvesh

adarvesh@neomed.edu

NEOMED Development of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory strategies for neoplastic an neurodegenerative diseases, as well as psychiatric disorders. More on Darvesh
**Dimitrios Davalos

davalod@ccf.org

CCF The Dimitrios Davalos lab studies the interactions between blood vessels, neurons and microglia in health and disease. More on Davalos
**Tara M. DeSilva

desilvt@ccf.org

CCF More on DeSilva
**Ranjan Dutta

duttar@ccf.org

CCF More on Dutta
Sheila Fleming

sfleming1@neomed.edu

NEOMED More on Fleming
Ernest J. Freeman

efreema2@kent.edu

Kent Mechanisms of neurodegeneration, multiple sclerosis, mitochondrial function, glutamate, GABA and neuronal energy. More on Freeman
**Alexander V. Galazyuk

agalaz@neomed.edu

NEOMED Neuroscience of hearing, critical role of timing in sound processing. More on Galazyuk
Rebecca German

rgerman@neomed.edu

NEOMED Neurophysiology and biomechanics.  Regulation of feeding and pathophysiology of dysphagia. More on German
T. Lee Gilman

tgilman@kent.edu

Kent Influences of diet, stress and genetic variation on emotions, behavior, and overall brain & body health.  More on Gilman.
Adam Goodwill

agoodwill@neomed.edu

NEOMED  
Julia Jones Huyck

jhuyck@kent.edu

Kent More on Huyck
John D. Johnson

jjohns72@kent.edu

Kent Neural-immune interactions, brain cytokines, mood, behavior, stress and immunity. More on Johnson
**Woo-Yang Kim

wkim2@kent.edu

Kent Brain development, Neurodevelopmental disorders, Autism, intellectual disability, anxiety, depression, Neural stem cell, neuron migration. More on Kim
**Michael Lehman

mlehma18@kent.edu

Kent Reproductive neuroendocrine system of the brain in mammals as governed by intricate neural and hormonal communication between the brain, pituitary gland and gonads.  More on Lehman
**Antoine Louveau

louveaa@ccf.org

CCF More on Louveau
**Yong Lu

ylu@neomed.edu

NEOMED Neurotransmitter systems, GABA, glutamate, audition. More on Lu
**William P. Lynch

wonk@neomed.edu

NEOMED Mechanisms of neurodegeneration, CNS gene therapy, RNA tumor virus pathogenesis, microglia development. More on Lynch
**Ryota Matsuoka

matsuor@ccf.org

CCF Developmental neuroscience, brain barriers, brain-blood communications, brain vascular cell heterogeneity, neurovascular morphogenesis, and cerebrovascular diseases. More on Matsuoka
**Jennifer A. McDonough

jmcdonou@kent.edu

Kent Regenerative medicine, mitochondrial dysfunction and epigenetic mechanisms in multiple sclerosis. More on McDonough
**Jeffrey Mellott

jmellott@neomed.edu

NEOMED Age-related changes to inhibitory circuitry in the auditory pathways.  More on Mellott
Eric M. Mintz

emintz@kent.edu

Kent Behavioral neurobiology, circadian rhythms, feeding, and social behavior, sex differences in biological rhythms. More on Mintz
**Aleisha Moore

amoor149@kent.edu

Kent The Moore lab aims to define and understand neuronal networks regulating gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, the final output cells in the brain controlling fertility. Currently, we are funded by the National Institutes of Health to investigate whether changes in the regulation of GnRH neurons by cells co-expressing the neuropeptides Kisspeptin, Neurokinin B and Dynorphin (aka KNDy neurons) leads to infertility in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common endocrinopathy in women worldwide. To achieve this, we use a preclinical model of PCOS combined with genetic, anatomical, and functional tools to identify and analyze how changes within KNDy neurons and associated networks lead to the development of PCOS symptoms.
Devin Mueller

dmuell10@kent.edu

Kent Neural mechanisms of learning and memory that underlie drug use and emotional regulation. More on Mueller
Bruna Mussoi

bmussoi@kent.edu

Kent Age-related changes in speech perception, auditory electrophysiology, effects of cognition.  More on Mussoi
**Colleen Novak

cnovak13@kent.edu

Kent Neural and endocrine mechanisms of thermogenesis in obesity, photic and nonphotic influences on the circadian clock. More on Novak
Moses Oyewumi

moyewumi@neomed.edu

NEOMED Drug delivery, nanotechnology, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases. More on Oyewumi
**Nikhil Panicker

panickn@ccf.org

CCF More on Panicker
**Richard Piet

rpiet@kent.edu

Kent Neurophysiological mechanisms involved in regulating the activity of the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons and their contributions to biological timing and fertility. More on Piet
**Gunnar Poplawski poplawg@ccf.org CCF More on Poplawski
Mary Ann Raghanti

mraghant@kent.edu

Kent Comparative neurobiology, evolution, cognition, behavior. More on Raghanti
Erin Reed-Geaghan

ereedgeaghan@neomed.edu

NEOMED

My lab is interested in the role of the immune system in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Specifically, we seek to understand the ways in which the brain’s resident immune cells, microglia, contribute to the neuroinflammatory processes driving neurodegeneration. We believe microglia from men and women respond differently in AD, contributing to the sex differences in disease onset and progression, and we’re working on identifying the reasons for these differences. We are also interested in how these cells communicate with the circulating peripheral immune system, and the ways in which these interactions affect disease progression.
Angela Ridgel

aridgel@kent.edu

Kent More on Ridgel
**Merri J. Rosen

mrosen@neomed.edu

NEOMED Neural correlates of auditory perception: effects of hearing loss and experience during development. More on Rosen
**Brett R. Schofield

bschofie@neomed.edu

NEOMED Functional anatomy of auditory pathways. More on Schofield
**Woo-Shik Shin (Austin)

wshin@neomed.edu

NEOMED

Novel combination antibacterial therapy against drug resistance ESKAPE pathogens. Drug repurposing and combinational approach to block abnormal protein aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease. Our lab focuses on computational structure-based drug design and drug delivery system for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other degenerative disorders. Current research is driven by two key topics: How to develop new therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative and other brain diseases? How to design the blood-brain barrier shuttle peptides with neuronal specificity? 

Matthew Smith

msmith13@neomed.edu

NEOMED More on Smith
**Hoonkyo Suh

suhh2@ccf.org

CCF In the adult hippocampus, new neurons are continuously generated and integrated into neural circuits. This brain plasticity or brain remodeling process is essential for cognitive, emotional, social, and addictive behaviors. The major goal of the Suh lab’s research is to understand how precise production and connection of newborn neurons contributes to cognition, emotion, and addiction and how disrupted plasticity (remodeling process) leads to major deficits in learning and memory and emotional stability. By using the state of art methods such as virus-mediated neural circuit mapping, Ca2+ imaging and multimodal MRI, and genetic manipulation to control neural circuits (DREADD and Optogenetics), we are dedicated to research to understand anatomy and function of neural circuits that are formed by newborn neurons in the adult brain, with a hope that hippocampal neurogenesis may serve as neural substrate and target to understand and treat brain conditions that have cognitive, emotional, social, and addictive impairments.
Bruce Trapp

trappb@ccf.org

CCF More on Trapp
Sean L. Veney

sveney@kent.edu

Kent Behavioral neuroendocrinology, sexual differentiation of the brain, syrinx anatomy, neuroethology of birdsong. More on Veney
**Jeffrey J. Wenstrup

jjw@neomed.edu

NEOMED Neural mechanisms of hearing and acoustic communication, including emotional responses to sound. More on Wenstrup
Jessica Williams

williaj39@ccf.org

CCF More on Williams
**Bradley Winters

bwinters@neomed.edu

NEOMED Cellular neurophysiology of brainstem sound localization circuits that process timing and intensity differences between the two ears.  More on Winters