Neurosciences 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  
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  
Cornelia C. Bergmann bergmac@ccf.org CCF  
**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
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.
Tara M. DeSilva desilvt@ccf.org CCF  
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.
**Julia Jones Huyck jhuyck@kent.edu Kent  
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  
**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 gonadotrophin-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
**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
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  
**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  
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  
**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

 

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