Molecular
The functioning of cells in the nervous system is dependent on a large number of molecules such as enzymes, receptors, transporters, neurotransmitters, channels, RNA, DNA and second messengers. Molecular neuroscientists are interested in determining how the expression of these molecules is regulated, how these molecules work and how they interact with other molecules to regulate cellular function. Techniques used to study molecular function include gene cloning and nucleic acid sequence analysis, protein purification and analysis of protein structure and function, determination of protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions, biophysical analysis of ion channels in neurons or expressed in heterologous cells, kinetic analysis of radioligand binding, mapping gene regulatory networks and signal transduction pathways, and generation of transgenic species.
Areas of strength within the molecular subdiscipline are:
- Biophysics of Channels and Transporters
- Gene Regulation
- Neuronal Signaling
- Synapses and Circuits
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Neuroendocrinology
For more information on NGP faculty involved in this research, click on the links to these investigators.
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- host-pathogen interactions, neural-immune communications, neuroinflammation, infections, bacterial pathogenesis, organismal response to infections
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Appointments and titles
- Assistant Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Quantitative Oncology Program, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute
- Programmatic Theme: Omics, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute
- Single Cell
- Epigenetics
- Development
- Sequencing
- Biotechnology
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences
- Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Circadian Rhythms
- Sleep
- Synaptic Transmission
- Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
- Neural Network Activity
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- autonomic
- electrophysiology
- synaptic transmission
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Research on mechanisms of brain injury due to prematurity
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Appointments and titles
- Assistant Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- x-ray crystallography and electrophysiology
- cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM)
- sodium channels
- ion channels
- channel assembly, channel gating, and ion selectivity
- protein biochemistry
- structural biology
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Appointments and titles
- Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Brain Development, Radial Glia, Neuronal Polarity, Endothelial heterogeneity, Single Cell Transcriptome/Proteome Analysis
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Hair-cell transduction
- Hair-bundle development
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- zebrafish genetics
- electrophysiology
- ion channel function
- imaging
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
- Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Fate of otic epithelial progenitors in the mouse otic vesicle
- Lineage relationships of sensory and nonsensory cells in the mouse inner ear
- Molecular regulation of sensory organ formation
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Mechanisms of neuronal migration
- Neurobiology of disease
- Simpler model systems
- Biology of Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP)
- Alzheimer's Disease
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Representation of speech and other natural sounds in auditory cortex
- Learning and attention-driven changes in auditory representation
- Biological mechanisms underlying neural computations
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor of Neurology, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- glia
- axon
- Wallerian degeneration
- neuron-glia signaling
- astrocytes
- neurodegeneration
- Drosophila
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- metabolic regulation of gene expression
- characterization of activity-regulated genes
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- chemical synapses and synaptic transmission
- glutamate receptors
- neurotransmitter transporters
- ligand-gated ion channels
- cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM)
- x-ray crystallography
- membrane proteins
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Glia
- Astrocytes
- Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
- Neuronal development
- Extracellular matrix
- Neurite outgrowth
- Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
- Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, School of Medicine
- Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Autonomic neuron plasticity
- Neurotransmitter/receptor expression
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine
- Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor Emeritus of Neurology, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Assistant Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Signaling and trafficking of membrane proteins
- GPCR pharmacology
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor of Neurology, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- Rett Syndrome
- neuronal-glial interactions
- microRNA
- epigenetics
- neurogenesis
- neuronal circuitry
- neurodevelopment
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Appointments and titles
- Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, School of Medicine
- Assistant Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Structural biology
- Ion Channels
- G-protein coupled receptors
- Structure-based drug design
- Purinergic receptors
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- basal ganglia circuit analysis
- cortical-subcortical interactions
- optogenetics
- genetically engineered calcium indicators
- two-photon calcium imaging
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- patient resiliency
- cachexia
- failure to thrive
- fatigue
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Neuroethology
- Molecular neuroscience
- Speech and Language
- Vocal learning
- Central auditory processing
- Learning and memory
- Neurogenomics
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- Glial cell biology
- Neuron-glial interactions
- Glial-glial interactions
- Myelination and remyelination
- Zebrafish
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Appointments and titles
- Assistant Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- mechanotransduction
- ion channels
- electrophysiology
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics, School of Medicine
- Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- zebrafish axonal transport neuron development lateral line sensory systems
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Appointments and titles
- Research Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine
- Professor, Oregon National Primate Research Center
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Areas of interest
- Retinal degenerative disease
- Nutritional factors in development and aging of the retina and brain
- Gene and cell therapies for retinal disease
- Cognitive aging
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Dopamine receptors
- Signal transduction
- Cellular and molecular biology of g protein-coupled receptors
- Structure-function analysis of dopamine receptors
- Behavior
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Autism
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Genetics/genomics
- Stem cells
- Developmental neuroscience
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Reproduction
- Neuroendocrinology
- Sexual differentiation
- Sex difference
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, School of Medicine
- Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Assistant Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- single-cell genomics
- host-virus interactions
- neural circuits
- comparative neuroscience
- synapse biology
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Ion channel regulation
- Insulin secretion regulation in health and disease
- Pancreatic beta-cell biology and signaling
- Pharmacological chaperones
- Structural biology of potassium channels
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, School of Medicine
- Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Medicine
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- small G proteins
- MAP kinase
- B-Raf
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Brainstem circuits that process acoustic signals
- Synaptic physiology: How do cells and synapses preserve information provided by the ear?
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine
- Professor, Oregon National Primate Research Center
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Areas of interest
- Brain Aging
- Circadian rhythms
- Neuroendocrinology
- Puberty
- Menopause
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Appointments and titles
- Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Unnatural amino acid mutagenesis of membrane proteins
- Ion conduction and voltage gating in K+ channels
- Transport mechanism in glutamate transporters
- Folding of membrane proteins
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
- Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- exocytosis and endocytosis of synaptic vesicles
- short and long-term plasticity in the retina and brainstem
- electrophysiology of auditory pathway
- ribbon synapses
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Appointments and titles
- Assistant Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine
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Areas of interest
- Behavioral Neuroendocrinology
- Sex differences in motivation and reward
- Neurobiology of Addiction
- Adolescent Development
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- neurogenesis
- hippocampal microcircuits
- glutamate receptors
- epilepsy
- regeneration and repair
- synaptic transmission
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Appointments and titles
- Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- opiate desensitization and tolerance
- receptor trafficking
- dendrodendritic transmission
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- neurodevelopment
- axon guidance
- neuronal migration
- synaptogenesis
- neural circuitry
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Appointments and titles
- Associate Professor, Vollum Institute
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Areas of interest
- photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM)
- two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (2PFLIM)
- fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy
- CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing
- in vivo imaging of neuromodulation and subcellular signaling in awake animals
- protein and signaling dynamics during plasticity, cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA) signaling, labeling of endogenous proteins
- dopamine, striatum, mouse locomotion
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