Funded Projects

Our collaboration team is composed of 3 Buffalo Blue Sky coin holders, ​Dr. Zhen Yan (Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics, qualified for a $25,000 coin), Dr. Arnd Pralle (Dept. of Physics, qualified for a $5,000 coin), and Dr. Jian Feng (Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics, qualified for a $5,000 coin). The team will use complementary expertise of each investigator to examine the novel mechanisms involved in brain disorders including autism. Dr. Yan's lab will use in vivo electrophysiological recordings of free-moving animals to examine the neuronal circuits underlying social deficits in autism models. Dr. Pralle's lab will use in vivo calcium imaging to examine the dynamics of calcium signals in specific brain regions that is correlated to behavioral tasks in autism models. Dr. Feng's lab will use human stem cell-derived neurons from autism patients to examine molecular and biochemical changes. Such collaborations are expected to generate exciting new data for future applications of new NIH grants.