Disorders of the Nervous System

All research at Upstate—basic, translational, and clinical—is broadly grouped in four areas of concentration: Disorders of the Nervous System; Diabetes, Metabolic Disorders, and Cardiovascular Diseases; Cancer; Infectious Diseases.

Our research nervous system research builds on current strengths in three areas:

• Neurobiology of Behavioral Disorders
• Disorders of the Visual System
• Neural Injury, Neuodegeneration and Repair

We have basic and clinical researchers with expertise in the neurosciences, molecular genetics and epigenetics, behavioral science and brain imaging as they relate to several behavioral disorders. These include ADHD, schizophrenia, autism, VCFS, and fetal alcohol syndrome. Significant research is dedicated to retinal development and function, as well as practical treatments for blinding diseases. Work in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease is growing.

* indicates College of Graduate Studies faculty.

• Edward Berry, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  Biological energy transduction by membrane protein complexes, with emphasis on oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis.
  
• Blair Calancie, PhD*
  Professor
  CNS plasticity after trauma; intraoiperative electrophysiology.
• Peter Calvert, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Molecular mechanisms of protein transport and localization in retinal neurons; mechanisms of retinal degenerative diseases
  
• Xin Jie Chen, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Mitochondrial biogenesis and inheritance, aging and aging-related degenerative diseases.
• Russell Durkovic, PhD*
  Professor
  Examination of processes underlying recovery from spinal cord injury in the salamander.
• Stephen Faraone, PhD*
  Professor
  

  Psych. Genetics; ADHD and BP Disorder; Endophenotype. For more detail, see CV

• Bart Farell, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Mechanisms of visual perception of 3-D position, motion, color and object shape, investigated by psychophysical methods.
  
• Stephen Glatt, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  

  Psychiatric Genetic Epidemiology & Neurobiology

• Brian Howell, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  The signal transduction events that regulate the functional organization of neurons in the brain, and the phenotypes caused by defects in the genes that encode these signaling molecules.
• Huaiyu Hu, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Molecular studies of brain malformations.
  
• Ziwei Huang, PhD*
  Professor and Chair
  Discovery and mechanism of action of new pharmacological agents for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, infectious disease, and stem cell-based regenerative medicine.
  
• Burk Jubelt, MD*
  Professor
  

  CNS acute and chronic polio- and entero-virus infections; Growth factors for Post-Polio Syndrome; Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Motor Neuron Gene Expression

• Patricia Kane, PhD*
  Professor and Chair
  Vacuolar H+ATPases (structure, function, assembly and regulation), cellular pH homeostasis, cellular stress responses, protein sorting, genomics, yeast as a model system
• Wendy Kates, PhD*
  Professor
  Anatomic and functional imaging investigations of neurodevelopment in individuals with genetic or psychiatric disorders
• Barry Knox, PhD*
  Professor and Chair
  Visual transduction, Gene Expression, Membrane proteins
• Michael Lyon, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Age-related changes in the laryngeal muscles and vocal folds.
• Paul Massa, PhD*
  Professor
  

  Regulation of innate immune responses to viruses.

• Russell Matthews, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Role of glycoproteins in oncogenesis and brain development
• Frank Middleton, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  

  Molecular basis of cortical-basal ganglia and cortical-cerebellar circuit formation and dysfunction in neurological and psychiatric disease.

• Brad Motter, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Visual Neurophysiology; Visual Attention; Visual Search Behavior
• Nancy Nussmeier, MD*
  Professor
  Stroke after cardiac surgery, cerebral protection during cardiac surgery, gender-related surgical outcomes
• Eric Olson, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Cellular and molecular mechanisms of cerebral cortex development.
• Donna Osterhout, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  

  Biology of oligodendroglia and myelin formation during development, remyelination and repair in spinal cord injury and MS"

• Francesca Pignoni, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  
  Neurogenesis; Retinal Progenitor Cells Specification and Proliferation; Genetic Control of Stem Cell Identity and Maintenance; Disease Genes Analysis in Drosophila
  
• Dawn Post, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  

  Cancer treatments. My lab is currently investigating two different cancer therapy approaches: (1) oncolytic viruses and (2) inhibitors of the EGFR/Her pathway.

• Dennis Stelzner, PhD*
  Professor
  CNS regeneration, spinal cord injury research, and neural plasticity.
• Daniel Tso, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Neuronal mechanisms of visual perception, studied through physiological, anatomical and functional imaging techniques.
• Mary Lou Vallano, PhD*
  Professor
  Neuronal survival and development.
• Richard Veenstra, PhD*
  Professor
  Regulation of connexin-specific-gap-junctions; gap junction channel biophysics.
• Andrea Viczian, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  Mammalian retinal stem cells formation; molecular mechanism of retinal cell fate decisions; using cell replacement therapy to heal the blinded eye.
  
• Stephan Wilkens, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Structure and Mechanism of Membrane Bound Transport Proteins
• Richard JH Wojcikiewicz, PhD*
  Professor
  Intracellular signaling via InsP3 receptors and the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway.
  
• Yunlei Yang, MD, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  

  Dissection and Manipulation of Signalling Circuits Regulating Food Intake Using Opto-genetics and Chemical-genetics

• Steven Youngentob, PhD*
  Professor
  In utero ethanol and nicotine exposures and chemsensory systems plasticity, olfactory biomarkers of ADHD, olfactory signal transduction, peripheral and central mechanisms of odorant quality coding.
  
• Sijun Zhu, MD, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  

  Genetic mechanisms of Drosophila neural stem cell self-renewal and specification
  
  

• Michael Zuber, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  The molecular basis of retinal stem cell formation; regulating retinal stem/progenitor cell proliferation; using retinal stem/progenitor cells to heal the injured or degenerating retina.