Every cell in the body needs fuel to function properly and when energy systems fail, disease follows. The United States is currently facing a metabolic health crisis, with more than one-third of adults affected by obesity or diabetes. These metabolic...
The Fanning lab is focused on the role of the metablome in neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease (PD), Lewy body Dementia (LBD), and other synucleinopathies. Our research is motivated by the huge unmet medical need for mechanism-based...
The human brain is a mosaic structure with significant genetic diversity arising from post-zygotic (i.e., somatic) genetic variation. The overarching mission of our lab is to examine how this somatic variation contributes to both typical and pathological...
Our lab studies the molecular and cellular basis of novel organismic physiology and behavior. We emphasize curiosity-driven science and exploration, using comparative approaches featuring a range of unusual and specialized organisms that are uniquely...
The Gu Lab focuses on elucidating how cells regulate proteasomal degradation independently of ubiquitination. We discovered a non-canonical proteolysis mechanism, the midnolin-proteasome pathway, that bypasses ubiquitination to selectively degrade...
The brain-CSF interface: Neural stem cells and disease
Defined numbers of neural precursor cells are remarkably synchronized in their task to form the brain, yet no central command coordinating this process has been identified. Neural precursors divide...
The brain allows animals to successfully interact with a natural world that is rich with opportunity and rife with danger. These interactions are mediated by sensation and movement, which are used by animals to learn about their environment and to make...
Re-engineering memory circuits to restore cognition in brain disorders
Adaptively responding to the environment is critical to optimal navigation of our world. The hippocampus plays a critical role in this process by generating memories of our...