NFCIBR Research Labs

The Aldinger Lab uses developmental neuroscience and computational approaches to decipher the mechanisms that cause pediatric neurogenetic disorders and pathologies associated with structural brain changes, cognitive impairment, and epilepsy.

The Baertsch Lab investigates how breathing is generated and regulated by the brain. By uncovering fundamental cellular and network mechanisms of respiratory control, we hope to inspire new therapeutic interventions to treat breathing disorders associated with neurological pathology, prematurity, and opioid use.

Research in the Gallo Lab focuses on neural stem/progenitor cells and their potential for perinatal brain regeneration and repair after injury.

Our goal is to decipher signaling networks that affect neuron development and engineered behaviors. We focus on molecular players and cellular processes involved in neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegenerative disease and opioid drug addiction.

The Gust lab studies how cancer treatment and inflammation affect the developing brain.

The Hahn laboratory focuses on development and validation of assays that have important clinical applications for population screening, diagnosis and prognosis.

The ability to control arousal is essential to modern medicine, with broad applications in anesthesia, sleep medicine and psychiatry. However, arousal control is not binary, but rather involves the complex orchestration of multiple neuromodulatory circuits. The Li Lab therefore aims to better understand the neurobiology of these neuromodulatory circuits across broad spatiotemporal scales, integrating findings at the molecular, synaptic, circuit, physiological and behavioral levels.  

The Millen Lab uses molecular genetic approaches to explore the pathogenesis of congenital birth defects of the human and mouse brain and to study genes essential for normal neurodevelopment.

Dr. Ghayda Mirzaa is pinpointing the genes that contribute to many neurodevelopmental disorders. She helped discover many genes that cause focal cortical dysplasia, megalencephaly and microcephaly. This work is opening the door to new treatments that could modify or fix the errors in these genes, addressing the underlying causes of disorders instead of treating only their symptoms.

The Page lab is focused on understanding how the components that make up the cellular architecture of the brain (neuronal and glial cell types) are generated and assemble into functional circuits that underlie behavior and cognition.

The Ramirez Lab investigates brain functions in order to develop new ways to treat – and potentially cure – neurological disorders.

We study how early experiences influence later behavior and mental health. By combining AI, biology and neuroscience, we aim to understand how the brain and consciousness develop.