NFCIBR Research Labs

Aldinger Lab

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.

Baertsch Lab

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.

Ferguson Lab

The Ferguson lab strives to understand the role of cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry in the development of behaviors associated with drug reward and addiction. We also explore the processes that underlie decision-making, motivation and impulsivity.

Gallo Lab

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

Grill Lab

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.

Gust Lab

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

Hahn Lab

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

Kalume Laboratory

The Kalume Laboratory investigates the mechanisms that drive epilepsy and related conditions, and pursues improved treatments for affected children and adults.

Li Lab

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.  

Millen Lab

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.

Mirzaa Lab

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.

Morgan Laboratory

The Morgan laboratory studies mitochondria’s role in childhood diseases.

Neonatal Respiratory Support Technologies Team

The Neonatal Respiratory Support Technologies (NeoRest) team is working to reduce infant mortality and morbidity by developing affordable, easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain respiratory support solutions.

Olson Lab

Dr. Aaron Olson is unraveling how changes in cardiac energy production affect heart function.

Page Lab

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.

Portman Research Group

The Portman Research Group discovers ways to protect children’s hearts from damage related to surgery, and leads major research on Kawasaki disease.

Program in Mitochondrial Biology

The Program in Mitochondrial Biology’s team delivers clinical care and researches potential cures for mitochondrial diseases.

Ramirez Lab

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

Saneto Laboratory

Dr. Russell P. Saneto's research focuses on mitochondrial disease.

SEPS Lab

Led by Dr. Stephen E.P. Smith, the SEPS Lab is working to uncover what the gene variations that contribute to autism have in common.

Shih Lab

The Shih Lab uses advanced optical imaging to study neurovascular function in the living brain. Our goal is to better understand how blood flows through the brain by watching and learning from model organisms. This can provide clues on the development and repair of key vascular functions, such as the blood-brain barrier, which may one day help protect blood vessels in the aging and diseased brain.

Tang Lab

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.

Turner Lab

Dr. Eric Turner’s Lab is defining brain pathways underlying motivation, emotion and addiction, and mapping brain circuits in mice.

Welsh Lab