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We are generally interested in understanding the mechanisms by which brain and metabolic diseases or related symptoms emerge, and how to treat them with novel therapeutics.

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We focus our work on basal ganglia structures like the striatum and nucleus accumbens, or the ventral tegmental area (home of dopamine neurons) and hypothalamus (metabolic center of the brain).

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Some of the research questions we are interested in:

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(1)  How does the brain process food-related stimuli or sensory and threat inputs. What mechanisms prevent appropriate processing in disease models e.g. obesity? What molecular markers can be harnessed to develop new ideas for targeted therapeutics in disease models?

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(2) How does abnormal development of the dopamine system impact the risk for adult disease phenotypes? What molecular manipulations can be performed to help treat symptoms early on in disease development ?

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(3) What is the impact of metabolic hormonal factors or obesity on brain disease symptoms and treatment ?

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