Home Department: Bioengineering
Supported by: Dean of Research
Mentor: Robert Malenka, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

Gordon is studying neuroligin, a molecule that is localized to synaptic connections between brain cells and helps shape the way brain cells communicate with one another. Deficiencies in synaptic transmission in specific neural circuits have been thought to result in neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorders In particular, a point mutation (R451C) and deletion of neuroligin-3 have been linked to autism spectrum disorders.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 26, 2015:

Regulating Action Sequence via Basal Ganglia Indirect and Direct Pathway Circuitry

Gordon L Sun¹, Patrick E. Rothwell¹, Robert Malenka¹
[Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences¹, Stanford University]