Home Department: Bioengineering
Supported by: anonymous donor
Mentor: Robert Malenka, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

Gordon is investigating neural connectivity patterns within the striatum and nucleus accumbens, in particular, an autism linked point mucation R451C in neuroligin 3's impact on reward associated behavior and any alterations in circuitry that may result due to this mutation.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 27, 2014:

Exploring Striatal Inhibitory Networks that Mediate Abnormal Reward Processing in an Autism Mouse Model

Gordon Sun^1,2, Marc Fucillo^1,2, Patrick Rothwell^1,2, Rob Malenka^1,2
[Departments of Neurology¹ and Psychiatry², Stanford University]