NeuroVentures Equipment Grant

Jennifer Raymond, Neurobiology
Tom Clandinin, Neurobiology
Ricardo Dolmetsch, Neurobiology
Lisa Giocomo, Neurobiology
Ben Barres, Neurology

Professors Tom Clandinin (Neurobiology), Ricardo Dolmetsch (Neurobiology), Lisa Giocomo (Neurobiology), Ben Barres (Neurobiology, Developmental Biology and Neurology and Neurological Sciences), and Jennifer Raymond (Neurobiology) will receive funding for an imaging system that allows for quantitative measurements of protein expression changes or chemical modification of proteins using a technique known as the Western Blot. The diverse team will use the imaging system in combination with electrophysiology and other techniques to study a wide range of neuroscience problems. These problems include the progression of neurodegenerative disease, probing the synaptic proteins that might cause psychiatric disorders, understanding the role of ion channels in how our brains represent external space based on the sensory information they receive, and learning about how the synaptic connections in the cerebellum change during the process of learning motor skills.