Welcome to the Department of Neurobiology
at Harvard Medical School
The Neurobiology Department, the first of its kind in the country, was established to bring together faculty of many disciplines including biochemistry, molecular biology, anatomy, physiology, and medicine, to study the development and function of the brain. Our scientists now pursue basic research programs that strive to understand how complex neural circuits are shaped and reshaped during the development of the brain and in the adult brain to generate thoughts and memories, to process sensory information and to drive behavior. Our studies have direct bearing on neurological diseases such as neurodegeneration, disorders of cognitive function, epilepsy and disorders of sensory information processing, and offer insights into potential therapies.
The faculty, staff and students of the department have contributed breakthrough discoveries in neuroscience and links to this website we hope will help you to understand what makes the department an exciting place to learn, teach and work. Explore and enjoy!
Recent publications from department members include:
Segregation of feedforward and feedback projections in mouse visual cortex.
Berezovskii VK, Nassi JJ, Born RT.
J Comp Neurol. 2011. Dec 15;519(18):3672-83.
A TRPC5-regulated calcium signaling pathway controls dendrite patterning in the mammalian brain.
Puram SV, Riccio A, Koirala S, Ikeuchi Y, Kim AH, Corfas G, Bonni A.
Genes Dev. 2011 Dec 15;25(24):2659-73. Epub 2011 Dec 1.
A thermodynamic framework for understanding temperature sensing by transient receptor potential (TRP) channels.
Clapham DE, Miller C.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Dec 6;108(49):19492-7.
Semaphorin 3E-Plexin-D1 signaling controls pathway-specific synapse formation in the striatum.
Ding JB, Oh WJ, Sabatini BL, Gu C.
Nat Neurosci. 2011 Dec 18.
Cx50 requires an intact PDZ-binding motif and ZO-1 for the formation of functional intercellular channels.
Chai Z, Goodenough DA, Paul DL.
Mol Biol Cell. 2011 Dec;22(23):4503-12.
Local diversity and fine-scale organization of receptive fields in mouse visual cortex.
Bonin V, Histed MH, Yurgenson S, Reid RC.
J Neurosci. 2011 Dec 14;31(50):18506-21.
Analgesia by inhibiting tetrahydrobiopterin synthesis.
Costigan M, Latremoliere A, Woolf CJ.
Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2011 Dec 15.
The BMP Coreceptor RGMb Promotes While the Endogenous BMP Antagonist Noggin Reduces Neurite Outgrowth and Peripheral Nerve Regeneration by Modulating BMP Signaling.
Ma CH, Brenner GJ, Omura T, Samad OA, Costigan M, Inquimbert P, Niederkofler V, Salie R, Sun CC, Lin HY, Arber S, Coppola G, Woolf CJ, Samad TA.
J Neurosci. 2011 Dec 14;31(50):18391-18400.