Mental Health

These projects were superseded by the Autism Centers of Excellence Program and are no longer active. Information on these projects is not being updated and is intended for historical purposes only.

• Overview

Weidong Wang , PhD, Chief

The overall goal of the Brain Aging and Behavior Section (BABS) is to improve cognitive outcomes with aging.

Huaibin Cai , Ph.D., Chief

Our research focuses on elucidating the circuit- and cell-type–specific mechanisms that drive age-related neurodegenerative disorders, with a primary focus on Parkinson’s disease (PD). PD is a rapidly growing neurodegenerative condition that disproportionately affects older adults and manifests not only with progressive motor impairments but also with debilitating non-motor symptoms — such as depression, chronic pain, cognitive decline, and dementia — that remain inadequately treated.

Proper brain function requires a balance between excitatory projection neurons and GABAergic inhibitory interneurons. Interneurons are an extremely heterogeneous cell population with distinct morphologies, connectivity, neurochemical markers, electrophysiological properties and transcriptomes. Abnormal development and function of interneurons has been linked to the pathobiology of numerous neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism. Many genes implicated in these diseases are enriched in interneuron precursors.

The Hoffman group combines molecular, biochemical and electrophysiological approaches to investigate the roles of dendritic voltage-gated and neurotransmitter-activated channels in regulating neuronal development and synaptic plasticity in the mammalian hippocampus. To achieve this, the lab comprises an interdisciplinary team with expertise in cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, electrophysiology, fluorescence imaging and computer modeling. These approaches allow us to assay channel function and regulation at the molecular scale in living cells.