About the Lab

Our lab is part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and located at the Janelia Farm Research Campus, a unique, world-class research community in Ashburn, VA. Over the next five years, Janelia Farm Research Campus (JFRC) will grow to over 400 employees, to include top scientists, physicists, engineers and operations staff.

Our Research

The cerebral cortex is the largest part of the mammalian brain and plays a role in most forms of cognitive function. Neocortical circuits are remarkably similar across species and functional areas. Our goal is to understand the principles that organize neocortical circuits and to decipher how they process information and ultimately guide behavior.

The research program is mainly organized around the neural circuits that subserve whisker-dependent somato-sensation in the mouse. We use a variety of anatomical, optical and electrophysiological methods to map the circuit diagram underlying somatosensation. Highly quantitative behavioral paradigms in head-fixed mice allow us to use advanced biophysical methods to probe the dynamics of neurons and synapses in awake animals. For example, imaging activity in identified neuronal populations in the circuit is critical to develop hypotheses about the algorithms underlying sensory perception and behavior. These hypotheses can then be tested using gain-of-function and loss-of-function manipulations in genetically targeted neuronal populations.

In addition, we have a long-standing (but waning) interest in basic mechanisms of synaptic function and experience-dependent synaptic plasticity.