Information Brochure (pdf) - Physiology and Neurobiology ...

Alexander C. Jackson
CELLULAR AND SYNAPTIC
NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF
HYPOTHALAMIC NEURAL CIRCUITS
The state of our mental and physical health is intimately
intertwined with daily rhythms in sleep, wakefulness
and feeding. Disruptions in sleep architecture,
energy balance and neuroendocrine homeostasis are
pathophysiological features of major neuropsychiatric
and neurological diseases, obesity and diabetes. This
strong association is suggestive of common mechanisms
at the level of neuromodulatory circuits and transmitter
systems. Many of the circuits that govern such
crucial physiological functions are found in the hypothalamus
- a region of the brain characterized by both rich
interconnectivity with other brain regions and the ability
to integrate a variety of humoral signals from the periphery.
The overall goal of research in my laboratory is to
advance our understanding of the cellular and synaptic
mechanisms through which specific neural circuits in the
mammalian hypothalamus regulate behavior.
I first became fascinated with neuromodulatory circuits
in the hypothalamus as physiology major at McGill
University, where I carried out research on neuropeptide
receptors at the Montreal Neurological Institute. I
subsequently pursued my doctoral work with Dr. Bruce
Bean at Harvard Medical School, where I used patchclamp
electrophysiology and pharmacology to study
the properties of subtheshold ionic currents that underlie
the electrical activity characteristic of two populations
of hypothalamic pacemaker neurons, essential
for driving sleep-wake rhythms. Following my PhD, I
pursued further training in neurophysiology as a postdoctoral
fellow with Dr. Roger Nicoll at the University of
California, San Francisco (UCSF). Early in my postdoctoral
work, my research focused on the role of auxiliary
subunits in AMPA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission,
plasticity and pharmacology in cerebellar interneurons.
Later in my postdoctoral work, I applied my training
in cellular and synaptic physiology to questions in the
hypothalamus by establishing a collaboration with Dr.
Luis de Lecea of Stanford University. Through this collaboration,
I studied neurotransmission in hypothalamic
neural circuits while acquiring further training in in vivo
optogenetics, electroencephalographic (EEG) recording
and neuroanatomical methods. Collectively, my training
has provided the foundation for ongoing work in my own
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laboratory.