December 13, 2019
John Hodgson
Research Interests
My general interest is in how mammalian movement is accomplished, from the overall limb biomechanics to the neural coordination of muscles and the structural details of muscle which transmit sarcomere activity into the forces and displacements that underly every movement. An additional interest is how altered environments such as in spaceflight and pathologies, such as atrophy impact the normal execution of movement. Most recent work has been in collaboration with Dr. Shantanu Sinha in the Department of Radiology at UCSD (http://radiology.ucsd.edu/about-us/people/faculty/shantanu-sinha) and with Professor J.S. Chen in the Department of Civil Engineering at UCLA (http://www.cee.ucla.edu/faculty/chen/profile). We are investigating how intramuscular structure impacts whole muscle force and displacement. MRI imaging is used to provide muscle structure data and also a pixel-resolution map of intramuscular displacements. Finite element computational models of ‘generic’ muscles have been used to simulate muscle contractions and the intramuscular deformations compared with experimental observations. These efforts indicate that intramuscular morphology, such as fiber pennation angle and elastic properties of intramuscular passive materials have a significant impact on muscle performance. Furthermore, our results suggest specific properties of intramuscular passive materials which will be investigated in the future. We are currently developing a database of subject-specific muscle morphologies using several MRI techniques to image intramuscular fat, connective tissue, muscle fiber pennation angles and intramuscular dynamics of muscle contractions. Parallel efforts are being made to convert the data into subject-specific, image-based computational models in which simulated contractions can be compared with observations of real muscles contracting. Previously document variability in muscle structure will allow us to determine the impact of intramuscular structure on muscle performance. An additional interest is in the degree to which the changes in structure wrought by muscle atrophy contribute to the disproportionate loss of function relative to the loss of muscle mass or cross sectional area. We hope to approach this by conducting studies on muscles before, after and during recovery from atrophy artificially induced by muscle disuse.
Education
Ph.D., Skeletal Muscle Regeneration, University of Bristol 1975
Selected Publications
Sinha S, Shin DD, Hodgson JA, Kinugasa R, Edgerton VR, “Computer-controlled, MR-compatible foot-pedal device to study dynamics of the muscle tendon complex under isometric, concentric, and eccentric contractions”, J Magn Reson Imaging, 36 (2): 498-504 (2012) .
Hodgson JA, Chi SW, Yang JP, Chen JS, Edgerton VR, Sinha S, “Finite element modeling of passive material influence on the deformation and force output of skeletal muscle”, J Mech Behav Biomed Mater, 9 : 163-183 (2012) .
Kinugasa R, Hodgson JA, Edgerton VR, Sinha S, “Asymmetric deformation of contracting human gastrocnemius muscle”, J Appl Physiol, 112 (3): 463-470 (2012) .
Sinha U, Sinha S, Hodgson JA, Edgerton VR, “Human soleus muscle architecture at different ankle joint angles from magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging”, J Appl Physiol, 110 (3): 807-819 (2011) .
Kinugasa R, Hodgson JA, Edgerton VR, Shin DD, Sinha S, “Reduction in tendon elasticity from unloading is unrelated to its hypertrophy”, J Appl Physiol, 109 (3): 870-877 (2010) .
Chi SW, Hodgson J, Chen JS, Reggie Edgerton V, Shin DD, Roiz RA, Sinha S, “Finite element modeling reveals complex strain mechanics in the aponeuroses of contracting skeletal muscle”, J Biomech, 43 (7): 1243-1250 (2010) .
Shin DD, Hodgson JA, Edgerton VR, Sinha S, “In vivo intramuscular fascicle-aponeuroses dynamics of the human medial gastrocnemius during plantarflexion and dorsiflexion of the foot”, J Appl Physiol, 107 (4): 1276-1284 (2009) .
Shin D, Finni T, Ahn S, Hodgson JA, Lee HD, Edgerton VR, Sinha S, “Effect of chronic unloading and rehabilitation on human Achilles tendon properties: a velocity-encoded phase-contrast MRI study”, J Appl Physiol, 105 (4): 1179-1186 (2008) .
Kinugasa R, Shin D, Yamauchi J, Mishra C, Hodgson JA, Edgerton VR, Sinha S, “Phase-contrast MRI reveals mechanical behavior of superficial and deep aponeuroses in human medial gastrocnemius during isometric contraction”, J Appl Physiol, 105 (4): 1312-1320 (2008) .
Shin D, Finni T, Ahn S, Hodgson JA, Lee HD, Edgerton VR, Sinha S, “In vivo estimation and repeatability of force-length relationship and stiffness of the human achilles tendon using phase contrast MRI”, J Magn Reson Imaging, 28 (4): 1039-1045 (2008) .
December 13, 2019
Peter Narins
Research Interests
My research focuses on the question of how animals extract relevant sounds from the often highly noisy backgrounds in which they live. The techniques I use are the quantitative analysis of vocal behavior of animals in their natural habitats, followed by single fiber neurophysiological recordings in order to elucidate mechanisms underlying signal processing in noise. A second research direction is based on the discovery of the remarkable sensitivity to substrate vibrations possessed by burrowing animals. We are now characterizing and providing accurate measurements of vibrational thresholds as well as exploring the differences between substrate-vibration and airborne sound at the cellular level. Other projects carried out by our group have included an investigation of the neurophysiological basis of sound localization in noisy environments, a study of the temperature-dependence of the representation of time in the vertebrate auditory system, the biophysics of sound localization and the evolution of the middle ear reflex in vertebrates. Current projects include using laser Doppler vibrometry to elucidate the sound pathways relevant for stimulation of both the middle and inner ear in small vertebrates, and using whole-cell voltage clamp techniques to carry out an anatomical and physiological study of the mechanisms underlying transduction in vertebrate sensory hair cells. In addition, we supplement the lab work with direct behavioral observations and controlled acoustic playback studies carried out with animals in their natural habitats. These have included both Old and New World lowland wet tropical forests, African deserts and temperate forests in South America.
Education
B.S., Electrical Engineering, Cornell University 1965
M.S., Electrical Engineering, Cornell University 1966
Ph.D., Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University 1976
Selected Publications
Narins, P.M. and Meenderink, S.W.F., “Climate change and frog calls: Long-term correlations along a tropical altitudinal gradient”, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond, 281 : 1-6 (2014) .
Narins, P.M., Wilson, M. and Mann, D., “Ultrasound detection in fishes and frogs: Discovery and mechanisms”, In: Insights from Comparative Hearing Research, C. Koeppl, G.A. Manley, A.N. Popper, R.R. Fay(Eds.), 133-156 (2014) .
Adler, K., Narins, P.M. and Ryan, M.J., “Obituary. Robert R. Capranica (1931-2012) and the Science of Anuran Communication”, Herpetological Review, 44 : 554-556 (2013) .
Miller, M.E., Nasiri, A.K., Farhangi, P.O., Farahbakhsh, N.A., Lopez, I.A., Narins, P.M. and Simmons, D.D., “Evidence for water-permeable channels in auditory hair cells in the leopard frog”, Hear. Res, 292 : 64-70 (2012) .
Manley, G.A., Narins, P.M. and Fay, R.R,, “Experiments in comparative hearing: Georg von Bekesy and beyond”, Hear. Res, 293 : 44-50 (2012) .
Cui, J., Tang, Y. and Narins, P.M., “Real estate ads in Emei music frog vocalizations: Female preference for calls emanating from burrows”, Biol. Letters, 8 : 337-340 (2012) .
Chen. H.-H. A. and Narins, P.M., “Wind turbines and ghost stories: The effects of infrasound on the human auditory system”, Acoustics Today, 8 : 51-56 (2012) .
Quinones, P.M., Luu, C., Schweizer, F.E. and Narins, P.M., “Exocytosis in the frog amphibian papilla”, J. Asso. Res. Otolaryngol, 13 : 39-54 (2012) .
Arch, V.S., Simmons, D.D., Quinones, P.M., Feng, A.S., Jiang, J., Stuart, B., Shen, J.-X., Blair, C. and Narins, P.M., “Inner ear morphological correlates of ultrasonic hearing in frogs”, Hear. Res, 283 : 70-79 (2012) .
Shen, J.-X., Xu. Z.-M., Feng, A. and Narins, P.M., “Large odorous frogs (Odorrana graminea) produce ultrasonic calls”, J. Comp. Physiol, 197 : 1027-1030 (2011) .
December 13, 2019
Allan Tobin
Allan Tobin
Professor Emeritus
Email: ajtob@ucla.edu
Office: 2018 TLSB
Phone: (310) 825-5061
Website: http://www.bri.ucla.edu/about-us/past-directors/allantobin
Research Interests
Dr. Tobin’s laboratory uses molecular and cellular techniques to study the function, regulation, and degeneration of GABA-producing neurons in the brain and spinal cord. This work addresses both mechanistic questions and issues of drug development for Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and spinal cord injury. In collaboration with Dr. Bruce Dunn in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Dr. Tobin’s laboratory is also developing biosensors suitable for the detection of neurotransmitter release in real time with high spatial resolution. One project focuses on the two forms of the GABA-synthesizing enzyme, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD). The central hypothesis of this work is that the two GADs catalyze the synthesis of distinct pools of GABA, one vesicular and the other cytosolic. According to this model, membrane-associated GAD65 produces vesicular GABA, and cytosolic GAD67 produces cytosolic GABA. While vesicular GABA, released by exocytosis, is likely to be particularly important in point-to-point signaling in synapses, cytosolic GABA, released via plasma-membrane transporters, may serve a longer-range role, inhibiting neuronal activity in limited regions of the nervous system. A novel aspect of this project is the development of biosensors for glutamate and GABA. Another project examines cellular pathogenic mechanisms in Huntington’s disease. The unifying hypothesis of this work is that an expanded polyglutamine tract encoded by the disease-causing allele irreversibly blocks proteasome activity, leading a failure of normal protein turnover and in cell dysfunction and death. A third project examines the plasticity of GABA-producing neurons during recovery from spinal cord injury. Different kinds of rehabilitative training,standing, stepping, and specific motor tasks, have distinctive effects on the pattern of GABA production in the spinal neurons.
Selected Publications
N.J.K. Tillarakaratne, R.D. De Leon, T.X. Hoang, R.R. Roy, V.R. Edgerton, and A.J. Tobin,, “Use-dependent modulation of inhibitory capacity in the feline lumbar spinal cord”, Journal of Neuroscience, 22 : 3130-3143 (2002) .
N.J.K. Tillakaratne, M. Mouria, N.B. Ziv, R.R. Roy, V.R. Edgerton, A.J. Tobin, “Increased expression of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD67) in feline lumbar spinal cord after complete thoracic spinal cord transection”, Journal of Neuroscience Research, 60 : 219-230 (2000) .
K. Thompson, V. Antharam, S. Behrstock, E. Bongarzone, A. Campagnoni, and A.J. Tobin, “Conditionally immortalized cell lines, engineered to produce and release GABA, modulate the development of behavioral seizures”, Experimental Neurology, 161 : 481-489 (2000) .
A.J. Tobin, E. Signer, “Huntington’s disease: the challenge for cell biologists”, Trends in Cell Biology, 10 : 531-536 (2000) .
C. Pinal, and A.J. Tobin, “Uniqueness and redundancy in GABA production”, Perspectives on Developmental Neurobiology, 5 : 109-118 (1998) .
December 13, 2019
Scott Chandler
Biography
I am married to my lovely wife Sonja for 35 years and have two wonderful daughters, Jennifer and Danielle. We love to travel, hike and photograph our journeys. I have a passion for photography and specialize in both landscape and sports genres. I regularly photograph sports events for the UCLA athletic department and have a number of prints on the Walls of UCLA buildings, such as Powell library and the Geology building.
Research Interests
My global interest is in how the central nervous system controls movement. Precisely how we produce coordinated, rhythmical movements such as locomotion, mastication, and respiration is a fundamental problem in neuroscience that is poorly understood. During injury or disease these basic types of movements, which we take for granted, can be compromised. My lab uses animal models to study how rhythmical jaw movements are produced. We use a combination of electrophysiological, molecular, pharmacological techniques in conjunction with computational modeling and bioinformatics to address basic questions about how single and small networks of neurons in the brainstem orchestrate coordinated activity in synapses and ion channels to produce unique discharge patterns that occur during rhythmical movements. We have found that localized groups of neurons within small areas of the brainstem are important for the basic rhythmic component of mastication and that specific ion channels are activated to produce the appropriate discharge patterns reminiscent of masticatory patterns. More recently, the lab has obtained transgenic mice that produce the majority of symptoms of the devastating disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. We found that certain ion channels in both sensory and motor neurons are abnormally active prior to the onset of symptoms of the disease. Although these studies are in the early stages, they could provide insight into how the motoneuronal neurodegeneration that is responsible for paralysis and death occur, and will start to identify new molecular targets for development of rational drug therapies to delay motoneuronal degeneration and prolong the life of ALS patients.
Education
B.S., Neurobiology, University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., Physiology/Neurophysiology, University of California, Los Angeles 1979
Selected Publications
Liu W, Venugopal S, Majid S, Ahn IS, Diamante G, Hong J, Yang X, Chandler SH (2020) ‘Single-cell RNA-seq analysis of the brainstem of mutant SOD1 mice reveals perturbed cell types and pathways of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.’ Neurobiol Dis, In Press. PMID: 32360664
Seki S, Tanaka S, Yamada S, Tsuji T, Enomoto A, Ono Y, Chandler SH, Kogo M (2020) ‘Neuropeptide Y modulates membrane excitability in neonatal rat mesencephalic V neurons.’ J Neurosci Res, 98 (5): 921-935. PMID: 31957053
Venugopal S, Seki S, Terman DH, Pantazis A, Olcese R, Wiedau-Pazos M, Chandler SH (2019) ‘Resurgent Na+ Current Offers Noise Modulation in Bursting Neurons.’ PLoS Comput Biol, 15 (6): e1007154. PMID: 31226124
Salomon D., Martin-Harris., Mullen B., Odegaard B., ZvinyatskovskiyA., and Chandler S.H, “Brain Literate: Making Neuroscience Accessible to a Wider Audience of Undergraduates”, J. Undergraduate Neurosci. Educ, 13 : 1-9 (2015) .
Masoumi A., Low E., Shoghi T., Chan P., Hsiao CF., Chandler S.H., & Martina Wiedau-Pazos., “Enrichment of human embryonic stem cell derived motor neuron cultures using arabinofuranosyl cytidine”, Future Neurol, 10 : 91-99 (2015) .
Venugopal S., Hsiao CF., Sonoda T., Weidau-Pazos M.,and Chandler S.H., “Homeostatic dysregulation in membrane properties of masticatory motoneurons compared to oculomotor neurons in a mouse model for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis”, J. Neurosci, 35 : 707-720-720 (2015) .
Tsuruyama K, Hsiao CF, Chandler SH, “Participation of a persistent sodium current and calcium-activated nonspecific cationic current to burst generation in trigeminal principal sensory neurons”, J. Neurophysiology, 110 : 1903-1914 (2013) .
Hsiao CF, Kaur G, Vong A, Bawa H, Chandler SH, ” Participation of Kv1 channels in control of membrane excitability and burst generation in mesencephalic V neurons”, J. Neurophysiology, 101 : 1407-1418 (2009) .
Hsiao, C.F., Gougar, K., Asai, J. and Chandler, S.H, ” Intrinsic membrane properties and morphological characteristics of interneurons in the rat supratrigeminal region”, J.Neurosci. Res, 85 : 3673-3686 (2007) .
Enomoto, A., Han, J.M., Hsiao, C.F., Wu, N. and Chandler, S.H., “Participation of sodium currents in burst generation and control of membrane excitability in mesencephalic trigeminal neurons”, J Neurosci, 26 : 3412-3422 (2006) .
December 13, 2019
Gordon Fain
Gordon Fain
Distinguished Professor
Email: gfain@ucla.edu
Office: A222B, the Jules Stein Eye Institute
Phone: (310) 206-4281
Biography
Gordon Fain got his BA at Stanford in Biology and PhD at Johns Hopkins in Biophysics. After postdocs at Harvard and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he came to UCLA in 1975 and remained for his entire career. A Gugenheim fellow, NIH MERIT scholar, and Fellow of AAAS, he retired from active service in 2017 but is still funded by the NIH and continues his research. When he retired, he moved with all his equipment and people into the laboratory of his former graduate student Alapakkam Sampath, who is Professor and Associate Director of the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. They share students and research personnel and offer a joint program in the physiology and biophysics of the retina.
Research Interests
A vertebrate photoreceptor uses a G-protein receptor (rhodopsin) and a G-protein cascade to produce the electrical response that signals a change in light intensity. Powerful new techniques have made it possible to understand the working of this cascade in extraordinary detail. The reason for this is that practically every protein involved in the cascade in a photoreceptor, from the pigment molecule rhodopsin to the G-protein and channels, but including also a large number of control proteins, are expressed only in the photoreceptors and nowhere else in the body. This makes it possible with genetic techniques to create mice in which these proteins have been knocked out, over or under expressed, or replaced with proteins of modified structure. We use electrical recording to study the effects of such genetic alterations on the light responses of mouse rods and cones, in order to understand the role of these proteins in the visual cascade. We are especially interested in modulatory enzymes and their function in light and dark adaptation. We also have a long-standing interest in mechanisms of photoreceptor degeneration in genetically inherited disease.
Education
B.S., Biology, Stanford University 1968
Ph.D., Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University 1973
Selected Publications
Reingruber, J., N.T. Ingram, Griffis, K.G., and G.L. Fain. 2020. A kinetic analysis of mouse rod and cone photoreceptor responses. Journal of Physiology, in press.
Ellis, E.M., R. Frederiksen, A. Morshedian, G. L. Fain, and A.P. Sampath. Separate ON and OFF pathways in vertebrate vision first arose during the Cambrian. Current Biology, in press.
Ingram, N.T., A.P. Sampath, and G.L. Fain. 2020. Membrane conductances of mouse cone photoreceptors. Journal of General Physiology. Mar 2;152(3). PMID: 31986199. pii: e201912520. doi: 10.1085/jgp.201912520.
Fain, G.L. 2019. Sensory Transduction (second edition). Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Morshedian, A., J.J. Kaylor, S.Y. Ng, A. Tsan, R. Frederiksen, T. Xu, L. Yuan, A.P. Sampath, R.A. Radu, G.L. Fain, and G.H. Travis. 2019. Light-Driven Regeneration of Cone Visual Pigments through a Mechanism Involving RGR Opsin in Muller Glial Cells. Neuron. 102:1172-1183 e1175. PMID: 31056353. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.04.004.
Ingram, N.T., A.P. Sampath, and G.L. Fain. 2019. Voltage-clamp recordings of light responses from wild-type and mutant mouse cone photoreceptors. Journal of General Physiology. 151:1287-1299. PMID: 31562185. doi: 10.1085/jgp.201912419.
Wang, T., J. Reingruber, M.L. Woodruff, A. Majumder, A. Camarena, N.O. Artemyev, G.L. Fain, and J. Chen. 2018. The PDE6 mutation in the rd10 retinal degeneration mouse model causes protein mislocalization and instability and promotes cell death through increased ion influx. J Biol Chem. 293:15332-15346. PMID: 30126843. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA118.004459
Fain G, Sampath AP, “Rod and cone interactions in the retina”, F1000Research, 7 : (2018) .
Morshedian A, Woodruff ML, Fain GL, “Role of recoverin in rod photoreceptor light adaptation”, The Journal of physiology, 596 (8): 1513-1526 (2018) .
Morshedian A, Fain GL, “Light adaptation and the evolution of vertebrate photoreceptors”, The Journal of physiology, 595 (14): 4947-4960 (2017) .
Kaylor JJ, Xu T, Ingram NT, Tsan A, Hakobyan H, Fain GL, Travis GH, “Blue light regenerates functional visual pigments in mammals through a retinyl-phospholipid intermediate”, Nature communications, 8 (1): 16- (2017) .
Morshedian A, Fain GL, “The evolution of rod photoreceptors”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 372 (1717): (2017) .
Ingram NT, Sampath AP, Fain GL, “Why are rods more sensitive than cones?”, The Journal of physiology, 594 (19): 5415-26 (2016) .
Reingruber J, Holcman D, Fain GL, “How rods respond to single photons: Key adaptations of a G-protein cascade that enable vision at the physical limit of perception”, BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, 37 (11): 1243-52 (2015) .
December 13, 2019
Walter Metzner
Research Interests
Sensory processing/motor control, especially auditory feedback control of vocalization; Behavioral Neuroscience (Neuroethology)
Education
B.S., University of Erlangen, Germany 1981
M.S., Zoology, University of Munich/Germany Department of Zoology 1984
Ph.D., Zoology, University of Munich/Germany Department of Zoology 1989