Dr. Benson's research interests include the study of ion channels involved in sensation. We have focused on a class of ion channels called Acid-sensing Ion Channels (ASICs), which play a role in responses to nociceptive, taste, and mechanical stimuli. We have discovered that ASICs are highly...

The Psychiatry and Early Neurobiological Development Lab (PENDL) at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine seeks to understand molecular and cellular aspects of early brain development and their relevance to psychiatric disorders. Hanna Stevens, the PI, is particularly interested in...

My research interest is the molecular basis of migraine. A hallmark of migraine is altered sensory perception coupled with head pain. To understand the mechanisms underlying these events, we have focused on the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), whose levels are elevated during...

The Williams Lab is interested in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which genetic risk factors contribute to psychiatric disease from a developmental perspective. Their current projects focus on voltage-gated calcium channel genes, which have been linked to the risk of...

We study the neural circuits and intraneuronal signaling mechanisms that regulate appetite, body weight, sleep, and cardiorespiratory function in mice and aim to understand how these regulatory processes go awry in metabolic disorders. To this end, we employee state-of-the-art neuroscience...

My research focuses on elucidating central brain mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease, psychosocial disorders, heart failure and sudden cardiac death. The lab uses multidisciplinary approaches including radiotelemetry, optogenetics, neurophysiology, pharmacology, behavioral and molecular...

Alcoholism, alcohol abuse, and the medical complications of excessive drinking are major world-wide health problems. There are three long-term goals of my laboratory: (1) Alcohol exposure during development results in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and induces profound damages to the...

In the lab, we use genetic techniques to isolate and manipulate neurons that mediate basic physiologic functions including sleep, appetite, bladder control, and thermoregulation. My focus lies in identifying and deciphering previously unknown connections between neurons in the brainstem and other...

One of the primary areas of research in my laboratory is elucidating the genetic basis of neurological disorders, including epilepsy, Alzheimer’s Disease, and neurodevelopmental disorders. We have found that mutations in the prickle gene cause seizure disorders in fruit flies, similar to those...

We aim to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying the homeostatic regulation of appetite and cardiometabolic physiology. To do so, we use genetically engineered mouse models and Cre-dependent AAVs to specifically map neuronal circuits as well as manipulate and record their activity in order to...