NSU

Neuroscience Unit

The field of Neuroscience is the academic pursuit of studies of the nervous system and its role in modulating behaviours and physiological processes in organisms.It is broad in its reach and extends from studies involved in understanding the unique molecular and biophysical properties of neuronal cells and their partners, as well as emergent properties of neuronal networks.  The fundamental theme of this Unit is to study the various aspects of nervous systems.

Currently, the research interests of the Unit include the study of synaptic function and its relationship with Intellectual Disability, neurogenetics of behavior in Drosophila, molecular and cellular mechanisms of human brain/mind disorders, biomaterials for interfacing sensory organs with soft analog devices and molecular neuro-oncology.  The diversity in individual research themes of the faculty also reflect the widely differing types of scientific approaches and methodologies used in understanding how the nervous system functions and determine various behaviours of organisms, including humans.

In the coming years, the Neuroscience Unit intends to expand its activities in the broad areas of computational neuroscience, cellular neuroscience and mammalian developmental neurobiology.  The Unit is also looking towards building highly advanced imaging technologies to investigate not only synaptic function and morphology but also neuronal circuit function, which will have biomedical implications.

The unit will begin admitting students to the Ph.D. program from August 2015.