Student Research Opportunities

Training in CINID Labs

CINID member labs support students who wish to gain research experiences as part of their training, through volunteering, summer projects, and rotations. Many projects result in presentations and/or authorship in publications.

Research areas are described below. Please contact individual labs for availability.

• The Aging and Tissue Injury Repair Laboratory provides opportunities to explore the role of chronic inflammation in aging and age-related diseases.  Students will learn the essential epigenetic mechanisms involved in these processes, and use in vitro and in vivo experimental approaches to explore and target dysregulation of chronic inflammation as well as injury repair in aging tissues. Contact: Yan Sanders, MD.

• The Substance Use Disorders Research Laboratory provides opportunities in both molecular and system levels (behavioral tests) to examine interactions between drugs of abuse and neuroimmune signaling.  Students can learn about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the development of drug addiction through a variety of in vitro and in vivo techniques, including cell culture, WBs, qRT-PCR, immunostaining, and self-administration mouse models. Contact: Minglei Guo, Ph.D.

• The Musto Laboratory, together with collaborators, provides a learning environment where students can explore the physiopathology of brain diseases using in vitro and in vivo experimental models of epilepsy and brain tumors and applying techniques including behavioral tests, in vivo imaging, single neuron and neuronal circuitry analysis of the brain using silicon probes and histological and biochemical analysis of brain tissue. Contact: Alberto E. Musto, MD, Ph.D., FAES.

• The Sleep Research Laboratory provides opportunities in behavioral and systems neuroscience that examine interactions between sleep, stress, neuroinflammation and learning and memory. Students can learn about sleep research in animal models, data analysis and a variety of neuroscience techniques. Contact: Larry D. Sanford, PhD or Laurie L. Wellman, Ph.D.

• The Space Neuroscience Lab offers opportunities in behavioral neuroscience that examine how exposure to radiation (both clinical and simulated deep space) impacts various aspects of executive function, and the psychological status of rats. Contact Richard A. Britten, Ph.D.