Faculty
Nancy Dennis
Professor of Psychology
The cognitive and neural mechanisms that support learning and memory in young and older adults.
Nikolay Dokholyan
G. Thomas Passananti Professor of Pharmacology; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
We are a translational systems research group in the Pharmacology at the Penn State College of Medicine. Our laboratory focuses on understanding etiologies of human diseases, such as cystic fibrosis (CF), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and pain conditions, such as hyperalgesia.
Patrick Drew
Interim Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, of Neurosurgery, of Biology, and of Biomedical Engineering
Optical imaging of brain dynamics during sleep and behavior; Role of blood flow and cerebrospinal fluid movement in neurodegenerative disease
Aida Ebrahimi
Roell Early Career Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Bioelectronics for in situ study of living cells; Point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases; Printable/stretchable/wearable sensors; Benchmarking and advancing 2D materials in biosensing applications; Machine learning in biosensing; Wearable devices for human-machine interaction; Bioanalytical devices for studying the gut-brain axis; Low-cost biosensors for drug screening, bacterial phenotype monitoring, and environmental monitoring
Chris Engeland
Professor of Biobehavioral Health and Nursing
How stress, age, gender, and hormones affect inflammation / health. Biomarker feasibility for predicting health outcomes.
Nicole Etter
Assistant Professor of Health and Human Development
The relationship between tactile sensation and skilled oral behaviors (e.g. speech and swallowing) in healthy young, aging, and clinical populations.
Lisa Gatzke-Kopp
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Developmental neuroscience of psychopathology with a focus on aggression, hyperactivity, and substance abuse; relationship between experience, environment, and neurobiological dysfunction.
Rick Gilmore
Professor of Psychology
The cognitive neuroscience of perception, memory, and action in infancy and early childhood; computational neuroscience; open science, data sharing, reproducibility.
Santhosh Girirajan
Professor of Genomics; Professor of Anthropology; Department Head of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Understanding the genetic basis of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Bruce Gluckman
Director of the Center for Neural Engineering; Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, of Neurosurgery, and of Biomedical Engineering
The dynamics of neural systems, how group dynamics form or emerge from the coupled dynamics of individual units, and how to measure and interact with these systems.
Thomas Gould
Jean Phillips Shibley Professor and Department Head of Biobehavioral Health
Using genetic, pharmacological, behavioral, and molecular biological techniques to study the neurobiology of learning and memory and the effects of addiction on it.
Sue Grigson
Professor of Neural and Behavioral Science
Neural basis of reward comparison.
Joshua Gross
Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Biobehavioral Health
Cellular- and transgenic mouse model-based approaches to investigate the molecular mechanisms of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling and trafficking in the pathophysiological contexts of obesity, eating disorders, and metabolic disease.
John Hayes
Professor of Food Science; Director, Sensory Evaluation Center
Perception of taste, smell and chemesthesis; eating behavior; individual differences in sensation and food preferences; COVID related anosmia
Frank Hillary
Associate Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neurology
Effects of brain injury and disease on functional brain organization; EEG and MRI-based examination of neuroplasticity in healthy and disrupted neural systems, including traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis.
Vasant Honavar
Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and AI; Professor and Edward Frymoyer Chair of Information Sciences and Technology
Statistical machine learning algorithms for predictive modeling; modeling and inference of biological networks; characterization and prediction of protein-protein, protein-RNA, and protein-DNA interactions.