Research Tracks & Mentors

One of the greatest strengths of the UC San Diego site is the involvement of our highly successful research faculty who will serve as mentors for the LAUNCH program. UC San Diego is one of the nation's top research institutions, and our research faculty mentors have a variety of expertise in neuroscience research.

Potential Research Mentors

A sample of potential research mentors, by research track, from a campus-wide pool for the UC San Diego LAUNCH program are found in the table and links below.

If you have any questions, please email hsfacaffairs@ucsd.edu.
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Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Track

First Name, Last Name, Degree	Department	Research Interest
Mark Bondi, PhD	Psychiatry	Neuroimaging techniques, foci on brainstem alterations related neurodegenerative disease and mild cognative impairment
James B. Brewer, MD, PhD	Neurosciences	Advanced imaging approaches to neurodegenerative diseases and disorders of memory
Mariana Cherner, PhD	Psychiatry	Neurobehavioral consequences of HIV and substance use
Howard Feldman, MD	Neurosciences	Cognitive disorders associated with aging and in the neurodegenerative dementias
Douglas R Galasko, MD	Neurosciences	Risk factors and mechanisms that underlie Alzheimer's Disease and related disorders, in particular Lewy Body Disease
Hector M Gonzalez, PhD*,§	Neurosciences	Neurocognition and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias among divers Latinos
Robert Hevner, PhD	Neurosciences	Developmental neuroscience to clinical neuropathology- neocortex to entorhinal cortex
William Kremen, PhD	Psychiatry	Cognitive, psychosocial, psychiatric symptom, alcohol use, health/medical, sleep quality, neuroendocrine, genotyping, biomarker ,and multi-modal neuroimaging assessments
Andrea LaCroix, PhD	Family Medicine and Public Health	Health-related behaviors, common medications, biomarkers, new therapeutics, and genetic risk factors in aging men and women across a wide spectrum of disorders including Alzheimer's
Maria Marquine, PhD	Psychiatry	Neurocognitive decline among older Hispanics
Linda McEvoy, PhD	Radiology, Family Medicine and Public Health	Understanding of cognitive changes in healthy and pathological aging, genetic risk factors, sex differences and biomarkers for early detection of Alzheimer's disease
David Salmon, PhD	Neurosciences	Cognitive deficits associated with Dementia with Lewy Bodies

^*Track Leader; ^§Executive Committee

Cellular, Developmental and Molecular Neuroscience Track

First Name, Last Name, Degree	Department	Research Interest
Susan Ackerman, PhD	Cellular and Molecular Medicine	Molecular pathways controlling neuron homeostasis
Wendy Marie Campana, PhD	Anesthesia	Molecular and Cellular Response to Nerve Injury and Chronic Neuropathic Pain
Richard Daneman, PhD	Pharmacology, Neuroscience	Cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms of blood-brain barrier development / dysfunction in neurological diseases
Paula Desplats, PhD§	Neurosciences & Pathology	Neuroepigenetic mechanisms in disease
Joseph Gleeson, MD	Neurosciences & Pediatrics	Genetic and cell biological basis of brain development
Vivian Hook, PhD	Neurosciences, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences	Mechanisms of Neurotransmitter Activity
Alysson Muotri, PhD	Pharmacology, Neurosciences	Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms in Autism and other Developmental Disorders
Robert Rissman, PhD*,§	Neurosciences	Molecular Neuropathology and Biomarker Discovery
Chengbiao Wu, PhD	Neurosciences	Mechanisms of Axonopathy and Neurodegeneration
^*Track Leader; ^§Executive Committee

Computational and Systems Neuroscience Track

First Name, Last Name, Degree	Department	Research Interest
Matthew Banghart, PhD	Neurobiology, Biol Sci	Neuromodulation; nociception in CNS
Brenda Bloodgood, PhD	Neurobiology, Biol Sci	Synapse biology & gene regulation; circuit plasticity
Hollis Cline, PhD	Neurosciences, TSRI	Architecture, development, and plasticity of brain circuits
Timothy Genter, PhD	Psychology, Social Sci	Computational approaches in audiotry processing
Shelley Halpain, PhD*,§	Neurobiology, Biol Sci	Neural circuit development & degeneration
David Kleinfeld, PhD	Physics, Physical Sci	Sensorimotor neuroscience; brain microcirculation; neurotechnology
Takaki Komiyama, PhD	Neurobiology, Biol Sci	Cellular resolution functional imaging of neuronal ensembles
Jill Leutgeb, PhD§	Neurobiology, Biol Sci	Neural basis of memory formation and retrieval at the systems level
Padmini Rangamani, PhD	School of Engineering	Computational biology & biophysics related to synapse functiion
Kay Tye, PhD	Salk Institute	Brain circuits of emotion, motivation, social behaviors
^*Track Leader; ^§Executive Committee

Explore Faculty Research

For a comprehensive list of faculty and specific research, please visit the following programs and departments directly:

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