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[Agenor Ramadan]

Im interested in understanding the genetic, molecular and neural mechanisms underlying reward. We investigate how memories for appetitive stimuli are encoded in the brain and how drugs of abuse affect the molecular pathways in these circuits to result in aberrant motivational response. We combine genetics, behavior, in vivo imaging in behaving animals, molecular biology and biochemistry to address this. Find out more at kaunlab.com.

I use the powerful molecular and genetic tools available in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the neural substrates of memory, reward, and addiction at the molecular and cellular level. My goal is to develop the fly as a model to study more complex behavioral aspects associated with addiction. My lab uses a multi-tiered approach to understand the genes, molecules, and neural circuits underlying these complex behaviors. We use a combination of machine vision and machine learning approaches to develop automated, objective behavioral assays to measure the motivational responses. We then use an interdisciplinary approach that combines molecular genetics with behavioral analysis to understand the in vivo mechanism of memories at the level of individual circuits and their component cells. To investigate the molecular mechanisms driving plasticity within these circuits, we take advantage of extensive mutant libraries to perform unbiased genetic screens and innovative neurogenetic tools to perform cell-specific gene expression profiling. The combined approaches in my lab will reveal: 1) basic principles of how circuits function in vivo to form appetitive memories, and 2) novel molecular mechanisms influencing plasticity within these circuits. The basic principles revealed by this work will inform research on psychiatric illness associated with affect and memory such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and neurodegenerative disorders associated with memory loss.

The field of neurogenetics brings together geneticists and neuroscientists in pursuit of the common goal of understanding the nervous system. This course will familiarize you with the relatively new and exciting field of neurogenetics, and provide hands-on experience in developing and conducting behavioral neurogenetic experiments using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This course will be a laboratory course focused on reading and understanding the primary literature, gaining expertise in the design and implementation of basic fly genetics, behavioral testing and analysis of tracking data, and the preparation of research reports associated with laboratory work. Throughout the course we will discuss the appropriateness, use, and limitations of animal models and human models for studying pathology, run real experiments with live animals, and collect, analyze, interpret, and write up results associated with those experiments.

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