Viviana Gradinaru
Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Engineering; Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, Richard N. Merkin Institute for Translational Research; Director, Richard N. Merkin Institute for Translational Research
Research interests: neurotechnologies to understand and repair nervous systems
Overview
Professor Gradinaru's work has focused on developing and using optogenetics (Gradinaru et al., Cell, 2010) and tissue clearing (Chung et al., Nature, 2013; Yang et al., Cell, 2014; Treweek et al., Nat.Prot, 2015) to dissect the circuitry underlying neurological disorders such as Parkinson's (Gradinaru et al., Science, 2009). Her group is now working to understand how perturbations of neuronal network activity can permanently impact the function and even viability of comprising neurons and ultimately change network properties and animal behavior. Of particular interest to the Gradinaru laboratory are chronic experiences, subtle but persistent actions on brain networks that can cause lasting changes in the structure and function of individual cells and circuits. Research on these topics has been complicated by the heterogeneous nature of the brain. Professor Gradinaru previously helped develop optical modulators of brain activity and the ability to target them to defined pathways as well as the methods necessary to monitor the influence of such manipulations. The Gradinaru laboratory will continue to develop and disseminate enabling technologies (including delivery vectors; Deverman et al, Nat.Biotech., 2016) for high content anatomical mapping and chronic bidirectional control to define circuit changes that affect cell function and health and to understand the fundamental mechanisms behind such changes.
Related News
Read more newsPublications
- Griffiths, Jessica A.;Yoo, Bryan B. et al. (2024) Peripheral neuronal activation shapes the microbiome and alters gut physiologyCell Reports
- Ding, Xiaozhe;Chen, Xinhong et al. (2024) Fast, accurate ranking of engineered proteins by target-binding propensity using structure modelingMolecular Therapy
- Flynn, Michael James;Mayfield, Acacia M. et al. (2024) Synthetic dosage-compensating miRNA circuits allow precision gene therapy for Rett syndromebioRxiv
- Kahan, Anat;Mahe, Karan et al. (2023) Immediate responses to ambient light in vivo reveal distinct subpopulations of suprachiasmatic VIP neuronsiScience
- Chuapoco, Miguel R.;Flytzanis, Nicholas C. et al. (2023) Adeno-associated viral vectors for functional intravenous gene transfer throughout the non-human primate brainNature Nanotechnology
- Henrickson, Amy;Ding, Xiaozhe et al. (2023) Characterization and quantification of adeno-associated virus capsid-loading states by multi-wavelength analytical ultracentrifugation with UltraScanNanomedicine
- Jang, Min J.;Coughlin, Gerard M. et al. (2023) Spatial transcriptomics for profiling the tropism of viral vectors in tissuesNature Biotechnology
- Chen, Xinhong;Wolfe, Damien A. et al. (2023) Functional gene delivery to and across brain vasculature of systemic AAVs with endothelial-specific tropism in rodents and broad tropism in primatesNature Communications
- Jang, Min Jee;Gradinaru, Viviana (2023) Spatial tropism profiling of AAV vectors by ultrasensitive sequential FISH in tissueNature Biotechnology
- Shay, Timothy F.;Sullivan, Erin E. et al. (2023) Primate-conserved carbonic anhydrase IV and murine-restricted LY6C1 enable blood-brain barrier crossing by engineered viral vectorsScience Advances