个人简介

The main goal of my research program is to understand how the nervous system controls movement, in particular, through the activity of the spinal cord. The lab seeks to characterize neurons involved in motor control, identify the circuits that they form and study their involvement in motor tasks such as locomotion (e.g. walking, swimming) and hand function. Experimental techniques include electrophysiology, immunocytochemistry, and computational modelling, and experimental models include zebrafish and mouse.

研究领域

Located in the Department of Biology, we use experimental techniques including electrophysiology, immunocytochemistry, and computational modelling to reach these objectives: 1. Characterize neurons involved in motor control. There are many neurons that are involved in motor control. How these neurons contribute to ensuring that we move properly is not well understood. A necessary first step is to subdivide neurons involved in motor control into groups that share common features such as location within the nervous system, synaptic inputs and synaptic outputs, firing patterns, and most importantly, shared role. 2. Identify the circuits that they form and study their involvement in motor tasks. Neurons rarely work in isolation. They are interconnected to each other, forming neural circuits. These neural circuits underlie different types of motor activity. For example, we identified a neural circuit linking the receptors of our skin that give us a sense of touch, a group of neurons that lie within the spinal cord, and motoneurons that innervate muscles and produce muscle contraction. We’ve shown that this circuit is essential for grip control and now we want to understand how they operate to ensure that we can properly grip a cup of coffee so that it doesn’t slip out of our hands without crushing it. 3. Discover mechanisms involved in development and regeneration of the nervous system The wiring of the nervous system is a dynamic process, especially in two situations: early development, and regeneration following trauma or neurodegeneration. We seek to understand the genetic and cellular mechanisms that contribute to the wiring (or re-wiring) of the nervous system.

My lab is interested in understanding how the nervous system controls movement.

近期论文

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Bui TV, Akay T, Loubani O, Hnasko TS, Jessell TM, and Brownstone RM. Circuits for grasping: spinal dI3 interneurons mediate cutaneous control of motor behavior. Neuron (2013); 78: 191-204, 2013 Brownstone RM and Bui TV. Spinal locomotor inputs to the final common pathway. Progress in Brain Research (2010); 187: 81-95, 2010 Carlin KP*, Bui TV*, Dai Y, and Brownstone RM. Staircase currents in motoneurons: insight into the spatial arrangement of calcium channels in the dendritic tree. Journal of Neuroscience (2009); 29(16): 5343-53, 2009 Bui TV, Grande G, Rose PK. Multiple modes of amplification of synaptic inhibition to motoneurons by persistent inward currents. Journal of Neurophysiology (2008); 99(2): 571-82, 2008 Bui TV, Grande G, Rose PK. Relative location of inhibitory synapses and persistent inward currents determines the magnitude and mode of synaptic amplification in motoneurons. Journal of Neurophysiology (2008); 99(2): 583-94, 2008