Research Techniques

Description of the Laboratory

The main laboratory consists of approximately 1600 sf of lab space and 120 sf of office space located in Irvine Hall on the main Health Sciences campus at UCI. Students, technicians and postdocs have access to desk space in the laboratory. A kitchen and meeting room (~276 sf) is available next door for lab meetings and student use. A 263 sf cold room and additional space for freezers are also available. The main lab is divided into separate work stations for work shop, electrophysiology, a molecular biology wet lab and rodent behavior. Our stem cell work is carried out in a shared research facility on the first floor of Gross Hall. In addition, our lab has a dedicated animal surgery suite (~150 sf) located within the pathogen-free "barrier" facility of Gross Hall. This room is adjacent to our animal housing room and contains custom-built stereotax systems for stem cell transplantations and virus injections, a pneumatic traumatic brain injury device and all of the necessary equipment and supplies for small animal surgeries.

Approaches and Techniques

Whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology
In vivo electrophysiology in freely behaving animals
In vivo & in vitro optogenetics
GCaMP & voltage imaging in freely behaving animals
Rodent behavior assays
Molecular biology (e.g., RNA sequencing, viral vectors, in situ hybridization)
Immunohistochemistry
Whole brain tissue clearing (e.g., CLARITY)
Confocal and light-sheet microscopy
3D reconstruction and circuit mapping
Induced pluripotent stem cells & derivation of brain cells (e.g., neurons, glia)
Sterotactic surgery & stem cell transplantation
Animal models of epilepsy, neurodevelopmental disorders & traumatic brain injury