Description of the Laboratory
The main laboratory is located in the Epilepsy Research Center on the main Health Sciences campus at UCI. Students, technicians and postdocs have access to desk space in a state of the art office space adjacent to the laboratory. A kitchen and meeting room is available next door for lab meetings and student use. A cold room and additional space for freezers are also available. The main lab is divided into separate work stations for electronics work shop, electrophysiology, stem cells, a molecular biology wet lab and rodent behavior. Our lab operates a dedicated animal surgery suite located within the pathogen-free "barrier" facility of our building and a dedicated behavior facility. These rooms are 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 and rodent behavior.
Approaches and Techniques
Whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology
In vivo electrophysiology in freely behaving animals (e.g., tetrodes, silicone probes)
In vivo & in vitro optogenetics
GCaMP imaging in vitro and behaving animals (1P, confocal and 2P imaging)
Rodent behavior assays
Molecular biology (e.g., RNA sequencing, viral vector construction, in situ hybridization)
Immunohistochemistry
Whole brain tissue clearing (e.g., CLARITY, iDISCO)
Confocal and light-sheet microscopy
3D reconstruction and circuit mapping
Induced pluripotent stem cells & derivation of brain cells (e.g., neurons, glia, brain organoids)
Stereotactic surgery & stem cell transplantation
Animal models of epilepsy, neurodevelopmental disorders & traumatic brain injury