Scott Chandler

My global interest is in how the central nervous system controls movement. Precisely how we produce coordinated, rhythmical movements such as locomotion, mastication, and respiration is a fundamental problem in neuroscience that is poorly understood. During injury or disease these basic types of movements, which we take for granted, can be compromised. My lab uses animal models to study how rhythmical jaw movements are produced. We use a combination of electrophysiological, molecular, and pharmacological techniques to address basic questions about how single and small networks of neurons in the brainstem orchestrate coordinated activity in synapses and ion channels to produce unique discharge patterns that occur during rhythmical movements. We have found that localized groups of neurons within small areas of the brainstem are important for the basic rhythmical component of mastication and that specific ion channels are activated to produce the appropriate discharge patterns reminiscent of masticatory patterns. More recently, the lab has obtained transgenic mice that produce the majority of symptoms of the devastating disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. We have found that certain ion channels in both sensory and motoneurons are abnormally active prior to the onset of symptoms of the disease. Although these studies are in the early stages, they could provide insight into how the motoneuronal neurodegeneration that is responsible for paralysis and death occur, and will start to identify new molecular targets for development of rational drug therapies to delay motoneuronal degeneration and prolong the life of ALS patients.



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