My interests are synaptic integration and plasticity of synaptic transmission and dendritic excitability. Using a combination of whole-cell recording and imaging techniques, I am currently studying long-term potentiation of synaptic transmission in the primary output of the hippocampus-the subiculum. I am also interested in the cholinergic modulation of persistent activity in the entorhinal cortex, the primay input to the hippocampus.
I received my Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. David Jaffe in the Department of Biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, in 2000. Upon completion of my PhD, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Dan Johnston at Baylor College Medicine before moving to the University of Texas at Austin at the inception of the Center of Learning and Memory in 2005.
In addition to my research, I also teach BIO365L-undergraduate neurobiology lab. The course focuses on the fundamentals of cellular neurophysiology using some of the most modern techniques available. Our students learn the whole-cell recording technique on setups capable of DIC video microscopy. This is very similar to the section I taught for many years in the NeuralSystems and Behavior course at the Marine Biolgical Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.