Pfizer

Michael Ehlers is interested in how brain cells grow, connect with one another, and communicate in the developing and adult brain.  Research in the Ehlers Lab aims to unlock the molecular mechanisms by which brain cell connections adapt during learning, and how collections of neurons wire together to propagate electrical signals that encode our memories, experiences, and emotions, and how such mechanisms go awry in disorders of brain development, mood, perception, and memory.  Current efforts are focused on mechanisms of neuronal membrane trafficking and glutamatergic synapse plasticity implicated in Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and autism.  More recently, he has embarked on the development of novel genetic technologies to selectively manipulate interconnected brain circuits in the intact brain.  His studies aim to visualize and manipulate brain cell function, modify and repair neural connections, and define the cellular basis for neurologic and psychiatric disease in order to design novel therapeutic strategies.

Postdocs: Ting-Wen Cheng, Vidya Nadar, Hsing-Chen Tsai, and Soheil Aghamohammadzadeh

T. Cui-Wang, C. Hanus, T. Cui, T. Helton, J. Bourne, D. Watson, K. M. Harris, and M. D. Ehlers (2012).  Local zones of endoplasmic reticulum complexity confine cargo in neuronal dendrites.  Cell 148 :309-21.

B. R. Arenkiel, H. Hasegawa, J. J. Yi, R. S. Larsen, M. L. Wallace, B. D. Philpot, F. Wang, and M. D. Ehlers (2011).  Activity-induced remodeling of olfactory bulb microcircuits revealed by monosynaptic tracing.  PLoS One 6(12):e29423. Epub 2011 Dec 28.

I.G. Davison and M. D. Ehlers (2011).  Neural circuit mechanisms for pattern detection and feature combination in olfactory cortex.  Neuron 70:82-94.

M.-C. Lee, R. Yasuda, and M. D. Ehlers (2010).  Metaplasticity at single glutamatergic synapses.  Neuron 66 :859-70.

J. J. Yi, A. P. Barnes, R. Hand, F. Polleux, and M. D. Ehlers (2010).  TGF-b signaling specifies axons during brain development.  Cell 142 :144-57.