The Cahill Lab is at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
We study the molecular and biochemical mechanisms that regulate synaptic structure and function in both the normal and diseased brain.
The Cahill Laboratory investigates the molecular and biochemical mechanisms that regulate synaptic structural and functional plasticity and assesses how aberrations in plasticity impact specific behavioral phenotypes, such as cognition. Further, my lab investigates how genetic risk factors for disorders such as bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and autism impact synapse formation and stability in cortical and subcortical regions.
The central goal of our laboratory is to delineate the molecular and biochemical mechanisms that regulate dendritic spine plasticity in both the normal and diseased brain. In particular, using animal models, we are interested in recapitulating the genetic and biochemical alterations identified in neuropsychiatric disorders to identify brain region-specific aberrations in dendritic spine formation, stability, and experience-dependent remodeling. We then aim to understand how these regional synaptic changes, in turn, contribute to specific disease-associated behavioral phenotypes. Finally, we are interested in understanding how environmental-based risk factors for neuropsychiatric disease interact with specific genetic susceptibility factors to produce synaptic and behavioral phenotypes.
