The Section of Plasticity and Imaging of the Nervous System has two research interests. One is to develop novel functional and molecular imaging techniques to study brain structure and function. Emphasis is on MRI but some optical imaging is performed as well. Current areas of interest are to develop single cell tracking of neuronal precursors with MRI and to measure changes in neuronal circuits due to plasticity and learnings.
A second research area is cellular energetics. In particular, we are interested in the role of the enzyme creatine kinase and regulation of mitochondrial metabolism. This work relies on combining non-invasive imaging tools, molecular genetics, and proteomics to study mitochondrial function. Current areas of interest are to determine the role of creatine kinase in cell growth and death.