Faculty Member
Professor & Chief of Neuroradiology
Department of Radiological Sciences
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Faculty Member
Professor & Chief of Neuroradiology
Department of Radiological Sciences
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Faculty Member
Professor
Department of Neurobiology
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Neuroscience Research Building, Room 503
635 Charles E Young Dr S,
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Biography
Joshua Trachtenberg’s research seeks to understand how sensory experiences are written into the fabric of our brains. Genetics plays a dominant role in wiring together the connections between neurons that establish neural circuitry. After we are born, our brains are bombarded with information from the world around us. This sensory information changes neural circuitry, allowing us to learn a language, perform complex visual discrimination, obtain sophisticated motor skills, and learn the subtleties of social interactions. How this external sensory information instructs neural circuitry is not known. Given its centrality to complex thought, tackling this question is of some significance. The Trachtenberg lab employs a sophisticated array of vital imaging and physiological tools to reveal the richness and mechanisms of this experience-dependent plasticity.
Faculty Member
Researcher
Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology
College of Life Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles
621 Charles E. Young Dr South
Box 951606
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Publications
A selected list of publications:
Duru Paul, Tillakaratne Niranjala, Kim Jung, Zhong Hui, Stauber Stacey, Pham Tran, Xiao Mei Si, Edgerton V. Reggie, Roy Roland. Spinal neuronal activation during locomotor-like activity enabled by epidural stimulation and 5-hydroxytryptamine agonists in spinal rats, J Neurosci Res, 2015; 93(8): 1229-1239.
Faculty Member
Distinguished Professor
Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Terasaki Life Science Building, Room 1135
610 Charles E Young Dr S,
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Biography
Interactions between skeletal muscle and the immune system. A major project in our lab concerns the pathophysiology of muscular dystrophy (dystrophinopathy). Our research has shown that the immune system plays an important role in influencing the severity of muscular dystrophy, and that immune-based interventions can significantly reduce dystrophic muscle pathology and promote muscle regeneration. Our continuing efforts are directed toward identifying the key effector cells and molecules involved in influencing the course of the disease, and examining the interplay between those effectors. Our technical approaches include the generation and analysis of transgenic, dystrophic mice so that the effects of increased or decreased expression of selected effector molecules can be assessed. We also examine the systemic effects of experimental depletions of selected immune cell populations and the efficacy of selected, pharmaceutical interventions on the progress of the disease. In other studies, we are studying the mechanisms through which the immune system influences the wasting of skeletal muscle that occurs during aging, a process called sarcopenia. We are particularly interested in identifying the mechanisms through which specific populations of myeloid cells affect muscle wasting and regeneration, and identifying strategies to slow the wasting process.
Publications
A selected list of publications:
Wang Ying, Wehling-Henricks Michelle, Welc Steven S, Fisher Allison L, Zuo Qun, Tidball James G Aging of the immune system causes reductions in muscle stem cell populations, promotes their shift to a fibrogenic phenotype, and modulates sarcopenia FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 2019; 8(4): fj201800973R.