The below listed Training Faculty have indicated that they are likely to have spaces in their labs for students in the 2024-25 academic year. It is possible that additional Faculty not listed below will be in a position to take students as well. Prospective students are encouraged to contact Training Faculty directly even if not listed below to ascertain possibilities for joining their labs.

Matthew Butler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences and Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience Graduate Program
Possible Rotation Opportunities:  The Butler Lab is investigating the effects of food timing on reproduction. A potential project is to describe the effects of day- versus night-time feeding on clock gene rhythms in brain circuits that control ovulation. Other ongoing studies in the lab include partner preference and sexual behavior studies, fiber photometry of reproduction-related brain areas, and in vitro methods to visualize spatiotemporal patterns of gene expression of the brain’s clock.

Marina Guizzetti, Ph.D.
Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience Graduate Program
Possible Rotation Opportunities: Investigation of the modulation of astrocyte signaling on neuronal development. In vitro astrocyte cultures will be treated with peptides, pharmacological compounds, or transfected with specific siRNAs to knock-down certain proteins. Primary hippocampus neurons will then be incubated with the conditioned medium from control and treated astrocyte cultures. Neurite outgrowth will be then determined by immunocytochemistry and measured by the software Neurolucida Explorer.

Skyler Jackman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Vollum Institute and Behavioral Neuroscience
Assistant Scientist, Vollum Institute
Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience Graduate Program
Neuroscience Graduate Program
Possible Rotation Opportunities: My lab studies how rapid forms of synaptic plasticity affect circuit activity and cognition. We are in the process of characterizing behavioral deficits in transgenic mice with specific plasticity deficits, as well as autism and Alzheimer's mouse models. A rotation student could contribute significantly to these experiments. We also use patch-clamp electrophysiology to characterize plasticity deficits ex vivo, and are always looking for enthusiastic students who want to be trained in electrophysiology. 

Miranda M. Lim, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Neurology and Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience Graduate Program
Possible Rotation Opportunities: Rotation projects will be contingent upon the student having a VA WOC appointment, PIV badge, and approvals on the relevant IRB or IACUC protocols. Please allow at least 6 months lead time to obtain these approvals. If the student does not have VA access, rotations may be declined due to the lack of meaningful activities.**  1. NAPS study - North American Prodromal Synucleinopathy Consortium study on human REM sleep behavior (RBD) disorder – gain exposure to ongoing studies using human overnight sleep study data, neurological assessments for cognition, motor, autonomic, and sensory testing, quantitative 3T/7T MRI and Dopamine Transporter SPECT scans. Follow ongoing work in the lab using our animal models of neurotrauma, RBD, and synucleinopathy in parallel (see #2).  2. Mouse TBI/PTSD and Parkinson’s – gain exposure to ongoing experiments using a mouse model of TBI and PTSD to examine effects of neurotrauma on sleep (using chronic in vivo EEG/EMG recording) and synuclein pathology (using transgenic mice and intracranial pre-formed fibril injections).  3. GLIMPSE study – Glymphatics Imaging to probe sleep and Exchange of CSF study – gain exposure to ongoing studies using a remote sleep phenotyping package in combination with MRI-sensitive glymphatics imaging in various human populations (Veterans with TBI; older adults undergoing Tai Chi).  4. SmART-TBI study – Supplemental Amino Acid Rehabilitative Treatment in TBI study – gain exposure to an ongoing randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial using a dietary supplement to improve sleep in Veterans with TBI.   5. LION study – Light or ION Therapy to improve sleep in Veterans with TBI study – perform data analysis at the conclusion of a 5 year randomized single-blinded sham-controlled clinical trial. Gain exposure to sleep actigraphy data, quantitative pain, psychometric validated surveys, and biomarker assay data. Potential to spearhead abstract or manuscript depending on level of engagement and progress.  6.  Early life sleep disruption effects on brain development and social behavior in prairie voles – these studies do not currently have an opening for PhD students but could still gain exposure to during a rotation. 

Tianyi Mao, Ph.D.
Associate Professor & Scientist, Vollum Institute and Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience Graduate Program
Neuroscience Graduate Program
M.D./Ph.D. Program Committee, School of Medicine
Possible Rotation Opportunities: 1). Investigate intracellular signaling mechanisms for opioid actions and affective pain circuits in vivo. This project takes advantage of novel in vivo imaging modalities we recently establish (Massengill, Bayless-Edwards et al., Nat Methods, 2022; Ma et al., Nature, 2022; Ma,  Jongbloets et al., Neuron, 2018) that enables longitudinal imaging of cell type specific-circuits in pain model and chronic opioids exposure.  2). Investigate how interoceptive information is integrated with external information in the mouse insular cortex. The insular cortex integrates both internal and external information to carry out diverse functions. This project is based on the new cell types we recently identified and to investigate their functional relevance in integrating internal and external needs. 

Angela R. Ozburn, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience Graduate Program
Possible Rotation Opportunities: More Information Coming

Marina Wolf, Ph.D.
Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience Graduate Program
Possible Rotation Opportunities: We are looking for someone interested in a fiber photometry project. Several possibilities exist: 1) Try sensor multiplexing with GCaMP8 and GRAB_DA in nucleus accumbens (to record Ca and DA signals simultaneously). 2) Optimize GCaMP recordings from axon terminals of excitatory neurons projecting to nucleus accumbens (nearly all work currently done in our lab and others is based on recordings from somas, so this is an exciting frontier) 3) Examine effects of cocaine infusion on dopamine signals in nucleus accumbens measured using GRAB_DA.  This is a simple project to be performed in anesthetized rats that would be a good introduction to photometry.