Our Team
Graduate students are an integral part of Dr. Rasband's research team.
Research in the Lab
Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Takeshi Yoshimura at the bench.
Our laboratory is engaged in many different projects, all of which are related to understanding the functional organization of axons in normal health and disease/injury. These projects include (but are not limited to):
- Determine the molecular mechanisms underlying CNS node of Ranvier formation and axon initial segment assembly.
- Determine the molecular composition of axon initial segments and nodes of Ranvier.
- Determine the consequences of nervous system injury/disease (e.g., multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, ischemic brain injury, peripheral nerve injury) on the structure and function of nodes of Ranvier and axon initial segments.
- Develop strategies to preserve nodes and initial segments after injury/disease.
- Determine the molecular mechanisms of neuron-glia interactions at paranodal junctions.
- Determine the molecular mechanisms underlying assembly of Kv1 K+ channel complexes at juxtaparanodes of myelinated nerve fibers.
To accomplish these aims we use proteomics, molecular biology, biochemistry, shRNA-mediated knockdown of protein expression, electrophysiology, recombineering to generate conditional knockout-mice, cell-culture, models of peripheral nerve injury (e.g. nerve crush, lysolecithin mediated demyelination), in utero electroporation, etc. Our philosophy is to learn whatever technique is necessary to address the question.