Staff

Michael Hasselmo, D.Phil.

Dr. Michael Hasselmo is the director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience. He arrived at Boston University in 1998 from Harvard University. His research uses neurophysiological recording and computer modeling to link the dynamics of cortical circuits to memory-guided behavior—a field that addresses physiological effects relevant to Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Dr. Hasselmo is a member of numerous scientific journal editorial boards. He is the computational neuroscience editor at the journal Hippocampus and he published a book on episodic memory with MIT Press. He is the former chair of the NIH Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (LAM) study section. He is principal investigator on two National Institutes of Health R01 grants and a $7.5 million Office of Naval Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Award. A former Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Hasselmo received his A.B. from Harvard and his D.Phil. from Oxford University. Dr. Hasselmo is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University. Dr. Hasselmo can be reached at hasselmo@bu.edu.

Jennifer Luebke, Ph.D.

Dr. Jennifer Luebke is the associate director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience. She received her doctorate in Anatomy & Neurobiology from Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She completed a first postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology at Harvard Medical School and a second postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and then joined the Departments Anatomy & Neurobiology and of Psychiatry at CAMED. Dr. Luebke maintains a laboratory in which whole-cell patch-clamp and intracellular filling techniques are used to examine the electrophysiological and morphological properties of neurons in in vitro slices of monkey and transgenic mouse neocortex. Research is focused on action potential firing patterns (and underlying ionic currents), glutamatergic and GABAergic synaptic response properties and detailed dendritic architecture. Data from single neurons are incorporated into computational models in collaboration with mathematicians at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. In addition, collaborations are ongoing with investigators at CAMED who use molecular biological (single cell PCR and microarray) and electron microscopic (ultrastructural analysis) techniques to examine cells from which recordings are obtained. Overall goals include: 1) to examine the individual and network properties of cells in the prefrontal cortex; 2) to determine the effects of normal aging on these properties in the rhesus monkey, and; 3) to determine the effects of tau and amyloid on these properties in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Luebke’s research is funded by the NIH. Dr. Luebke can be reached at jluebke@bu.edu.

Mark Kramer, Ph.D.

Dr. Mark Kramer is the associate director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience. He joined the Department of Mathematics & Statistics in 2009. His background includes training in physics, dynamical systems, and neuroscience, and he earned his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley in 2006. Dr. Kramer’s research focuses on interdisciplinary topics in mathematical neuroscience with particular emphasis on biophysical models of neural activity and data analysis techniques. He is currently interested in medical applications and networks in neuroscience. As one example, Dr. Kramer is working with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital to apply mathematical and computational techniques to better characterize, and eventually treat, epileptic seizures. Dr. Kramer can be reached at mak@bu.edu.

Jun Shen

Jun is the center manager for the Center for Systems Neuroscience. She can be reached at junshen@bu.edu.

Jim Cooney

Jim is the communications manager for the Center for Systems Neuroscience. He can be reached at jrcooney@bu.edu.