Dr. Chris Cowan’s research lab, also known as the Integrative Neurobiology Lab, focuses on two thematic research areas: (1) molecular and circuit mechanisms of substance use disorders and (2) brain development and neurodevelopmental disorders. The Cowan lab team uses preclinical models to examine genes, molecular mechanisms, and neural circuit adaptations in the young and adult brain under both healthy and pathological conditions. The lab employs a broad array of experimental approaches to gain a better understanding about the underlying regulation, or dysregulation, of healthy brain function, and they take an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to address these important topics for human mental health.
Research:
Substance and Alcohol Use Disorders
The lab employs a range of molecular, genomic, physiologic, and behavioral techniques to understand how illicit substances hijack brain function to promote addiction-related behaviors. Through identification of new genes and molecules involved in addiction risk and relapse vulnerability, the lab to gain new insights into how drug-cue and drug-environment associations create triggers of drug craving and relapse in individuals seeking to control problem drug and alcohol use. The lab studies multiple molecules that are recruited by illicit drug use and support, or sometimes limit, maladaptive brain circuit changes underlying relapse-related behavior in animal models.
Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDDs)
The Cowan Lab has uncovered key cortical development roles for several genes linked to risk for neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disability, and schizophrenia. These molecules function during typical brain development to control the proper establishment and remodeling of excitatory and inhibitory connections in the brain. Abnormalities in these genes in humans often produce intellectual disability and autism-associated symptoms, and the lab observes similar “symptoms” in mice engineered to have disruptions in these same genes. By understanding the role of these NDD-linked genes during development, the lab seeks to leverage this information to develop novel therapeutics that might help mitigate debilitating symptoms in affected individuals to increase their quality of life.
