Neuroscience at The University of Chicago

Research Interests

The key structural feature of the vertebrate brain is that neurons are organized into discrete territories known as nuclei. The role of nuclei is to organize neural circuitry. Thus, for a neuron, its shape, the connections it makes, and the proteins it expresses are dependent on the nucleus it resides in. Dozens of different nuclei can be distinguished in the vertebrate brain, and yet little is known about how these structures are formed during development.

My laboratory studies brain nucleogenesis in the chick embryo using cellular, molecular and genetic techniques. We are particularly interested in the signals that govern cell-type specification, the molecules that regulate how young neurons migrate to their future nuclear locations, and the mechanisms by which internuclear circuitry is established. Our current work is on the development of the sensory-motor systems of the brainstem that control eye movements.

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Select Publications

Hasan, K.B., Agarwala, S., and Ragsdale, C.W. (2010) PHOX2A regulation of oculomotor complex nucleogenesis. Development 137, 1205-1213.

Agarwala, S. and Ragsdale, C.W. (2009) Midbrain patterning. In Encyclopedia of Neuroscience (ed. L.R. Squire) volume 5, pp. 879-886. Elsevier, Amsterdam.