Dr. Craig Brown, BA (Man), MSc (Calgary), PhD (Calgary)
Ph: 250-853-3733
Email: brownc@uvic.ca
Visit Dr. Brown's web page

Research interests: Synaptic plasticity, stroke, diabetes, in vivo imaging

Dr. Brian Christie, BSc (Calgary), MSc (Calgary), PhD (Otago)
Ph: 250-472-4244
Email: brain64@uvic.ca
Visit: Dr. Christie's web page

Department web page

Research interests: Hippocampus, learning and memory, developmental disorders, aging, sex differences, electrophysiology

Dr. Bruce Crawford, BSc (UVic), PhD (Washington), MD (UBC)
Ph: 250-472-5518
Email: bcrawfor@uvic.ca
Visit Dr. Crawford's web page

Research interests: Morphogenesis

Dr. Michele Martin B.Comm, DVM,PhD.
Ph: 250-853-3694
Email: acsvet@uvic.ca
Visit: Dr. Martin's web page coming soon

Research interests: Adoptive T Cell Therapy of Breast Cancer

Dr. Patrick Nahirney, BSc (Wash St), MSc (UBC), PhD (UBC)
Ph: 250-853-3659
Email: nahirney@uvic.ca
Visit Dr. Nahirney's web page

Research interests: Synapse ultrastructure, myogenesis & muscle cell fusion, live-cell imaging & electron microscopy

Dr. Leigh Anne Swayne BSc (Guelph), PhD (Calgary)
Ph: 250-853-3723
Email: lswayne@uvic.ca
Visit: Dr. Swayne's web page

Research interests: Neurogenesis and the bioelectric control of new neurons in healthy and injured/diseased brain. Evaluation of specific ion channels as therapeutic targets for brain repair

Dr. Stephanie Willerth, S.B (MIT), M.S. (Wash U), PhD (Wash U)
Ph: 250-721-7303
Email: willerth@uvic.ca
Visit Dr. Willerth's web page

Research interests: Tissue engineered scaffolds for promoting stem cell differentiation, novel drug delivery systems, and analysis of stem cell differentiation using next generation sequencing

Dr. Paul Zehr, PhD (U of A), MSc (McMaster), B.P.E. (McMaster)
Ph: 250-721-8379
Email: pzehr@uvic.ca
Visit Dr. Zehr's web page

Research interests: neural control of rhythmic human movement; coordination of the arms and legs during locomotion; neuromuscular plasticity and motor recovery after stroke

Dr. Laura Arbour
Visit Dr. Arbour's web page

Research interests: medical genetics, genetic disorders and conditions specific to Indigenous populations, Long QT Syndrome, Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) and birth defects

Dr. Nichole Fairbrother
Visit Dr. Fairbrother's web page

Research interests: psychiatric epidemiology, perinatal and post-partum mental health

Dr. Morgan Price
Visit Dr.Price's web page

Research interests: informatics research, particularly Electronic Medical Records, Consumer Informatics and Personal Health Records, Continuity of Care Research and Improved Medication Use through Clinical Decision Support

Dr. Anthony Tang
Visit Dr. Tang's web page

Research interests: device therapy specific to cardiac arrhythmia and heart failure, efficacy of pacing therapy in patients with advanced heart failure

Dr. Stan Bardal, BA, BSP, PhD, Senior Instructor
Ph: 250-472-5542
Email: bardals@uvic.ca
Visit Dr. Bardal's web page

Research interests: pharmacology, angiogenesis, pharmacogenomics

Dr. Jane Gair, BSc (McMaster), BSc (UBC), PhD (UBC), Senior Instructor
Ph: 250-472-5543
Email: jgair@uvic.ca
Visit Dr. Gair's web page

Research interests: medical genetics

Kurt McBurney, B Ed, MA, Senior Instructor
Ph: 250-472-5536
Email: mcburney@uvic.ca
Visit Kurt McBurney's web page

Lianne Peterson
Administrative Director

250-472-5511
liannep@uvic.ca

Evelyn Wiebe
Research Operations Coordinator

250-853-3827
ewiebe@uvic.ca

Karen Myers
Graduate Secretary

250-853-3129
dmscsec@uvic.ca or neurosec@uvic.ca

Jennifer Graham
Animal Research Technician

250-472-4499
dmsart@uvic.ca

Patricia Brocardo – post doctoral fellow
Research area: alterations in behaviour (depression and anxiety) and biochemical pathways that are associated with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and how voluntary physical exercise can be used to reverse some of these alterations.

Joana Gil-Mohapel – Research Associate
Research area: how adult neurogenesis is affected by neurodegenerative conditions as well as developmental disorders such as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and how non-invasive therapeutic strategies such as environmental enrichment and voluntary exercise can be used to reverse deficits associated with these diseases.

Mariana Vetrici – post doctoral fellow

Research area: molecular characterization of behaviour and context discrimination, synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis in autism and Fragile-X Syndrome(FXS), a heritable form of mental impairment. Protemic profiling to correlate molecular differences to reduced neuroplasticity, atypical behaviours and clincial manifestations. Specifically, the effect of Fragile-X Mental Retardation Protein expression in the dentate Gyrus of knock-out mouse models of FXS.

Sonata Yau - post doctoral fellow

Research Area: The functional role of fragile X mental retardation protein on regulating synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus.

Kelly Tennant - post doctoral fellow

Research Area: how diabetes negatively affects recovery of function following stroke. Kelly uses in-vivo two-photon imaging combined with behavioural measures of forelimb function to determine how changes in neurons and vasculture contribute to poor post-stroke recovery in diabetic mice. She is a recipient of a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research postdoctoral fellowship.

Anna Patten - PhD
Research area: effect of Omega-3 fatty acid dietary supplementation, alone or in combination with exercise, on brain health, particularly when the brain has been previously damaged by diseases such as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Specific areas of interest are hippocampal neurogenesis, oxidative stress, molecular protein analysis and behaviour.

Mohamed Ghilan - PhD

Research area: cellular mechanisms and altered receptor contributions to the differential effect of stress on learning and memory in a mouse model of autism and fragile X syndrome. Specific areas of interest are synaptic plasiticity, molecular analysis, and behaviour.

Please check out my website at: http://neuroscienceoflife.com

This website is not affliated with the University of Victoria and in no way reflects the views of the University of Victoria.

Andrew Sweetnam-Holmes - MSc

Research Area: Associative learning.
Investigating the brains ability to make sensory association through experience dependant learning. The objective of Andrew's present research will be to determine how learning sensory associations affects the spatio-temporal dynamics of sensory information processing in the mouse cerebral cortex. By employing in vivo voltage sensitive dye (VSD) imaging, we are able to track the flow of information with exceptional spatio-temporal resolution.

Angela Seto - MSc

Research Area: The role of alpha-4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in mediating excessive inhibition in the brain following focal ischemic stroke and how reduced cortical activity effects functional recovery in a rodent model. To determine the mechanism of excessive inhibition following stroke. Angela uses pharmacological manipulations and confocal and functional imaging techniques.

Patrick Reeson - MSc

Research Area: Diabetics are more likely to suffer a stroke, and when they do their prognosis for recovery is significantly worse. Previous work in the lab has established that the surviving cortical tissue in the diabetic brain is impaired in its ability to adapt to facilitate recovery. Given the importance of the cerebrovasculature to euronal function and the widespread vascular pathologies associated with diabetes, Patrick's work aims to understand how vascular dysfunction in the diabetic brain after stroke impairs plasticity and recovery. Patrick utilizes confocal and 2 photon microscopy to image the cerebrovasculature as well as molecula methods to study key angiogenic and vascular permeability factors such as VEGF.

Abdul Shehata - PhD

Research Area:

Emily White - MSc

Research Area: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the  leading cause of death and disability in individuals under 45 years of age. My project will characterize the short and long term deficits brain trauma incurs on hippocampal synaptic plasticity, in an attempt to identify a mechanism of cognitive impairments related to learning and memory observed in young individuals who have experienced single or multiple mild TBIs. 

Zoe Sharp - MSc

Research Area: The effect of exercise on neurogenesis in fmr1 KO mice; Neurogenesis ( the production and survival of new neurons) is a process which is most active during development but is limited to only a few areas of the adult brain.

Multiple factors can influence neurogenesis including stress, diet, neurological disorders, and exercise. One such factor is fragile X syndrome (FXS) which is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability and is caused by a mutation of the fmr1 gene on the X chromosome. My research concentrates on a mouse model of FXS and whether voluntary exercise modulates neurogenesis in these animals.

Andrew Boyce - MSc

Research Area: Andrew's will focus his research on the physiological importance of the Pannexin-1C-terminus, particularly the implications of C-terminal caspase cleavage. His project will also include the analysis of Pannexin-1 interactors in the cellular environment with hopes to better understand the role of the C-terminal fragment after cleavage.

Leigh Wicki-Stordeur - PhD

Research Area: Leigh's project is centred around uncovering the role of pannexin 1 (Panx1) in neural stem and progenitor cells (NSC/NPCs). Panx1 is an ion-and metabolite-permeable channel expressed in NSC/NPCs, as well as in other cell types within the body where it has been shown to play a role in various developmental processes. In the adult brain, NSC/NPCs undergo a multi-step process known as neurogenesis to give rise to new, fully functional neurons. Leigh is examining the impact of Panx1 on several steps of this neurogenic process, including NSC/NPC proliferation and differentiation, by controlling the expression/activity of Panx1 channels in NSC/NPC cultures. Furthermore, Leigh is using proteomic techniques to identify protein interaction partners of Panx1 in oreder to more thoroughly understand its role in NSC/NPCs.

Sammy Weiser-Novak - MSc

Research Area: Three Dimensional Ultrastructure of Synapses