Research labs at Brandeis University .

Eve Marder Research Group

Neural circuitsNeuromodulationElectrophysiology

Eve Marder · University Professor

How can a neural circuit stay reliable when its component proteins and environmental conditions keep changing? Marder studies this question using small rhythmic networks in lobsters and crabs. Their stomatogastric ganglion provides accessible neurons with known connectivity, allowing direct measurements of circuit behavior. Her group investigates how neuromodulators reconfigure network output, how stability persists during protein turnover, and why different animals can produce similar behavior despite different underlying parameters. Temperature perturbations provide one way to probe this resilience, connecting detailed electrophysiology with broader principles of nervous-system function.

GTIndependently curated · Unclaimed

Gina Turrigiano Research Group

Homeostatic plasticitySynaptic scalingNeocortex

Gina Turrigiano · Professor

Turrigiano asks how brains can change through experience without losing stable function. Her laboratory investigates homeostatic plasticity, including synaptic scaling, through which neurons adjust their excitability and activity. Research examines how these stabilizing mechanisms interact with learning-related synaptic changes during development of the neocortex. The group also studies how sleep and other behavioral states influence plasticity and firing-rate regulation. This provides a concrete neuroscience puzzle for prospective researchers: a circuit must preserve useful activity while still being flexible enough for learning and experience to reshape its connections.

LGIndependently curated · Unclaimed

Leslie Griffith Research Group

Behavioral neuroscienceSleepCalcium signaling

Leslie Griffith · Professor

Griffith studies behavior from the molecule to the whole animal. Her group uses Drosophila to investigate how internal state and environmental cues alter sleep, movement, circadian rhythms, and courtship. Video and automated monitoring connect behavioral measurements with imaging and electrophysiological recordings of neurons. At the biochemical level, the laboratory examines calcium signaling and CaMKII-related pathways involved in synaptic function and plasticity. The central research opportunity is linking a defined cellular signaling mechanism to changes in neural activity and then to an observable behavior.

MRIndependently curated · Unclaimed

Michael Rosbash Research Group

Circadian rhythmsGene regulationDrosophila genetics

Michael Rosbash · Professor

Rosbash investigates how biological clocks keep time and translate that timing into behavior. Using Drosophila, his research connects circadian genes, regulation of gene expression, and the neural circuits that coordinate daily rhythms. The laboratory studies transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms, including feedback involving clock proteins, and examines the functions of individual circadian neurons. Biochemical and genetic approaches help identify regulatory mechanisms and clock components. This offers a specific connection between molecular biology and neuroscience: understanding both the cellular timing machinery and how a brain uses that machinery to organize rhythmic activity.

SFIndependently curated · Unclaimed

Seth Fraden Research Group

Soft matterActive matterSelf-assembly

Seth Fraden · Professor

Fraden explores how collections of small components produce larger patterns and materials. His soft-matter group combines experiment, theory, and simulation across physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science. Research directions include active matter, coupled nonlinear chemical oscillators, microfluidics, protein crystallization, and colloidal liquid crystals. Other projects examine DNA-directed colloid assembly and DNA origami, where molecular interactions can be used to organize structures. For prospective researchers, the appeal is investigating emergence through tangible experimental systems: controlled interactions between particles or chemical units can generate collective behavior that no isolated component exhibits.