News
2024
April: Sarah’s graduates! Congratulations on officially being Dr. Sarah Zych MD, PhD.
April: Selin Ekici officially joins the lab for the Ph.D. portion of her MSTP (MD/PhD) degree as a Pharmacology Graduate Student. Welcome to the lab Selin!
March: Andrew selected for both a GRS and GRC Basal Ganglia talk. Congratulations Andrew!
March: Sarah matches for her neurology residency at University of California Davis. We are sorry to see you go!
March: Shelby Fainelli starts her Pharmacology rotation in the lab. Welcome Shelby!
January: Nik Bergum officially joins the lab as a new Postdoctoral Fellow! Welcome to the lab Nik!
2023
December: Kelsey’s co-release paper is published in Experimental Neurology “Alterations in neurotransmitter co-release in Parkinson’s disease”
October: Andrew’s paper with Robert Edwards lab is published in PNAS “Adaptor protein-3 produces synaptic vesicles that release phasic dopamine”
September: Kaitlyn Letourneau starts her Neuroscience rotation in the lab. Welcome Kaitlyn!
July: Nik Bergum from CSU comes to the lab to visit and interview for a postdoctoral position in the lab.
July: Annie Ly a graduate student from David Root’s lab at UC Boulder joins the lab. Hello Annie!
March: Victoria Chang starts her Neuroscience rotation in the lab. Welcome Victoria
2022
Sept: Kelsey’s LC synaptic input paper is published in Journal of Physiology “Properties and modulation of excitatory inputs to the locus coeruleus”.
Sept: Sarah goes back to medical school.
August: Joy Adler starts her Neuroscience rotation in the lab. Welcome Joy!
August: Selin Ekici starts her MSTP rotation in the lab. Welcome Selin!
July: Sheng leaves to start his postdoctoral fellowship at Janelia.
May: Sarah’s DA-GABA co-release paper is out in Cell Reports “Divergent properties and independent regulation of striatal dopamine and GABA co-transmission”.
May: Defense party for Sarah and Sheng.
May: Sarah defends her Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Zych!
May: Sheng defends his Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Gong!
May: Annie Ly from David Root’s lab at CU boulder starts her project in the lab. Welcome Annie!
March: Sheng’s co-first author paper is published in Molecular Pharmacology “Gait abnormalities and aberrant D2 receptor expression and signaling in mice carrying the human pathogenic mutation DRD2I212F”
2021
November: Tracy Frost joins the lab as a PRA. Welcome Tracy!
October: Lab awarded ABNexus Research Collaboration Grant together with David Root at CU Boulder.
October: Lab awarded Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Circuitry and Brain-Body Interaction Foundation Award “Dual Role of Neural Activity in Parkinson’s Disease”. This multi-PI award is in collaboration with investigators at UCSF, NIH, Gladstone Institute and University of Sydney.
Sept: Sheng’s cocaine paper “Cocaine Shifts Dopamine D2-Receptor Sensitivity to Gate Conditioned Behaviors” is out in Neuron!
Aug: Subash Lamichhane begins his rotation. Welcome Subash!
July: Elizabeth awarded Parkinson’s Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. Congratulations Elizabeth!
June: Lab outing to the mountains for a hike. First group lab hike post-COVID pandemic!!
April: Yuan awarded the CWRU University Doctoral Excellence Award. Congratulations Yuan!
April: Yuan and Elizabeth’s mGluR1 Parkinson’s paper “Loss of Nigral Excitation of Cholinergic Interneurons Contributes to Parkinsonian Motor Impairment” is out in Neuron!
Jan: Yuan and Hanna have their first baby! Congratulations!!
2020
November 18: Dean Kareemo starts his Pharmacology rotation. Welcome Dean!
November 15: Yuan leaves to start his postdoctoral fellowship at MIT.
October 30: Graduation party for Yuan!
October 27: Yuan successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations Dr. Cai!
October 15: Andrea Botello joins the lab as a PRA. Welcome Andrea!
September 1: Elizabeth arrives from Cecilia Bouzat’s lab at the Universidad Nacional del Sur in Argentina to join the lab to start her post-doc. Welcome Elizabeth!
August 14: Cam’s last day at PRA in the lab. She is moving to California with baby Luke to join Xiao now that he has started his new job in CA.
June 1: R01 renewal from NINDS awarded (R01 NS95809).
April 15: Sarah’s Spotlight “Opioid-induced adaptations of cAMP dynamics in NAc MSNs” is out in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences.
April 10: Andrew’s NRSA awarded from NIDA (F32 DA51135). Congratulations Andrew!
April 7: Cam and Xiao have their first baby!!
April 1: R21 from NIMH awarded (R21 MH123085).
2019
August 7: Sheng’s Preview “Cholinergic interneurons provide a link to balance excitation across striatal output neurons” is out in Neuron.
July 23: Didi and Kelsy’s cholinergic interneuron excitability paper “Cholinergic transmission at muscarinic synapses in the striatum is driven equally by both cortical and thalamic inputs” is published in Cell Reports.
May 22: Pam’s collaboration with Robert Edwards’ lab at UCSF describing how vesicular recycling determines synaptic vesicle release properties is out in Neuron.
May 1: R01 renewal from NIDA awarded (R01 DA35821).
April 1: Sarah’s NRSA awarded from NIDA (F30 DA048543). Congratulations Sarah!
March 20: Second 2P rig construction finished.
March 15: Andrew arrives from Janusz Lipski’s lab at the University of Auckland to start his postdoc! Welcome Andrew!
March 3: Mike’s collaboration with Matt Kennedy, Chandra Tucker, and Jason Aoto’s lab characterizing a novel optogenetic split botulinum toxin approach to inhibit synaptic transmission is out in Neuron.
February 14: Cam Waschke starts her PRA position in the lab! Welcome Cam!
February 7: JungMin Kim starts her Neuroscience rotation in the lab. Welcome JungMin!
2018
December 11: Yuan’s cholinergic interneuron paper “Dopamine cells differentially regulate striatal cholinergic transmission across regions through corelease of dopamine and glutamate” is out in Cell Reports. Congratulations Yuan!
September 30: Multi-PI Brain Initiative Award between Ford, Kennedy and Tucker labs awarded (UF1 NS107710).
September 3: 2P rig re-assembled in Denver. Nice to be back to imaging.
June 3: Ameila Burch starts her MSTP rotation in the lab. Welcome Amelia!
April 26: Air tables for 2P room arrive.
April 16: Pam is awarded the CWRU Doctoral Excellence Award for her outstanding Ph.D. thesis.
April 12: Kelsey Barcomb arrives in Denver from Julie Kauer’s lab at Brown University to start her post-doc. Welcome to the lab Kelsey!
June 15: Didi leaves to start her postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF.
May 23: Didi graduates! Congratulations Dr. Mamaligas on successfully defending your Ph.D Thesis!
May 18: Yuan’s collaboration with the Palczewski lab at CWRU is out in Nature Communications.
May 2: Pam and Sheng’s dopamine paper “Regional heterogeneity of D2-receptor signaling in the dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens” is published in Neuron. Congratulations Pam on your 2nd paper in Neuron!
March 12: Renovations completed in the 2P room.
February 26: Zoe Owrutsky starts her Neuroscience rotation in the lab. Welcome Zoe!
January 5: Michael Grybko starts his PRA position in the lab. Welcome Mike!
2017
October 12: Pam visits to finish off experiments for her last paper (yeah) [but breaks her ankle climbing while in Denver (boo)].
October 1: The Ford lab officially moves to Colorado! Amidst of the chaos of moving everyone is excited to join the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Hello Colorado!
September 27: Lab is packed up and ready for the big move. Last day in Cleveland.
September 17: Didi’s Preview “Revealing a role for NMDA receptors in regulating STN inputs following the loss of dopamine” is published in Neuron.
July 12: Sarah officially joins the lab for the Ph.D. phase of her MD/PhD after transferring from CWRU MSTP to CU Anschutz MSTP program.
June 2: Pam graduates. Congratulations Dr. Marcott on defending the Ph.D. phase of your MD/PhD!!
March 24: Sheng officially joins the lab for his Ph.D. thesis.
2016
November 25: Didi and Yuan’s paper “Nicotinic and opioid receptor regulation of striatal dopamine D2-receptor mediated transmission” is published in Scientific Reports. Congratulations Didi and Yuan!
August 24: Sheng Gong begins his rotation in the lab. Welcome Sheng!
August 3: Didi’s cholinergic transmission paper “Spontaneous synaptic activation of muscarinic receptors by striatal cholinergic neuron firing” is published in Neuron. Great work Didi and congratulations on the second lab paper to be published in Neuron!
June 5: Alicia Vagnozzi starts her MSTP rotation in the lab. Welcome Alicia!
May 10: Sarah Zych begins her rotation in the lab after completing her board exams (MSTP). Welcome Sarah!
April 26: Nick is awarded the CWRU Doctoral Excellence Award! Congratulations Nick!
March 1: Pam’s NRSA from NIDA awarded (F30 DA040996). Congratulations Pam!
February 15: Nick’s final paper of his thesis “Mechanisms of 5HT1A receptor-mediated transmission in dorsal raphe serotonin neurons” is published in Journal of Physiology. Congratulations Nick!
February 4: 2P rig is done! First image! Many thanks to Ben, John, Craig, Kevin for the advice and help!
January 15: R01 from NINDS awarded (R01 NS95809).
January 6: Yuan officially joins the lab for his Ph.D. thesis!
2015
December 8: Nick leaves to start his post-doc at HHMI University of Wisconsin. Good luck Nick!
November 9: Nick successfully defends his Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Courtney on the nice thesis work!
November 1: Adrianna Milton starts her rotation in the lab. Welcome Adrianna!
October 5: Yuan Cai begins his rotation in the lab. Welcome Yuan!
August 5: Nick’s collaboration with the Beckstead lab at UTSA examining the role of neurotensin inhibiting somatodendritic transmission in the VTA is out in Journal of Neuroscience.
July 12: Michael Babinchak starts his MSTP rotation in the lab. Welcome Mike!
2014
October 1: Pam’s dopamine paper “Phasic dopamine release drives rapid activation of striatal D2-receptors” is published in Neuron. Congratulations Pam on the first lab paper to be published in Neuron.
September 10: Jie Yang starts his rotation in the lab. Welcome Jie!
May 28: Nick’s paper “The timing of dopamine- and noradrenaline-mediated transmission reflects underlying differences in the extent of spillover and pooling” is out in Journal of Neuroscience. Nice work Nick on the great paper!
2013
September 17: Lab paper in collaboration with Kim Neve at OHSU comparing D2L and D2S signaling is out in Neuroscience.
August 1: R01 from NIDA (R01DA35821) awarded.
May 13: Pam officially joins the lab for the Ph.D. phase of her MD/PhD!
2012
December 20: Didi officially joins the lab for her Ph.D. thesis!
November 1: Didi Mamaligas starts her rotation in lab after joining the graduate program in Neuroscience at CWRU.
September 26: Nick and Didi publish their paper “Species differences in somatodendritic dopamine transmission determine D2-autoreceptor mediated inhibition of ventral tegmental area neuron firing” in Journal of Neuroscience. Congratulations Nick and Didi on the first Ford Lab paper!
July 1: Samantha Barclay starts her rotation in the lab. Welcome Samantha!
May 23: Pam Marcott starts her rotation in the lab after completing her board exams (MSTP). Welcome Pam!
January 10: Aphroditi (Didi) Mamaligas joins the lab as a technician (PRA1). Welcome Didi!
January 4: Second ephys rig done.
2011
December 15: Nick officially joins the lab for his Ph.D thesis.
December 1: Oheneba Amponsah starts his rotation in the lab. Welcome Oheneba!
October 15: Nick Courtney starts his rotation in the lab. Welcome Nick!
September 10: Kate Fu starts her rotation in the lab. Welcome Kate!
June 15: Samantha Barclay starts her SURP Summer Studentship in the lab. Welcome Samantha!
April 1: R00 from NIDA awarded.
February 12: First ephys rig done. First cell patched!
January 1: The Ford lab starts at Case Western Reserve University. Chris transitions from the rain of Portland OR to the snow of Cleveland OH.