Mani Pavuluri, MD, PhD
Director & Professor
We are probing various functional domains such as affect modulation, working memory, declarative memory, attentional control, response inhibition, reward-related processes, and cognitive flexibility. We seek to determine how ventral and dorsal brain systems are influenced by medications in various affective and cognitive illnesses, and modulated by serotonin transporter and BDNF genes, GWAS mechanisms, micro RNA, and the neuroprotective and neurotoxic effects of cellular proteins in patients, relative to their healthy peers.
We actively implement novel fMRI paradigms in our laboratory, including film studio to tape on-site scenarios that mimic patients’ real life stresses, in order to examine changing brain function and gene expression. Our resources and expertise allow us to fluidly use a diverse array of neuroimaging analysis tools and custom-built software. Our efforts are targeted to generate biosignatures of disorders, domains and intervention effects.
Researchers in the BRAIN center include experts in child psychiatry, cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology, bioengineering, neuropharmacology, genetics, bio-statistics, doctoral nursing, and pharmacy. Our center’s multimodal methodologies include independent component analyses (ICA), dynamic causal modeling (DCM), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) including deterministic tractography, neuroanatomy, gene microarrays, and medicinal chemistry. The Pavuluri Lab serves as a resource for a functional imaging core of pediatric studies and participates in translational research with basic cell biology and animal and genetic labs as well as clinical groups across University of Illinois at Chicago in the Psychiatry, Psychology, Pediatrics, Pharmacy, Neurology, Radiology, and Neuroscience Divisions. These components are connected through existing funded scientific research fostering intellectual exchange and providing readily available resources for cross fertilization.