Gill Affiliates

Friends of the Gill Center

The Gill Center supports revolutionary science across a range of approaches, from electrophysiology measuring activity within single neurons to animal behavior studies investigating effects of potential therapies. The Gill Chairs, together with a growing group of interdisciplinary researchers, bring together a synergistic set of approaches that collectively yield exciting revelations in our evolving understanding of the brain.  Our reach goes beyond the walls of MSBII and extends into other departments all of the IU campus.

Heather Bradshaw

Professor, Psychlogical and Brain Sciences
(812) 340-1270
hbbradsh@indiana.edu

Research Interests:

Lipidomics, effects of THC on the developing brain, novel endogenous lipids involved in thermoregulation

Faculty Profile

Bio:

My research program combines the fields of neurophysiology, behavior, and lipid biochemistry to understand how lipid signaling drives changes in cellular communication.  A central focus of my research relies on lipidomics discovery and characterization of endogenous lipids (endolipids) using mass spectrometric and signaling assays with a special emphasis on understanding their biosynthesis and metabolism.  Ongoing investigations of the endogenous cannabinoid signaling molecule, N-arachidonoyl ethanolamine (Anandamide) in my lab, drove the discovery of more than 80 endogenous structural analogs, which we have shown to be produced in the brain and throughout the body in both vertebrates and invertebrates.  Recently, we have demonstrated that the classes of endolipids that we study are differentially regulated by each of the enzymes and receptors associated with the endogenous cannabinoid system.  In addition, we have shown that drugs of abuse like Cannabis and opioids, likewise regulate these classes of endolipids. 

Professionally, I have served as conference session Chair at a wide range of organizations, though my focus has largely been working with the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) for which I was elected President in 2016.  This is a three-year term in which year two required that I organize and lead the 2017 scientific meeting of the ICRS in Leiden, Netherlands.  I have served on the ICRS board since 2016 and recently took the lead on the NIH R13 for trainee support for the ICRS annual meetings.  In 2016 I was named a National Academy of Science Kavli Scholar and attended that year’s cohort meeting, and in 2019 I was named “Graduate of Distinction” at my PhD alma mater, Florida State University.  In 2018 I advanced to the rank of Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University where I have been since 2004. 

Istvan Katona

Profesor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
(812) 855-1453
ikatona@iu.edu

Research Interests:

signaling pathways and brain circuits involved in substance abuse, the endocannabinoid system, synaptic plasticity, super-resolution imaging/microscopy

Faculty Profile

Bio:

István Katona is a neuroscientist, whose research aims to delineate the molecular architecture of endocannabinoid signaling in the brain, and to uncover the physiological and pathophysiological significance of this unusual messenger system in normal and abnormal brain activity with special focus on substance use disorders. He received his PhD in Neurosciences at the János Szentágothai Doctoral School of the Semmelweis Medical University of Budapest, Hungary in 2000. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany and as a visiting scientist at the Riken Brain Science Institute in Wako-shi, Japan. He received a European Research Council grant and a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship to launch his research programs at Institute of Experimental Medicine in Budapest, Hungary in 2009. He worked there as the Head of the Department of Molecular and Developmental Neuroscience from 2011 until 2020 and serves as a senior consultant afterwards. He started the Addiction and Neuroplasticity laboratory at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington in 2020, where he also holds the Naus Family Endowed Chair in Addiction Sciences. His main research contributions include the first electron microscopic evidence for the molecular organization of the retrograde endocannabinoid signaling pathway at chemical synapses, the synaptic circuit-breaker model on the role of endocannabinoid signaling in epilepsy and the development of STORM super-resolution imaging methodologies for cell- and compartment-specific nanoscale anatomical and pharmacological measurements in complex brain circuits. He was elected as a lifetime member of the Academy of Europe (Academia Europea) and EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) for his research accomplishments.

Feng Guo

Associate Professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering
(812) 856-7066
fengguo@iu.edu

Research Interests:

microfluidics, organ on a chip, acoustics, acoustofluidics, intelligent systems, neuroimmunology, autoimmune diseases, infection diseases, translational medicine

Faculty Profile

Bio:

Dr. Feng Guo is an associate professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering at Indiana University (IU) Bloomington. Before joining IU Bloomington in 2017, he received his Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State and his postdoc training at Stanford University School of Medicine. His group is developing intelligent devices, sensors, and systems to address the challenges in translational medicine with the support of multiple NIH and NSF awards. He is a recipient of the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Early Career Award at Penn State, the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award at IU, the Dean Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford School of Medicine, etc.

His research group aims to develop novel bioengineering technologies at the interface of device engineering, artificial intelligence (AI), and translational medicine. Specifically, they are developing intelligent devices, sensors, and systems to address the challenges in translational medicine. Their work on the development of ‘Organoid Intelligence’ and ‘Intelligent Microfluidics’ has been published in Nature Electronics, Nature BME, Nature Comm, PNAS, etc. Their work has also led to 15 U.S. issued or pending patent applications.