Welcome Dr. Jaideep Bains
We would like to welcome Dr. Jaideep Bains (Professor, Department of Physiology; Director, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network), to the CPIN Program.
Dr. Bains' research uses multiple experimental approaches to reveal key features about neural circuits that regulate internal state and are also purposed to control behavior and store information in response to challenges. Specifically, his lab uses in vitro slice electrophysiology, in vivo imaging, optogenetics, behavioral analysis tools and physiological assays to characterize neural circuits that decode stress, modify internal states and generate specific coping behaviors. One of his goals is to better understand the mechanisms that allow these circuits, or specific cell populations, to store information related to the modality, intensity and temporal features of stress. In addition to his extensive experience in synaptic physiology and electrophysiology he has used circuit mapping approaches to link activity in specific cell populations to different behaviors. His work has linked brief stress exposure and enduring synaptic changes in the hypothalamus (reviewed in Bains et al, Nat Rev Nsci, 2015). His lab has provided clear evidence supporting a role for astrocytes in controlling the strength of excitatory synapses in the hypothalamus (Gordon et al, Nat Nsci, 2005, Neuron, 2009). More recently, his lab has shown new roles for hypothalamic CRH neurons as bottom-up controllers for complex behaviors associated with stress coping (Fuzesi et al, Nat Comm, 2016), the transmission and detection of affective states between mice (Sterley et al, Nat Nsci, 2018) and linking stress controllability and active behaviour strategies (Daviu et al, Nat Nsci, 2020).
