CORE--SCIENTIFIC BEHAVIORAL

University Of California San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The overall function of the Behavioral Core is to provide neurobehavioral testing (learning-memory, sensory-motor, and behavior) of rodents (rats and mice) in support of the experiments initiated by the Program Project Grant (PPG) investigators. The specific aims of the behavioral core are: 1. To conduct long-term learning-memory, sensory-motor, and behavioral testing of rodents for in vivo and in vitro experimental protocols proposed by PPG investigations (e.g., neonatal hypoxia-ischemia, transient focal ischemia [middle cerebral artery occlusion], perinatal infection, and knockout [caspase-3, clusterin, HIF1a] preparations). 2. To conduct long-term learning-memory, sensory-motor, and behavioral testing of rodents for in vivo and in vitro experimental protocols proposed by PPG investigations that combine various neonatal treatments (e.g., hypoxia-ischemia in clusterin, caspase-3, or HIF1a knockout mice, infection pretreatment with neonatal hypoxia-ischemia). 3. To conduct long-term learning-memory, sensory-motor, and behavioral testing of rodents for promising therapeutic agents and strategies identified by PPG investigators in their in vitro and in vivo models of perinatal brain injuries (e.g., brain-derived neurotrophic factor, caspase-3 inhibitors, cobalt chloride and iron chelator desferoxamine, pharmacological inhibition of iNOS, and neutrophil depletion).