Chris B. Schaffer, Cornell University
Associate Professor
Ithaca, New York
cs385@cornell.edu
Office:
(607) 342-7737
Expert In
Bio/Research
Prof. Schaffer's lab develops and uses advanced optical techniques to observe and manipulate in vivo biological systems, with the goal of constructing a microscopic-scale understanding of normal and disease-state physiological processes in the central nervous system. The scientific questions the ...
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Bio/Research
Prof. Schaffer's lab develops and uses advanced optical techniques to observe and manipulate in vivo biological systems, with the goal of constructing a microscopic-scale understanding of normal and disease-state physiological processes in the central nervous system. The scientific questions the lab addresses center principally on elucidating the cellular-scale interactions that lead to brain cell dysfunction in neurological diseases. The lab develops novel optical methods that enable these problems to be attacked in ways not previously possible, and because many critical research questions involve interactions among different components of an organism (e.g. effect of altered blood flow on brain cell health) the focus is almost exclusively on in vivo approaches. In summary, the Schaffer lab's efforts center on in vivo experiments investigating the cellular dynamics that underlie neurological disease, supported by the development of novel optical techniques. The lab studies animal models of a variety of neurological diseases, including microvascular stroke, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, and epilepsy. Much of my the lab's work focuses on developing an understanding of the role of cortical microvascular lesions in neurodegenerative disease, and the lab is a leader in the critical effort to determine the mechanisms by which occlusions or hemorrhages in small cortical blood vessels lead to the neuronal damage and neuroinflammation that may drive loss of cognitive function. In exciting new work, the lab is beginning to elucidate the pathways by which cortical microvascular dysfunction interacts with and exacerbates Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the lab has launched several new research directions in the last few years that center on other neurological conditions, such as spinal cord injury and epilepsy.
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