How do brain dynamics give rise to our sensory experience of the world? The O'Connor lab works to answer this question by taking advantage of the fact that key architectural features of the mammalian brain are similar across species. This allows us to leverage the power of mouse genetics to monitor and manipulate genetically and functionally defined brain circuits during perception. We train mice to perform simple perceptual tasks. By using quantitative behavior, optogenetic and chemical-genetic gain- and loss-of-function perturbations, in vivo two-photon imaging, and electrophysiology, we assemble a description of the relationship between neural circuit function and perception. We work in the mouse tactile system to capitalize on an accessible mammalian circuit with a precise mapping between the sensory periphery and multiple brain areas. Our mission is to reveal the neural circuit foundations of sensory perception; to provide a framework to understand how circuit dysfunction causes mental and behavioral aspects of neuropsychiatric illness; and to help others fulfill creative potential and contribute to human knowledge.

The Aronis Lab develops and refines catheter-based, surgical, and computational strategies to treat the most complex arrhythmias in patients with congenital and acquired structural heart disease—hearts whose distorted anatomy, surgical scar, and limited vascular access place them beyond the reach of conventional electrophysiology. Our mission is to make ablation and device therapy in these patients safer, more durable, and individualized, and to generate the outcomes evidence this historically understudied population has lacked. The lab integrates clinical research, procedural innovation, advanced imaging, and computational modeling, and works closely with the Johns Hopkins adult congenital heart disease, cardiac surgery, cardiac anesthesiology, and biomedical engineering teams.

Basic science investigations in the Umapathi Lab focus on understanding how metabolic dysregulation drives heart failure and cardiomyopathy. The laboratory employs patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models, transgenic mouse systems, and advanced proteomics to define the molecular mechanisms underlying metabolic heart failure (MetHF), with particular emphasis on O-GlcNAcylation and cardiac energetics in heart failure. Additional research explores the mechanistic basis of contractile dysfunction/arrhythmias in inherited cardiomyopathies, particularly LMNA-related disease, integrating calcium signaling, mechanobiology, and electrophysiology to identify novel therapeutic targets for conduction abnormalities and ventricular arrhythmias.