Safwan Hyder

Safwan is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology. He is in his third year in the program.

Research Statement: Circuit-level manipulations of neural systems are viable therapeutic approaches for seizure suppression in rodents. In particular, basal ganglia output nuclei have been shown to be able to exert powerful seizure suppression through experimental manipulations. Safwan is interested in studying how various upstream micro- and macrocircuits in the basal ganglia contribute to the demonstrably powerful antiseizure capabilities of basal ganglia outputs. Safwan uses optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches in vivo to explore the roles of neuronal populations and projections in seizure suppression.

Safwan hopes to take the skills he is learning throughout the course of his doctoral research and one day establish his own independent research lab.