Swanand Lab

How do we feel happy? How do we feel sad? How do we respond to stress? Why do we get depressed? How do antidepressants work? The Neuroscience Lab uses multidisciplinary approaches combining molecular biology, cell biology, behavior, and computation to address these questions. All these behaviors arise from a highly choreographed collective activity of the cells in the nervous system. Our nervous system consists of several different cell types, which are broadly classified into two groups viz., neurons and glia. Neurons have remained at the forefront of basic and translational neuroscience research. On the other hand, glia have long been thought of as the silent spectators to the neuronal orchestra that produces the symphonies of behavior. However, recent work, including the work from our lab has revealed that glia, especially astrocytes, play an active, and perhaps instructive, role in the manifestation of behavior. We investigate how astrocytes affect the emergence of depressive behavior and the action of antidepressants.