Who We Are
Robert Renden, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Physiology and Cell Biology
Dr. Renden obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Utah in 2003 studying synaptic transmission at Drosophila neuromuscular junction. During his post-doc work at the Vollum Institute in Portland, he switched to mammalian brain slice preperation investigating synaptic transmission and vesicle reclyling of the calyx Held.
Dr. Renden then continued his studies of the calyx in Heidelberg, Germany before being recruited to UCB, a pharmaceutical company in Belgium, to research drug targets for neurological diseases. In 2011, he relocated to the University of Nevada, Reno and is now an assistant professor of Physiology and Cell Biology.
Sarpras Swain, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Scholar
Sarpras received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from India Institute of Technology ( Hyderbad) in 2019. HI sexperience imaging neuronal cell cultures and 3D printed microfluidics will be a useful addition of expertise to the lab.
Peng Xu, M.S.
Research Scientist
Peng joined the lab in December 2020, and is our resident electrophysiologist. He is performing slice recordings at the calyx of Held synapse, to discern the role of MCU at the presynaptic terminal.
Ryan Durbin
Graduate Student
Ryan received his BS at UNR ( Neuroscience) in 2020. He is a Ph.D. Student in the UNR integrative Neuroscience Graduate Program and joined the lab in January 2021. He is using fluorescence imaging at the mouse levator auris longus (LAL) to monitor activity dependent pH shifts in the synaptic cleft of the vertebrate neuromuscular junction.