Major research interests:

1.       Processing mechanism for various craniofacial sensory informations in the brain stem.

2.       Peripheral neural mechanism for dental pain.

3.       Central mechanism for smooth and coordinated jaw movement in the brain stem.

4.       Processing of taste and smell.

위 과제를 수행하기 위해

Neural tracing기법, 전기생리학적인 기법, 면역조직화학적 기법, 전자현미경 등을 사용하여, 특별한 기능을 수행하는 neural circuit에서 synaptic organization pattern의 분석, 사용되는 특정 neurotransmitters and receptors를 밝히는 실험을 수행합니다.

또한, 주로 형태학적인 실험기법 (electron microscopy, immunocytochemistry with immunogold, DAB, fluorescence, quantitative analysis, reconstruction기법), 전기생리학적인 실험기법 (intracellular recording), western blot, PCR등의 실험기법을 사용합니다.

Techniques usually used in our lab:

l         Neural tracing (tract tracing, single fiber recording and injection)

l         Electron microscopy (with serial sections)

l         Immunohistochemistry (pre- and post-embedding immunogold labeling)

l         Confocal microscopy (colocalization research)

l         Quantitative ultrastructural analysis (with serial section and image analyzing program)

l         Molecular biological techniques: Western blot, RT-PCR

l         Reconstruction of synapse