Within the Autism Neurocircuitry Laboratory, my goal is to understand the role classical motor structures such as the basal ganglia and cerebellum play in the motor and cognitive features of autism. Alterations found within human postmortem tissue will be used to guide studies in animal models. I will use a combination of immunohistochemistry, molecular biology, RNA sequencing and electrophysiology to study how cell-adhesion molecules and the extracellular matrix contribute to altered physiology within these circuits.

My thesis work showed decreased gastrointestinal motility in hibernating thirteen-lined ground squirrels compared to summer active and winter torpid squirrels.  We aimed to characterize the enteric nervous system in these squirrels by studying changes in expression of various neurotransmitters.

As a research assistant, I participated in a project that studied CRF, a stress factor, in rats.