Experimental Neurophysiology Core

Overview of Services

High throughput preclinical neurophysiology is essential for drug discovery in many disease states. The Experimental Neurophysiology Core (ENC) aims to improve the early phases of drug discovery and development by creating central nervous system (CNS) disease models and recording spontaneous and evoked signals from rodents for physiological characterization, target engagement and drug testing applications.


The ENC at Boston Children’s Hospital can acquire a plurality of physiologic signals through in vivo and in vitro recordings to quantitatively assess seizures, circadian abnormalities and physiologic signatures across the EEG frequency spectrum. Available ENC techniques include in vivo rodent video-EEG via multi-cage wireless telemetry, auditory and motor evoked potentials by auditory stimulation or direct cortical and transcranial magnetic stimulation and in vitro recordings from isolated brain slices. The ENC also provides expertise and end-to-end services for rodent surgeries, dosing compounds, collecting samples for pharmacokinetic analysis, and conducting high-throughput data analysis. The state of the art setup enables a strong set of physiological assays to evaluate novel CNS pharmacotherapies in preclinical disease models. Our platform is available to industrial and academic partners to advance with the aim of expanding and improving the pipeline from preclinical evaluation of therapeutic targets to clinical trials.

  • In vivo rodent wireless telemetry video-EEG (using DSI systems)
  • Noninvasive rat brain stimulation (using transcranial magnetic stimulation – TMS)
  • In vitro extracellular isolated brain slice stimulation and recording by microelectrode array (using MED64 system)

Leadership

Alexander Rotenberg, MD, PhD | Core Director
Phone: 617-919-2763 | CLS 14071
Email: alexander.rotenberg@childrens.harvard.edu

Mustafa Hameed, MD | Core Assistant Director
Phone: 617-919-2766 | CLS 14063
Email: mustafa.hameed@childrens.harvard.edu    

Amy Weinberg, MPH | Center Administrator
Phone: 617-919-4023 | CLS 12
Email: amy.weinberg@childrens.harvard.edu

Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD | TNC Director
Phone: 617-355-8994 | CLS 14
Email: mustafa.sahin@childrens.harvard.edu   

Staff

Rui Lin | Research technician, in vivo services
Email: rui.lin@childrens.harvard.edu | CLS 14060.6

Ella Lubbers | Research technician, in vivo services
Email: ella.lubbers@childrens.harvard.edu | CLS 14060.6

Angelica D`Amore | Research Fellow, in vitro services
Email: angelica.damore@childrens.harvard.edu | CLS 14060.6

Sameer Dhamne, MS | Consultant, in vivo services                    
Email: sameer.dhamne@childrens.harvard.edu | CLS 14

Location and hours of operation

Hours Open Location

Monday-Friday    

9AM - 5PM

Office: CLS building, 3 Blackfan Cir, CLS 14063, Boston, MA 02115

Core: Karp Building, 1 Blackfan Cir, RB 4013.1 and 4041, Boston, MA 02115

Links and Resources

  1. In vivo rodent wireless telemetry video-EEG
  2. Noninvasive rat brain stimulation
  3. In vitro extracellular isolated brain slice stimulation and recording

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Contacts

Name Role Phone Email Location
Mustafa Q. Hameed, MD
Assistant Director, ENC
 
617-919-2766
 
mustafa.hameed@childrens.harvard.edu
 
CLS 14063
 
Alexander Rotenberg, MD, PhD
Director, ENC
 
617-919-2763
 
alexander.rotenberg@childrens.harvard.edu
 
CLS 14071