Our Science

The Namboodiri lab opened on September 1, 2020 in the Weill Institute for Neurosciences at UCSF. The lab is part of the Alcohol and Addiction Research Group of the Department of Neurology. The lab is affiliated with the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UCSF. Vijay is also a member of Center for Integrative Neuroscience and Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience.

Research in the Nam lab focuses on the biological algorithms and neuronal network mechanisms underlying associative learning, memory and decision-making. In addition to investigating these processes at a basic level, we are especially interested in understanding how these mechanisms go awry in diseases such as addiction. Lastly, we are also interested in developing theoretical and computational models of associative learning and decision-making. We will largely focus our work on mouse models.

We employ a variety of approaches to tackle these challenging questions. These include 1) development of mouse behavioral tasks and measurements, 2) longitudinal activity tracking of large networks of neurons using two-photon calcium imaging, 3) optogenetics combined with behavior and/or imaging, 4) machine learning and multidimensional data analyses, 5) molecular biology, 6) electrophysiology and 7) theoretical and computational modeling.