Research Facilities and Resources
The Department of Neurology remains committed to departmental and collaborative research with state-of-the-art facilities and more than $10 million annually in faculty research. The major component of the department's basic science research is located on the UC Davis campus. The department also has research facilities at UC Davis Medical Center, collaborates with faculty from other campus schools, and has neuroscience investigators with labs at Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System's (VA) Martinez campus.
The UC Davis campus houses the 35,000-square-foot Medical Neuroscience Research Facility adjacent to the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience. Research facilities include equipment for single-unit recordings from the brain and intracellular recordings from the neuromuscular junction, a histology laboratory, neurochemistry and molecular biology laboratories, darkroom facilities, cell culture facilities, electronics design facility and machine shop. Shared resources available include electron microscopy and X-ray facilities, spectrophotometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and animal care facilities.
Research animals are available through the California National Primate Research Center, and many other animals of various neurological diseases are available by special arrangement. Other faculty members have laboratories at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, which includes a state-of-the-art image analysis lab. The Imaging of Dementia and Aging Laboratory (IDeA Lab) examines data from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI and positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
The UC Davis Center for Neuroscience also houses neurology department investigators in cognitive neuroscience. Many cognitive neuroscientists also have laboratory space at the VA campus in Martinez.
The UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center has a clinic at UC Davis Medical Center. Other research facilities located on campus and the UC Davis Medical Center are the UC Davis MIND Institute, UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and UC Davis Imaging Research Center. These facilities provide research opportunities for interested residents on elective. Faculty areas of research are listed separately.
In addition to department faculty, there is neuroscience faculty in the basic medical sciences, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UC Davis College of Letters and Science. Many are members of the Center for Neuroscience and are available for collaboration or supervision of research projects. Residents are encouraged to take advantage of these facilities under the guidance of any neurology faculty member.