People
Jose Maldonado
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Managing Director, Vanderbilt Neurovisualization Laboratory
Jose Maldonado is a neuroanatomist, microscopist and, business professional developing quantitative analysis pipelines for light sheet microscopy data. After he completed doctoral work in neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine (UCLA), he accepted an offer of employment from MBF Bioscience, Inc. (Williston, VT, USA) There, he developed foundational and practical expertise in quantitative microscopy. Additionally, he led all MBF business operations in South America and Africa for four years. He developed research and teaching collaborations in Sao Paolo and Johannesburg. Jose is the Managing Director of the Vanderbilt Neurovisiualization Lab (VNL), which is the principal resource for quantitative, whole brain, light-sheet imaging and data analysis at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN, USA). VNL provides professional scientific guidance and microscopy services to lower the barrier for integration of light sheet imaging into a diversity of new and ongoing research programs. His goal is to help investigators integrate quantitative lightsheet imaging methods into their experimental design. In addition to hands-on training and assistance with lightsheet imaging he also advises users on the optimal clearing methodology for their samples, using either aqueous (SHIELD, CLARITY, etc.) or organic based (iDISCO) clearing methods. The imaging methodologies that Jose has integrated and deployed as a turnkey solution at Vanderbilt University have contributed lightsheet data to several recent publications ( e.g., Sweeney et al., Science Translational Medicine, 2021; Luchsinger et al., Nature Communications, 2021).
Richard Simerly
Louise B. McGavock Professor, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Director, Vanderbilt Neurovisualization Laboratory
Richard Simerly is an internationally recognized expert on hormonal control of brain development. His laboratory made several key discoveries in the field of sexual differentiation, including the first genetic evidence for the sufficiency of the Esr1 in sexual differentiation, the first demonstration that caspase activity is required for hormone-induced apoptotic neuronal death in the hypothalamus, and the first demonstration of target dependent sexual differentiation of limbic-hypothalamic connections. His laboratory also demonstrated that the fat-derived hormone leptin represents a significant factor directing development of essential components of hypothalamic circuits that control energy balance, and that the developmental actions of leptin suppress development of viscerosensory inputs to the hypothalamus. His current research is focused on understanding how the architecture of forebrain circuits that control body weight and energy metabolism is specified in response to endocrine and nutritional cues during defined neurodevelopmental critical periods, with direct implications for the developmental origins of obesity.