Rajeshwar Awatramani, PhD

Rajeshwar Awatramani is a Professor of Neurology whose research focuses on the development and diversity of midbrain dopamine neurons and their relevance to Parkinson’s disease. His laboratory discovered the floor plate origin of dopamine neurons and defined key roles for Wnt signaling in their production, work that informed widely used stem cell protocols for generating human dopamine neurons. His group has since mapped molecularly distinct dopamine neuron subtypes, developed intersectional genetic tools to interrogate them, and created Dopabase.org to share subtype-specific molecular, spatial, and circuit information with the field. Through NIH- and MJFF-funded projects, he investigates why particular dopamine neuron populations are vulnerable in Parkinson’s disease and how subtype-specific circuits contribute to movement, reward, aversion, and pain.