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Douglas Roossien is a developmental and cellular neurobiologist, who studies the genetic and cellular programs that drive the development of functional nervous systems with particular emphasis on serotonin systems. Students in the Roossien lab leverage the powerful genetic tools available in the fruit fly model organism, Drosophila melanogaster, to ask how perturbations in serotonin signaling alter development at the intracellular, circuit, and behavioral levels using fluorescent microscopy, live cell imaging, circuit reconstruction, and behavioral analysis. Together with collaborator Ashley Kalinski, Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina, Roossien also examines the role of immune responses in a Drosophila model of traumatic brain injury.

Before arriving at Íøºì±¬ÁÏ, Roossien was an Assistant Professor at Ball State University, where his laboratory identified a novel role for serotonin autoreceptors in the development of serotonergic neuron morphology, generated a spatial and temporal map of serotonin autoreceptor expression, and provided direct evidence for serotonin autoreceptor function in a variety of Drosophila behaviors. His research is funded by both the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.