Dr. James Niemeyer received his PhD in neuroscience from Brown University after being awarded his bachelor's degree with honors from UC Santa Cruz. In prior training, Dr. Niemeyer performed research on visual system neurophysiology, perception, and behavior.
Now studying clinical neuroscience in Dr. Theodore Schwartz's epilepsy research laboratory, Dr. Niemeyer uses calcium imaging and neurophysiological techniques to examine cell-type-specific dynamics underlying seizure initiation, propagation, and termination. Dr. Niemeyer's ultimate goal is to explain how various cell types interact to promote — and inhibit — seizure events in order to produce novel therapeutic targets for epilepsy. Further, because disturbances of specific cell types are implicated in nearly all neurological diseases, these studies will provide a much-needed basic understanding of how subspecies of brain cells interact in the cortex.
