Dr. Olalekan Ogundele
Comparative Biomedical Sciences (CBS)
(225) 578-9103
Biography:
I am an anatomist with combined human and veterinary anatomy teaching experience. I trained at the College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin (Nigeria) where I obtained Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees in Anatomy. I taught anatomy for several years in medical schools before joining the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences as a Research Associate (Neuroscience). In 2017, I joined the faculty at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.
Teaching Interests:
Gross Anatomy (VMED 5123, VMED 5124, and VMED 51215), Histology (VMED 5132), and Neuroanatomy (VMED 5171 Lab).
I am the current coordinator of the spring semester comparative anatomy course (VMED 5125), and Anatomy Open House.
Research Interests:
The brain contains many neurons that are interconnected by synapses. In the cognitive centers, synchronous excitation of neurons produces action potential spikes and bursts that temporally encode information at the network level. My laboratory investigates synaptic mechanisms that govern network excitability and rate coding in the hippocampus. Also, we explore the anatomical distribution of midbrain presynaptic terminals in the hippocampus and use electrophysiology to assess their function in putative multi-unit synchrony in vivo.
We study small conductance (SK2) channel gating of synaptic kinases as a novel mechanism for neural excitability regulation. We use molecular biology, imaging, and protein analysis methods to dissect the mechanism of activity coupling between SK2 and dendritic spine translocation of CaM kinases (CaMKIIα) in the hippocampus. Using high impedance neural probes, we assess firing and burst rates by sampling extracellular action potentials in the hippocampus of wild type and transgenic mice with specific mutations related to SK2 or CaMKIIα function. By combining in vivo recording with pharmacology and optogenetics, we assess activity coupling between SK2 potentiation and dendritic spine enrichment of T286 pCaMKIIα during hippocampal network stimulation.
At the neural circuit level, we are interested in the function of midbrain dopamine and glutamate presynaptic terminals in the hippocampus. We use neuroanatomical (retrograde/anterograde) tracing methods to map these terminals in the layers of the hippocampus. We also combine high-throughput silicon probe recording with optogenetics (AAV/Cre-lox) to test functional connections between midbrain dopamine or glutamate neuron groups and hippocampal neurons. By combining anatomical and electrophysiological tracing methods, we assess the physiological basis of the anatomical maps in putative (CA1) pyramidal firing rate and putative unit synchrony. Combining optogenetics with neural recording is noteworthy as it permits the modulation of neuronal activity in awake mice undertaking a quantifiable cognitive test. We are interested in behavioral tests that can assess spatial learning and reward motivation in learning.