Dr. Jeremy Chopek has signed his acceptance letter and is expected to join the Department of Physiology & Pathophysiology on September 1, 2018. Dr. Chopek is the latest recruit to the Division of Neuroscience and Spinal Cord Injury.
Dr. Chopek received his MSc (2009) in Kinesiology and PhD (2014) in the Department of Physiology & Pathophysiology, University of Manitoba under the supervision of Dr. Phillip Gardiner, in the Spinal Cord Research Centre. Dr. Chopek’s work examined how motor circuits were affected following spinal cord injury and exercise by examining alterations in motoneuron biophysical properties, stretch reflexes, gene expression and sensitivity to pharmacological agents.
Currently, Dr. Chopek is a post-doctoral fellow at Dalhousie University (2014-), Department of Medical Neuroscience working with both Dr. Zhang and Dr. Brownstone at University College London. His work has begun to characterize and understand microcircuit formation in both the medulla reticular formation, a centre vital for the initiation of movement and the lumbar spinal cord, the area in which movement is produced. To achieve this, he uses a combination of transgenic mouse lines, optogenetic or photo-manipulation of single cell or whole cell populations, in-vitro electrophysiology, viral tracers and 2P and confocal microscopy. To date, he has subdivided the chx10 neuronal population in the brainstem into two distinct cell populations based on their morphology, biophysical properties, connectivity and projection patterns. In addition, he has also found a novel connectivity pattern of the spinal V3 interneuron population, which in addition to forming commissural connections also synapse locally with ipsilateral motoneurons.
Dr. Chopek will be setting up a laboratory on the 4th floor of the Basic Medical Sciences Building.
When you meet Dr. Chopek please give him a warm welcome.
Peter A. Cattini
Professor & Head
Physiology & Pathophysiology
University of Manitoba