Hadley Horch

Affiliation: Biology, Neuroscience
Norma L. and Roland G. Ware, Jr. Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, Chair of Biology Department

The Horch lab uses the cricket model system to examine the molecular neurobiological basis of a number of areas including regeneration, behavior, and development. Mainly, the lab focuses on how the auditory system of the cricket recovers from injury. Removing one ear induces auditory interneurons to sprout new dendrites, grow abnormally across the mid-line, and form synapses with intact auditory neurons from the opposite ear. This is an elegant and robust example of neuronal plasticity, and it happens in adult crickets. The Horch lab uses echniques such as fluorescent backfills, immunohistochemistry, Q-PCR, RNA interference, behavioral assays, and confocal microscopy to understand the consequences of the loss of an ear.

Teaching Area: Molecular Neuroscience

Video: Three-dimensional confocal image of cricket Ascending Neurons in the prothoracic ganglion of the cricket. Neurobiotin was iontophoresed into axon endings in the brain, transported to the dendrites, and reacted with fluorescent streptavidin.
Hadley Horch headshot

Education

  • Postdoctoral Education, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, 2001-2002
  • PhD, Neurobiology, Duke University, 2001
  • BA, Biology, Swarthmore College, 1993