Research
Understanding neuronal and synaptic mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of Huntington’s disease and epilepsy.
Appointments
- Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences
Biography
Dr. Cepeda’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying neuronal dysfunction in the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex in neurological disorders including Huntington’s disease in animal models and epilepsy in children with malformations of cortical development.
This work combines electrophysiological and morphological techniques in brain slices.
More recently, his research uses advanced methods to visualize live neurons in freely moving animals with the aid of miniscopes and calcium reporters.
Publications
- Malvaez, M, Liang, A, Hall, BS, Giovanniello, JR, Paredes, N, Gonzalez, JY et al.. Striatal cell-type specific stability and reorganization underlying agency and habit. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.01.26.634924. PubMed PMID:39896502 PubMed Central PMC11785256.
- Hauptman, JS, Antonios, J, Mathern, GW, Levine, MS, Cepeda, C. Chronic Rapamycin Prevents Electrophysiological and Morphological Alterations Produced by Conditional Pten Deletion in Mouse Cortex. Cells. 2025;14 (2):. doi: 10.3390/cells14020079. PubMed PMID:39851507 PubMed Central PMC11764219.
- Zhang, J, Argueta, D, Tong, X, Vinters, HV, Mathern, GW, Cepeda, C et al.. Iconography of abnormal non-neuronal cells in pediatric focal cortical dysplasia type IIb and tuberous sclerosis complex. Front Cell Neurosci. 2024;18 :1486315. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2024.1486315. PubMed PMID:39835291 PubMed Central PMC11743721.
- Padillo-Ruiz, J, Garcia, C, Suarez, G, Blanco, G, Muñoz-Bellvis, L, Justo, I et al.. Intraoperative liquid biopsy as a tool for detecting R1 resection during pancreatoduodenectomy in patients with pancreatic carcinoma: the CETUPANC trial (part II). Int J Surg. 2024;110 (12):7798-7805. doi: 10.1097/JS9.0000000000002153. PubMed PMID:39806742 PubMed Central PMC11634100.
- Cepeda, C, Holley, SM, Barry, J, Oikonomou, KD, Yazon, VW, Peng, A et al.. Corticostriatal maldevelopment in the R6/2 mouse model of juvenile Huntington's disease. Neurobiol Dis. 2025;204 :106752. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2024.106752. PubMed PMID:39644979 .