Navin Pokala

Navin Pokala

Title: Associate Professor

Department: Biological and Chemical Sciences

Campus: Long Island

Area(s) of Expertise: Neuroscience, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Computational Biology

Education Credentials: Ph.D.

Joined New York Tech: 2015


Navin Pokala’s interests are at the intersections of experiment and computation, and science and engineering. As a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, he developed and experimentally tested algorithms for designing protein molecules. As a postdoctoral researcher at The Rockefeller University, he developed several computational and experimental tools for better understanding how nervous systems generate behaviors.

Pokala and his colleagues have prototyped a diverse set of genetically-encoded light and chemical-activated tools for manipulating and perturbing the activity of individual C. elegans neurons. To comprehensively measure behaviors as they change over time, they have developed a software suite for tracking dozens of animals simultaneously for a spectrum of locomotion behaviors. They are using these tools to experimentally test algorithms for reverse-engineering the nervous system. The team’s goal is that the experimental methods and computational algorithms developed using C. elegans can be applied to more complex nervous systems, including, ultimately, human patients.

Recent Projects and Research

All Research Activities

Publications

Gordus AG, Pokala N, Levy S, Flavell SW, and Bargmann CI. Feedback from network states generates variability in a probabilistic olfactory circuit.Cell Apr 9;161(2):215-27 (2015)

Pokala N, Liu Q, Gordus A, Bargmann CI. Inducible and titratable silencing of Caenorhabditis elegans neurons in vivo with histamine-gated chloride channels. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. Feb 18;111(7):2770-5 (2014)

Flavell SW, Pokala N, Macosko EZ, Albrecht DR, Larsch J, Bargmann CI.Serotonin and the neuropeptide PDF initiate and extend opposing behavioral states in C elegans. Cell. Aug 29;154(5):1023-35 (2013)

Garrison JL, Macosko EZ, Bernstein S, Pokala N, Albrecht DR, BargmannCI. Oxytocin/vasopressin-related peptides have an ancient role in reproductive behavior. Science. Oct 26;338(6106):540-3 (2012)

Pokala N, Handel TM. Energy functions for protein design II: adjustment with protein-protein complex affinities, models for the unfolded state, and negative design of solubility & specificity. J Mol Biol. 347(1): 203-227 (2005)

Courses Taught at New York Tech

Contact Info

navin.pokala@nyit.edu
navinpokala.org

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