Associate professor Rochelle Hines (Psychology) was awarded a renewal NIH R15 grant through the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) for a project titled, "Early GABAergic signaling influences axon morphology and cortical cell polarity." Hines is the graduate coordinator and associate director for the interdisciplinary neuroscience Ph.D. program.

The $433,661 grant will fund research to advance our understanding of the processes that regulate brain development, focusing on the development of polarity in early cortical cells. The proposed research has implications for understanding the underlying causes of intellectual disability, which is a core feature of numerous human neurodevelopmental syndromes. This project also supports the inclusive training of undergraduate and graduate students focused on neuroscience and neurodevelopment research at UNLV, which is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most diverse campuses.