Neuronal signaling entails an astonishingly beautiful and precise set of cellular events enchained through time and space. Careful choreography of these reactions ensures we are able to carry out even the most fundamental of tasks including speaking, listening, or learning. Research in the Dickson lab investigates how such intracellular signaling cascades are altered across different neurodegenerative diseases. The long-term goal of our group is to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying changes in signal transduction, ion channel function, and broader cellular programs of gene expression in neurodegenerative disorders, to determine how they contribute to neurodegeneration. To do this we study several neurodegenerative diseases including Niemann Pick Type C, Parkinson’s disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.