Tuan Tran

Tuan Tran

Tuan Tran, PhD

Associate Professor | Neuroscience Program Director | Director of Undergraduate Research at REDE
Office: Rawl 225 | Phone: 252.328.6445 | Email: trant@ecu.edu

Service

Research Agenda

Behavioral Neuroscience | Developmental Psychobiology | Learning & Memory | Quantitative Neuroanatomy

My research involves studying rodent models of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. My lab uses behavioral tests that assess cognitive function and neuroanatomical techniques that measure brain changes. Altogether, I incorporate methodological approaches that may provide better understanding of brain-behavior relationships (i.e., behavioral neuroscience).

  • In one line of research, I study fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which includes fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other maternal alcohol-related deficits. Currently, I am examining whether early alcohol exposure in rodents leads to learning deficits as measured by eyeblink classical conditioning, the most well-studied form of associative learning in mammalian neuroscience. I also use the Morris water maze task to assess spatial and non-spatial learning/memory. To determine whether the early alcohol insult also results in brain dysfunction that correlates with the behavioral deficits, I use a variety of histological, histochemical, and morphometric techniques. It is hoped that answers about alcohol’s impact on brain-behavior relationships can be better understood in animals, and in turn guide research that examines chemical or behavioral therapies that minimize or prevent such a deplorable condition in humans.
  • In another line of research, I examine rodent models of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly Alzheimer’s disease. I am examining behavioral and cognitive deficits in triple-transgenic (3xTg-AD) mice that bear the PS1-M146V, APP-Swe, and tauP301L mutations – mutations that lead to hallmark pathologies in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Similar to my work on FASDs, I use eyeblink classical conditioning and Morris maze testing to assess cognitive function in these mice. In collaboration with Dr. Qun Lu at the Brody School of Medicine, we hope to test the feasibility of experimental therapeutic agents that have gained much interest as of late in minimizing the impact of AD.
  • In collaboration with Dr. Stefan Clemens at the Brody School of Medicine, we are examining cognitive disruptions in a rodent model of restless legs syndrome (RLS). While RLS itself is not widely known for producing cognitive deficits per se, we hypothesize that it is the lack of sleep caused by restlessness that exhausts mental resources to perform learning and memory tasks adequately.

Current Undergraduate Research Assistants

  • Liz Harris, ECU Class of 2023
  • Luke Jackson, ECU Class of 2024
  • Esha Shah, ECU Class of 2026
  • Jennette Antinore, ECU Class of 2026

Education and Post-Graduate Training

  • BS, Regis University, Denver, CO
  • MA, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, Experimental Psychology – Behavioral Neuroscience
  • PhD, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, Experimental Psychology – Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis

Memory Lane