Jeremy Chopek, Ph.D.

SCRC Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor, Physiology & Pathophysiology
University of Manitoba

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Dr. Chopek received his MSc (2009) in Kinesiology and PhD (2014) in the Department of Physiology & Pathophysiology, University of Manitoba under the supervision of Dr. Phillip Gardiner, in the Spinal Cord Research Centre. Dr. Chopek’s work examined how motor circuits were affected following spinal cord injury and exercise by examining alterations in motoneuron biophysical properties, stretch reflexes, gene expression and sensitivity to pharmacological agents.

Dr. Chopek completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University (2014-2018), Department of Medical Neuroscience working with both Dr. Zhang and Dr. Brownstone at University College London. His work has begun to characterize and understand microcircuit formation in both the medulla reticular formation, a centre vital for the initiation of movement and the lumbar spinal cord, the area in which movement is produced. To achieve this, he uses a combination of transgenic mouse lines, optogenetic or photo-manipulation of single cell or whole cell populations, in-vitro electrophysiology, viral tracers and confocal microscopy. To date, he has subdivided the chx10 neuronal population in the brainstem into two distinct cell populations based on their morphology, biophysical properties, connectivity and projection patterns. In addition, he has also found a novel connectivity pattern of the spinal V3 interneuron population, which in addition to forming commissural connections also synapse locally with ipsilateral motoneurons.

Dr. Chopek joined the Department of Physiology & Pathophysiology and the Spinal Cord Research Centre on September 1, 2018.

Areas of Expertise
Brainstem-spinal cord in-vitro electrophysiology, neuronal microcircuit formation, optogenetic and photomanipulation, transgenic mouse models, viral tracers, confocal micrscopy, chx10 brainstem neurons, spinal V3 interneurons, in-vivo electrophysiology, spinal cord injury and exercise, stretch reflexes, gene expression.

Publications
Search Pubmed for J Chopek

Address
406 BMSB, 745 Bannatyne Ave.
Winnipeg, MB R3E 0J9
Call: 204-789-3855
Email: Jeremy.Chopek@umanitoba.ca
Laboratory: 406 BMSB, 204-789-3855

Staff
Shannon Deschamps, Lab Technician
Narjes Shahsavani, Lab Technician
Lucia Dominguez Rodriguez, Post Doc Fellow

Trainees
Camila Chacon, PhD. Student
Victoria Nwachukwu, MSc. Student
Muniza Mehrin Zaman, MSc. Student
Mary Obiechina

See Also
Dept. of Physiology & Pathophysiology profile for Dr. Chopek