Portfolio: Acquired epilepsies (with focus on circuit mechanisms, seizure initiation, seizure detection, seizure prediction); comorbidities and co-occurring conditions such as aging: cognitive impairments, ID, post-traumatic epilepsy, stroke-induced seizures, seizures in aging and development; Refractory Seizures and Status Epilepticus; basic research on synaptic transmission and plasticity
Additional Keywords: Learning and memory; glutamatergic and GABAergic signaling
Dr. Churn is a program director in the Synapses, Channels and Neural Circuits Cluster. His research career has focused on defining the neuronal mechanisms that are activated following neuronal trauma and pathological excitation. His primary research has been directed toward characterizing the electrographic characterization of both acute and chronic brain activity following status epilepticus and traumatic brain injury and aging, as well as characterizing the signaling cascades through which altered neuronal activity is modulated. Ben received a B.S. in the Department of Biology at the College of William and Mary, an M.S. in the Department of Biology from the University of Richmond, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He did a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurology at VCU where he was then brought on as a faculty member and received tenure. He most recently served as the Director of the Brain Tissue Resource Center in the VCU Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Center. He served as an associate editor or on the editorial boards of several journals.