Vijayalakshmi Santhakumar MBBS, PhD

Viji Santhakumar developed a deep interest in understanding brain function at the level of neurons and networks during medical school and her subsequent stint as a practicing physician. She joined the University of California, Irvine in 1998 to pursue basic-science research on hippocampal plasticity after brain injury. Her doctoral studies established the role of concussive brain injury in decreasing seizure thresholds and led to the discovery of key synaptic and cellular processes underlying post-traumatic epilepsy. Realizing the need for an integrated approach, Dr. Santhakumar exploited computational modeling techniques and developed biophysically-realistic dentate network simulations to gain mechanistic insights into limbic epileptogenesis. Her simulations, a benchmark for data-driven network modeling in the NEURON tool, are currently adopted by several groups. Following successive postdoctoral studies at UCLA where she identified the contribution of tonic inhibition to cerebellar and striatal function, Dr. Santhakumar was recruited as an Assistant Professor to NJMS in October 2008 and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Neurology & Neurosciences, and Pharmacology & Physiology.

His publications are Yu J, Swietek B, Proddutur A, Santhakumar V (2015) Dentate total molecular layer interneurons mediate cannabinoid-sensitive inhibition. Hippocampus. Jan 20. DOI: 10.1002/hipo.22419.
Li Y*, Korgaonkar A*, Swietek B , Wang J, Elgammal FS, Elkabes, S, Santhakumar V. (2015) Toll-like receptor 4 augments mossy cell AMPA currents and contributes to NMDA receptor- independent increase in dentate excitability after brain injury. Neurobiology of Disease. Feb;74:240-53 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2014.11.021* Equal Contribution.
Neuberger EJ, Abdul-Wahab R, Jayakumar A, Pfister BJ, Santhakumar V. (2014) Distinct effect of impact rise times on immediate and early neuropathology after brain injury in juvenile rats. Journal of Neuroscience Research Oct;92(10):1350-61, DOI: 10.1002/jnr.23401.
Proddutur A, Yu J, Elgammal FS, Santhakumar V. (2013) Seizure-induced plasticity of fast- spiking basket cell GABA currents modulates frequency and coherence of gamma oscillation in network simulations. Chaos: Dec;23(4):046109.
Yu J*, Proddutur A*, Elgammal FS, Ito T, Santhakumar V (2013) Status epilepticus enhances tonic GABA currents and depolarizes GABA reversal potential in dentate fast-spiking basket cells. The Journal of Neurophysiology 109: 1746-1763.
Gupta A, Elgammal FS*, Proddutur A*, Shah S, Santhakumar V (2012) Decrease in Tonic Inhibition Contributes to Increase in Dentate Semilunar Granule Cell Excitability after Brain Injury. The Journal of Neuroscience 32(7): 2523-2537.
Dyhrfjeld-Johnsen J*, Santhakumar V*, Morgan R, Huerta R, Tsimring L, Soltesz I (2007) Topological Determinants of Epileptogenesis in Large-Scale Structural and Functional Models of the Dentate Gyrus Derived from Experimental Data. Journal of Neurophysiology 97(2):1566-1587.