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Chandrashekhar Borkar
Assistant Professor
Psychology, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior

Chandrashekhar D. Borkar

Contact Info

513-529-2402
114 Psychology Building
Borkar Lab Website

Education

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship in Neuroscience, Tulane University, 2025
  • Ph.D. Pharmaceutical Sciences and Neuroscience, RTM Nagpur University, 2018
  • M.Pharm Pharmacology, RTM Nagpur University, 2011
  • B.Pharm Pharmacy, RTM Nagpur University, 2009

 

Teaching Interests

My teaching philosophy is grounded in the belief that neuroscience education and research can meaningfully contribute to making the world a better place. I view active student engagement as central to the learning process, encouraging curiosity, collaboration, and critical thinking. My goal is to equip students with the integrating the latest scientific advancements and employing innovative instructional technologies and methodologies. Equally important, I strive to cultivate an open and inclusive learning environment that values individual strengths, fosters creativity, and empowers students to reach their fullest potential.

  • PSY 251 | Introduction to Biopsychology
  • PSY 356 | Psychopharmacology
  • PSY 456/556 | Advanced Biological Bases of Behavior

Research Interests

We aim to understand the neuronal circuits underlying emotional responses, the scalability of defensive responses, and encoding traumatic memory. Our research seeks to uncover how neural circuits encode, regulate, and select an appropriate fear response — insights that could inform treatments for anxiety, panic, PTSD, and other stress-related disorders. Using advanced techniques in neuroscience, we investigate how animals transition from lower to higher defensive states and how resilience to fear is built at the circuit level.

The Borkar Lab is committed to providing hands-on research experiences for undergraduate students who are excited to explore the neurobiology of behavior. Undergraduate students interested in joining our lab should complete the short application form available at https://borkarlab.com/contact-us/.

The Borkar lab is actively looking for graduate students to join us at Miami University. Graduate students in the lab will gain rigorous training in behavioral paradigms for fear, flight, and aggression. We combine cutting-edge techniques in behavioral neuroscience, in vivo calcium imaging, chemogenetics, optogenetics, viral tracing, and in vitro electrophysiology to uncover the mechanisms of emotional behavior in different transgenic mouse models. Students will be encouraged to design independent projects that align with their interests while contributing to the lab’s broader mission.

If you are considering graduate training in the lab, please email Dr. Chandrashekhar Borkar at borkarc@miamioh.edu with: A brief description of your research interests, your CV or resume, and why you are interested in the lab’s research. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and collaborative environment where diverse perspectives are valued and creativity thrives.

Professional Recognition

  • Trainee Professional Development Award, Society for Neuroscience, 2021, 2023
  • First prize research presentation, R.T.M. Nagpur University, 2018
  • Travel grants from CSIR, IBRO, and SERB, 2016, 2017
  • Senior Research Fellowship, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), 2017
  • RTM Nagpur University PhD Fellowship, 2016
  • B. Uvnas Prize for Best Research Article, Indian Pharmacological Society, 2016

Selected Publications

  • Borkar CD, Stelly CE, Fu X, Dorofeikova M, Le EQ, Vutukuri R, Vo C, Fadok JP et al. (2024). Top-Down Control of Flight by a Non-Canonical Cortico-Amygdala Pathway. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06912-w.
  • Borkar CD and Fadok JP. (2024). Distributed Circuits Regulating Defensive State Transitions: Freezing, Flight and Fight. Neuropsychopharmacology.
  • Le, EQ, Hereford D, Borkar CD, Aldaco Z, Klar J, Resendez A, and Fadok JP (2024). Contributions of Associative and Non-Associative Learning to the Dynamics of Defensive Ethograms. eLife.90414.3.
  • Dorofeikova M, Borkar CD, Weissmuller K, Smith-Osborne L, Basavanhalli S, Bean E, Smith A, Duong A, Resendez A, Fadok JP. (2023). Effects of Footshock Stress on Social Behavior and Neuronal Activation in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala of Male and Female Mice. Plos One 18 (2): 0281388.
  • Fu, Xin, Teboul E, Weiss GL, Antonoudiou P, Borkar CD, Fadok JP, Maguire J, Tasker JG (2022). Gq Neuromodulation of BLA Parvalbumin Interneurons Induces Burst Firing and Mediates Fear-Associated Network and Behavioral State Transition in Mice. Nature Communications 13 (1): 1290.
  • Borkar, CD, and Fadok JP. (2021). A Novel Pavlovian Fear Conditioning Paradigm to Study Freezing and Flight Behavior. JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments), no. 167: 61536.
  • Borkar CD, Dorofeikova M, Le EQ, Vutukuri R, Vo C, Hereford D, Resendez A, Basavanhalli S, Sifnugel N, Fadok JP. (2020). Sex Differences in Behavioral Responses During a Conditioned Flight Paradigm. Behavioural Brain Research 389: 112623.
  • Borkar CD, Sagarkar S, Sakharkar A, Subhedar NK, Kokare DM (2019). Neuropeptide CART prevents memory loss attributed to withdrawal of nicotine following chronic treatment in mice. Addict Biol;24(1):51-64.
  • Borkar CD, Bharne AP, Nagalakshmi B, Sakharkar A, Subhedar NK, Kokare DM (2018). Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript peptide (CART) alleviates the symptoms of MK-801 induced schizophrenic dementia-like symptoms. Neuroscience;375:94-107.
  • Borkar CD, Shelkar GP, Upadhya MA, Subhedar NK, Kokare DM (2016). Neuropeptide Y system in accumbens shell mediates ethanol self-administration in posterior ventral tegmental area . Addict Biol;21(4):766-75.