Our lab is part of the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University and is located in the Mellon Institute.   We are affiliated with the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at CMU and the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Urban also teaches in the Biology Department courses the Biology of the Brain, Neural Plasticity in Sensory and Motor Systems and Information, Entropy and Noise in the Brain.  Our lab in the Mellon Institute is not easy to find without directions.

Our work focuses on understanding the physiological mechansms underilying the functional and computational properties brain neuronal networks, with the main focus being the olfactory system.  In particular, we are interested in how the physiological properties of cells and synapses in the olfactory system give rise to the functional circuits that transform the representations of olfactory stimuli.