William Hauser

Will Hauser is a 2023-2027 Self Graduate Fellow pursuing a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He graduated from the University of Kansas in May 2021 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Behavioral Neuroscience. His graduate research focuses on the potential contribution of sensory nerve dysfunction and chronic pain in aging and neurodegeneration. Peripheral neuropathy is a component of neurodegenerative disease that is not normally thought of. Damage to the peripheral nervous system can have a variety of different consequences in both the periphery and central nervous system. Although peripheral neuropathy has been identified across some neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, mechanisms of damage are still unclear. Currently, Will is working on a hypothesis-driving time-course study to characterize sensory nerve abnormalities and pain-like behavior in neurodegenerative mouse models, focusing specifically on abnormal tau hyperphosphorylation and its effects on the peripheral nervous system.

Mentor: Doug E. Wright, Ph.D., Professor, Anesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine