Molecular Mechanisms of circuit wiring in the developing and adult brain

Research project

During development, improper neuronal wiring can lead to formation of persistently altered brain circuits and onset of intellectual disabilities. In principle, one could instate proper connections by means of cellular programing and thus facilitate repair of circuits. However, mechanisms that regulate or maintain wiring after development remain largely unknown. 

Understanding these biological mechanisms  is a prerequisite for an eventual cure of intellectual disabilities. Towards this goal, this project aims to investigate how the capacity of wiring can be reactivated and controlled in a specific group of adult hippocampal neurons, the dentate granule cells, which are critically involved in certain forms of learning and memory.

Morphological analyses take advantage of the mesoSPIM platform. As an added value, the hippocampal rewiring model used in this project will become a valuable platform to test the effect of genes identified in the Development Delay Database Platform on developmental and adult brain wiring.

Research Groups

Csaba Földy, Sebastian Jessberger. PhD Student: Matteo Egger

Publications

Egger M, Luo W, Cruz-Ochoa N, Lukacsovich D, Varga C, Que L, Maloveczky G, Winterer J, Kaur R, Lukacsovich T, Földy C (2023) Commissural dentate granule cell projections and their rapid formation in the adult brain. PNAS Nexus, 2(4):pgad088.

Luo W, Cruz-Ochoa NA, Seng C, Egger M, Lukacsovich D, Lukacsovich T and Földy C (2022) Pcdh11x controls target specification of mossy fiber sprouting. Frontiers in Neuroscience 16:888362. 

Underlined: AdaBD researchers