Description of Research Expertise

RESEARCH INTERESTS
My lab studies the cellular and molecular interactions among neurons, their targets and the surrounding glia that mediate and modulate synapse formation and function during neural development. We use neuromuscular synapses between motor neurons and muscle fibers in mice and zebrafish, and CNS synapses among hippocampal neurons in mice and rats in vitro and in vivo, as relatively simple, accessible and easily manipulated model systems. We use imaging, genetic, cellular, molecular and electrophysiological approaches in our research projects.

In collaboration with Josep Dalmau, M.D., Ph.D., and his lab, we are studying autoimmune disorders that selectively, and reversibly, affect CNS synapses. In these disorders, patient antibodies to synaptic proteins affect synapse structure and function, in turn affecting circuit function, leading to psychosis, disorders of learning and memory and other behavioral abnormalities. We are studying how patient antibodies lead to changes in synapses, circuits and behavior, in vitro as well as in animal models of these human diseases.

The overall goal of our work is to understand the rules by which the neural circuits that underlie particular behaviors become synaptically connected during neural development, what governs the plasticity of these circuits, what goes wrong with these circuits in neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative and other disorders, and how we might design and implement effective therapeutic strategies.