This seminar will be held in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia's Manhattanville campus (9th floor lecture hall). Columbia University's Intercampus Shuttle Service is the best way to travel between campuses.
The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a complex solution circulating around the brain and spinal cord. Recent evidence indicate that the development of the nervous system is strongly influenced by the content and flow of the CSF. Yet, it is not known whether neuronal activity changes as a function of the physico-properties of the CSF.
Dr. Wyart's group identifies that CSF-contacting neurons by their location at the interface between the CSF and the nervous system were in ideal position to sense CSF cues, to relay information to local networks and to regulate CSF content by secretion. By combining electrophysiology, optogenetics and calcium imaging in vivo in zebrafish larvae, they demonstrate that neurons contacting the CSF detect local bending of the spinal cord and in turn feedback GABAergic inhibition to multiple interneurons driving locomotion and posture in the ventral spinal cord. This GABAergic feedback modulates targets in a state-dependent manner, depending on the fact that the animal is at rest or actively moving at a define speed. Behavioral analysis of animals deprived of this sensory pathway reveals a differential contribution to slow and fast locomotion, as well as interesting defects in the control of posture during active locomotion. The group's work first sheds light on the cellular and network mechanisms enabling sensorimotor integration of mechanical and chemical cues from the CSF onto motor circuits controlling locomotion and posture in the spinal cord. Now they find interesting links between this interoceptive sensory pathway, development of the body axis and spine curvature, as well as detection and combat of pathogens intruding the CSF during bacterial meningitis.
Claire Wyart graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm in Paris year 2000. Under the supervision of Laurent Bourdieu and Didier Chatenay, she obtained her PhD in biophysics and neuroscience from the University of Strasbourg and moved to University of California in Berkeley for her postdoc. In the lab of Ehud Isacoff, UC Berkeley, she developed optical techniques to control activity of neurons remotely in vivo (optogenetics).
Dr. Wyart's team now combines genetics, biophysics, physiology and behavior to understand how sensory inputs are integrated in the spinal cord during development and active locomotion. Her lab discovered that neurons contacting the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the spinal cord are mechanoreceptors detecting curvature of the spinal cord and CSF flow, which modulate the activity of spinal neurons controlling locomotion and posture. The Wyart lab use the transparent zebrafish larva to implement optical methods for manipulating and monitoring neuronal activity in motion. Their work unravels the mechanisms by which interoceptive sensory inputs are integrated throughout life to form the spinal cord, and ensure CSF homeostasis in the mature stages in particular in the context of idiopathic scoliosis and meningitis.
Those who wish to meet the speaker during their visit should contact Amy Norovich, PhD (Bendesky lab). For general inquiries please contact [email protected].
The Columbia Neuroscience Seminar series is a collaborative effort of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science.