Carla Shatz, PhD
Sapp Provostial Professor of Biology and Neurobiology
Stanford University
Host(s): Carol Mason (Faculty)
Synapses Lost and Found: Critical periods of development and Alzheimer’s disease
How are connections wired up during brain development? Wiring occurs sequentially, first by forming a basic scaffold of connectivity according to strict molecular guidance cues. Subsequently the exact details of each circuit emerge by pruning and sculpting synapses. This synapse selection process is also genetically specified, but in this case requires brain function. Prenatally, the brain generates its own internal neural activity patterns to jump-start the sculpting process. Postnatally, experience of the external world takes over to influence brain wiring during developmental critical periods. Neural activity and sensory experience regulate expression of sets of genes including several previously thought to act only in the immune system. These activity-regulated genes, including Major Histocompatibility Class I family members and Paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B (PirB), are required in cortical and hippocampal neurons for synapse pruning and plasticity. Unexpectedly, PirB also acts as a high affinity receptor for soluble oligomers of beta amyloid and contributes to cognitive loss and alterations in Hebbian synaptic plasticity in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. Changes in expression or function of these molecules could contribute to synapse pruning disorders in development, as well as in neurodegenerative disease.
Relevant Publications:
Cell-Autonomous Regulation of Dendritic Spine Density by PirB
Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
This event will be in-person only, open to Columbia University Affiliates
Speaker Location: Jerome L. Greene Science Center, 9th Floor, Kavli Auditorium