This seminar will be held in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center (L3-079).

The mammalian brain is a structure with metrics of complexity that surpass by orders of magnitude any other observed in nature. And yet, the finite amount of information stored in the genome, 7.5 gigabytes in humans — the size of a thumb drive — suffices to contain the full blueprints of the brain's wiring diagrams. The question arises, through what cell biological mechanisms is the information in the genome decompressed and elaborated into the complex patterns of brain circuitry? We are beginning to tackle these questions directly in the developing rodent brain with a new set of in vivo tools that combine subcellular proteomics, in situ genome engineering, and whole-brain ratiometric phenotyping. Using these tools, we investigate the cellular algorithms that determine wiring patters of long-range projections in the forebrain, and are beginning to identify specific branches of circuitry affected by variants associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.

Please contact Natalie Trotta with any questions or to meet with the speaker.