Prions are self-perpetuating, alternative protein conformations associated with neurological diseases and normal cellular functions. Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains many endogenous prions – providing a powerful system to study prionization. Previously, the Li Lab demonstrated that Swi1, a component of the SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complex, can form the prion [SWI+]. A small region,...
Astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the brain, yet the mechanisms involved in astrocyte differentiation and the level of astrocyte heterogeneity in the CNS, particularly in the human cortex, is largely unknown due to the lack of subtype-specific astrocyte markers and inaccessibility of human brain tissue. Here we...
Coiled-coil helix coiled-coil helix domain containing 10 (CHCHD10) is a nuclear gene that encodes for a mitochondria-enriched protein of unknown function. This type of protein is typically imported into mitochondria via the disulfide relay system which facilitates the formation of disulfide bridges between each coiled-coil helix, resulting in maintenance of...
Understanding associative memory is fundamental for a variety of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, however, a large proportion of this research has excluded female subjects due to unsubstantiated bias. By including intact females, ovariectomized females and males in the study of associative memory, clear sex differences in acquisition emerged. Female mice...
A one-time, unilateral injury to the developing brain can interrupt the typical process of development and result in motor impairments that evolve over the course of the whole life-span. The timing of injury relative to neural development has implications for the continued refinement of the nervous system and the descending...
Research on how sleep contributes to memory has blossomed in recent years. These studies have generally focused on whether or not sleep impacts various types of memory independently. An open question is whether sleep interactively influences different memory types. My research focuses on two types of memory—specificity and generalization. Whereas...
The exchange of information in the brain is accomplished through sequences of action potentials that result from the integration of local microcircuits. Unraveling the connectivity of the neurons that constitute these microcircuits and how they contribute to network activity is vital for understanding how information is relayed through the brain...
In the vertebrate retina, neurons process visual signals, generating feature selectivity in their activity levels. We use computational models to understand these behaviors by interpreting them mathematically. One component of this analysis is the spatial selectivity or receptive field, a property found in all visual sensory neurons. The neurons found...
Stroke is the leading cause of permanent adult disability. Subcortical unilateral (hemiparetic) stroke affecting the internal capsule or basal ganglia is the most common of all strokes and usually results in hemiparesis of the contralateral arm and leg. About 80% of the individuals with a moderate to severe hemiparetic stroke...
Leptin, a peptide mainly secreted in proportion to adipose tissue mass, increases energy expenditure with a parallel increase in breathing. The existence of a leptin-mediated neural circuit linking breathing to metabolism has been speculated, yet the precise central mechanisms were unknown. In my thesis, I show that optogenetic activation of...