On 27 January 2016, Gordon Fishell described his investigations of the developmental and genetic origins of interneuron development.
His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series.
About the Lecture
Interneurons within the brain, in the cortex and hippocampus in particular, are central for normal brain function, and conversely, dysfunction of these cell types is thought to result in developmental neurological disorders. The Fishell laboratory combines genetic and physiological approaches to examine the origins of these populations and their integration into brain circuitry.
In this lecture, Gordon Fishell described his investigations of the developmental and genetic origins of interneuron development. This process begins with their specification, during which genetic programs initiated within progenitors relegate interneurons into specific cardinal classes. Subsequent to this, neuronal activity is fundamental for both the laminar positioning as well as the dendritic and axonal arborization in at least some interneuron subtypes. Fishell’s findings suggest that sensory information complements earlier established genetic programs to shape the way interneuronal subtypes integrate into nascent cortical circuits. Importantly, many of the genes involved in the maturation of interneurons appear to also be implicated in neuropsychiatric diseases, including autism and schizophrenia.
About the Speaker
Gordon J. Fishell, Ph.D., is associate director of the NYU Neuroscience Institute, Julius Raines Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology, and director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Physiology at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine. Fishell is a long-standing member of the NYU School of Medicine community, having joined the developmental genetics program in the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine in 1994. In 2006, he launched the Smilow Neuroscience Program, and in 2011 he became associate director of the then-newly-formed NYU Neuroscience Institute.
