How is development coordinated in the brain?
It’s obvious to say that timing and coordination are important for building the brain. Which is why researchers have tended to focus on questions like how diverse cell types are made in the right place, in the right numbers and connected to the right partners. But none of these processes matters if cell types that must connect to each other aren’t ready to do so at the right time.
Indeed, to ensure functional circuitry, cell communicate to coordinate their development along the way. Yet, we know little of how this is achieved.
We are generously funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society to determine, at the cellular and molecular level, how glia regulate neural development. Conservation of biological processes enables us to investigate this question in the fruit fly, where we can make use of modern genetic and molecular techniques to ask how signals from glia regulate neuronal production, how glia can be reprogrammed into neurons and how different types of glia differ in their functions during brain development.
Indeed, to ensure functional circuitry, cell communicate to coordinate their development along the way. Yet, we know little of how this is achieved.
We are generously funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society to determine, at the cellular and molecular level, how glia regulate neural development. Conservation of biological processes enables us to investigate this question in the fruit fly, where we can make use of modern genetic and molecular techniques to ask how signals from glia regulate neuronal production, how glia can be reprogrammed into neurons and how different types of glia differ in their functions during brain development.
