Neurodynamic Phenotyping

Manipulating genes in neurons and glial cells to develop new treatments for
neuropsychiatric disorders has never been more fruitful and diverse. Our founding

scientist contributed to the early stages of this work through first studies on neuronal
synchronization in genetically modified, freely behaving mice (2009). In these studies,

he jointly with colleagues explored mouse lines lacking genes for several glutamate

and GABA A receptor proteins in inhibitory interneurons, and later increased the

throughput of neuronal recordings in models of voltage-gated potassium and other

channels dysfunction.

We help refine goals of the neurodynamic phenotyping of genetically modified mouse

lines and perform it in several brain regions where we have in-depth experience with

neural activity patterns. These projects range from rapid screening of network oscillations

in behavioral tasks to studies of neuronal synchronization, firing rate, and coding by

individual brain cells and their populations during in vivo target

validation and drug development.

Gene Transfer, Opto- and Pharmacogenetics

Over the past two decades, we have accumulated extensive experience in viral (AAV)

gene transfer in vivo to express various actuators of neuronal activity in the brain of

wild-type and transgenic mice. Our founding researcher's team first implemented the

integration of neuronal recordings with brain region-, projection-, and cell type-specific

optogenetics to manipulate brain rhythms in behaving mice. These methods have been

further combined  with pharmacogenetics and gene manipulation and are useful for

modeling brain dysfunction and testing targets for its rescue.

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