Topic description

The mammalian cerebral cortex plays key roles in cognition, sensory and motor functions, and the control of our emotions. The proper execution of these tasks depends on a long process of embryonic and postnatal development which relies on the production by neural stem cells of the appropriate number of neurons with proper identities that migrate to their specific location and make connections with each other. Defective signaling pathways during development are the cause for many human brain disorders. The goal of our studies is to better define the mechanisms involved in neural cell proliferation, migration and differentiation in order to gain a better understanding in brain formation and develop effective strategies to treat a wide range of devastating brain diseases.

We are using an interdisciplinary approach including, but not restricted to: protein interaction studies, alteration of signaling pathways , cell culture (cell lines and p...