Our research aims to understand how the mammalian cerebral cortex assembles its complex circuitry and how this process is disrupted in neurodevelopmental disorders.

 

The cortex is a highly complex brain structure that contains a remarkable diversity of neuronal cell types that are interconnected in a highly specific manner. Most mammalian behaviours (e.g. sensory perception, cognition) rely on the precise assembly and fine-tuning of this connectivity, so understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie its development and refinement is a major scientific challenge.

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Recent research has uncovered the transcriptional programmes that regulate neurogenesis, neuronal differentiation, cellular diversity and wiring, but in eukaryotes, post-transcriptional events control gene expression patterns and mediate key regulatory steps to eventually dictate cell function and outputs. Our group investigates the role of these post-transcriptional processes (e.g. RNA processing, translation regulation) in the formation of neuronal circuits during mouse cortical development. We study how post-transcription is differentially regulated in neuronal cell types for their development and integration into cortical circuits, and how it can be temporally regulated by developmental cortical dynamics.