n the cover article published in the September 4th issue of Cell, Franck Polleux’s lab discovered that establishing the neural wiring necessary to function normally depends on the ability of neurons to make finger-like projections of their membrane called filopodia. In laying down the neural circuitry of the developing brain, billions of neurons must first … Read more

Philpot lab postdoctoral fellow Adam Roberts’ first author publication featured in faculty of 1000. In an article published in the prestigious journal Neuron, Adam Roberts, other members of the Philpot lab, and their colleagues demonstrated that NR3A is an inhibitory regulator of synapse maturation and plasticity during early periods of brain development (link to article). … Read more

  The Neurobiology Curriculum at UNC Chapel Hill is delighted to host Ben Barres, MD, PhD at this year’s Pierre Morrell Research Day on August 28th. Dr. Barres is Professor and Chair of the Neurobiology department at Stanford University. His talk will be “ How Do Astrocytes Control CNS Synapse Formation?” and will take place … Read more

In an article published in J. Neuroscience, Mark Zylka’s lab, in collaboration with labs at Caltech and the University of Pittsburgh, found that Mrgprd enhancesexcitability in nociceptive neurons. In addition, they found that Mrgprd molecularly marks a population of unmyelinated polymodal nociceptors. Polymodal nociceptors were first physiologically identified and studied thirty years ago by UNC … Read more

Congratulations to Sarah Street, a postdoc from the Zylka lab and Hsien Sung-Huang, a postdoc from the Philpot lab for each receiving a NC TraC$10K Pilot Program award.  17 awards were made out of 70 applicants.  These appear to be the only two labs from a basic science department to receive this award.  All other awardees are affiliated with clinical … Read more

  In a paper published in this week’s issue of Nature Neuroscience researchers in Ben Philpot’s lab have discovered in mice how a single disrupted gene can cause a form of severe mental retardation known as Angelman syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. In a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, they found that the … Read more

The 9th Annual Perl/UNC Neuroscience Prize was awarded to Dr. Michael Greenberg from Harvard Medical School this past Wednesday, May 6th. Dean Roper presented Dr. Greenberg with the plaque and check. The title of Dr. Greenberg’s lecture was “Signaling Networks that Regulate Synapse Development and Cognitive Function.” More than 200 scientists were in attendance for … Read more

In the article in PNAS, Eva Anton’s laboratory describes how specific guidance mechanisms involving netrin-integrin interactions modulate distinct routes of interneuronal migration and the consequent positioning of groups of cortical interneurons in the developing cerebral cortex. The emerging evidence for interneuronal subtype–specific dysfunction in a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders highlights the importance of understanding the … Read more

Dante Bortone and Franck Polleux are the lead authors on the paper titled “KCC2 expression promotes the termination of cortical interneuron migration in a voltage-sensitive calcium-dependent manner” that was published in Neuron. Proper development of cortical microcircuits requires the coordinated transition between neuronal migration and synaptogenesis for both excitatory pyramidal neuronsand inhibitory interneurons. The cellular and molecuar … Read more

Congratulations to Mohanish Deshmukh who recently accepted an invitation to serve on the Editorial Board of Oncogene.  Oncogene is a Nature Publication Group family journal with a focus on molecular and cellular biology of cancers. (http://www.nature.com/onc/index.html)