Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne Research Interests B rain function requires proper communication between different brain regions. Communication is mediated via neuronal connections that form during development.
Neurons send out axons that grow over large distances to form connections with their targets.
My laboratory is focused on understanding these events. In the developing neocortex neurons make intrinsic connections with neighboring cells, extrinsic connections with subcortical targets or associative connections with cells in the opposite hemisphere. One of the largest axon tracts in the brain is the corpus callosum which lies at the dorsal midline connecting the left and right cerebral hemispheres. We are studying how genes and molecules expressed within the cortical environment regulate the development of the corpus callosum. Recombinant adenoviruses injected into the developing cortical plate can be used to manipulate gene expression in localized regions at specific stages of development.