Please join us for a special seminar from Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. 

Light refreshments to be served before the seminar.

Abstract

Probing the molecular and functional properties of neuronal ensembles is essential for understanding how these networks give rise to circuit function and animal behavior. Our group specializes in developing molecular and optical approaches to study different types of neuronal signaling in the brains of awake, behaving mice. We utilize real-time, cellular-resolution imaging techniques for recording activity during behavior, in addition to next-generation molecular activity integrators for tagging and manipulating activated neuronal circuits. To allow investigations into the molecular cell-types of these neurons, we engineer technologies that encode the cellular activity history into either the transcriptome or proteome of individual neurons. This activity tag is read-out during single-cell RNA sequencing or mass spectrometry, and can then be linked to specific set of relevant genes or proteins. Here I will discuss our prior and ongoing work using a family of light- and calcium-dependent transcription reporters, FLiCRE and scFLARE2, to tag and optogenetically manipulate neurons that drive aversive and anxiety-like behaviors in mice. I will also present my lab’s most recent set of technologies enabling non-invasive and rapid molecular tagging of specific proteins present in activated ensembles. Together, these emerging technologies aim to reveal highly-resolved neuronal cell-types defined by their molecular phenotypes and activity patterns during behavior.