Phosphorylation of Neuroligin-3

Our work on how the synaptic adhesion molecule Neuroligin-3 is targeted to either excitatory or inhibitory synapses based on phosphorylation is now available on the bioRxiv! Congrats to Bekir Altas, Liam Tuffy, Annarita Patrizi and the rest of the team in this international collaboration between the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, and the University of Turin.

Phosphorylation Determines Whether Neuroligin-3 is at Excitatory or Inhibitory Synapses in Different Regions of the Brain

All in a day’s work…

Garrett hosts NOVA’s Halal on the Lawn, then gives a talk on the lncRNA he discovered; Andrea does supply runs, then gives a talk on multiplexing schizophrenia risk genes with CRISPR; Elise handles donation logistics, and attends both talks! And at the end of a good day’s work, the lab celebrates Alex’s birthday.

Never heard of “mTOR outposts”? Now you have!

Read all about our postulate of the curious little things called “mTOR outposts” in this Hypothesis & Theory paper just out in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience!

Neuronal mTOR Outposts: Implications for Translation, Signaling, and Plasticity

Happy day for Bek, Andrea, Garrett, and Alex. Appreciations to Helen Bateup and Akira Yoshii for very constructive reviewing; to Gerardo Morfini for editing the Kinase/phosphatase signaling and axonal function in health and disease topic; and to all in the acknowledgements for the fascinating discussions around the concepts in the mTOR outpost model. Be part of those discussions, send us your thoughts!

PouLab posters get prizes at the 2022 PiN Retreat!

Two-out-of-two for the lab’s posters at this year’s Program in Neuroscience retreat! Colin Robertson got the “Most innovative experimental design” prize for his poster on “In Vivo Prime Editor Introduces Patient Epilepsy Mutation in the Rodent Brain to Recapitulate Seizures” and Andrea Romanowski accepted a crown and scepter for the “Rule a kingdom” prize for her poster on “Multiplexed manipulation of gene dosage of schizophrenia risk genes using Cas9 fusions changes layer position of cortical neurons”. Congrats PouLab grad students!!!

Andrea, Ashley (McCarthy Lab), Garrett, and Colin accepting their prizes at the 2022 PiN retreat.

How an mTOR pathway gene causes epilepsy in a pedigree dating from 1727

Congratulations to Philip Iffland and the Peter Crino Lab –with help from PouLab grad student Andrea Romanowski among the collaborator team– for the publication of a massive piece of work just out in Brain, spanning the fields of human genetics, cell biology, genome editing, electrophysiology, and brain development to identify the gene (NPRL3) and mechanisms that cause epilepsy in affected patients.

NPRL3 loss alters neuronal morphology, mTOR localization, cortical lamination, and seizure thresholdBrain, 2022

Ryan’s article on advancing scientific excellence through inclusivity at the NIH BRAIN Initiative is out in Neuron!

Lab alum, Ryan R. Richardson, now a AAAS STP fellow at the NIH BRAIN Initiative, together with colleagues deputy Director Andrea C. Beckel-Mitchener, Director John Ngai, and program Director Devon C. Crawford, published a paper today in Neuron, outlining how BRAIN’s mission for scientific excellence is empowered by tapping into the full spectrum of diverse talents and perspectives. We’re grateful for your work in advancing opportunities and excelling innovative neuroscience research through inclusion and diversity!

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(21)00836-9