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RESEARCH
In order to understand the gene-environmental regulatory mechanisms that control neuronal maturation across lifespan, we must first understand how the nervous system is changing at the molecular and functional levels.
Previously, using an automated behavioral analysis, we established a post-embryonic behavioral atlas, characterizing dynamic locomotor behavioral states across C. elegans development, including over 700 features related to motion, path, morphology, and posture.
Building Atlases across Lifespan
Additionally, we optimized a method to isolate tissue-specific and single-cell-specific nuclei for transcriptome and chromatin profiling in C. elegans, an organism notoriously resistant to biochemical characterization. In doing so, we provided the first tissue-specific (neuronal) transcriptomic analysis (molecular atlas) across C. elegans post-embryonic development and demonstrated pervasive gene expression changes throughout the nervous system across all temporal transitions.
One major research direction of the lab is to leverage existing methods and to develop/optimize novel methods to profile both molecular (transcriptome, chromatin, and beyond) and functional (circuit, behavior, etc) aspects of the maturing nervous system of both C. elegans and mice across post-natal/post-embryonic lifespan, with increasing spatiotemporal resolution.
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