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First prize for poster
22/11/2011
Congratulations to postgraduate students Sharleen Rae (Biochemistry) and Malinda Tantirigama (Physiology) who won a first prize award at the University of Otago’s Health Science Research Forum in October. The theme of the forum was Innovation Through Collaboration and the poster was designed to demonstrate how both students' PhD projects fitted together as part of a wider collaboration between the Neural Development and Disease lab in Biochemistry, and the Empson lab in Physiology.
The poster, entitled Projection Neuron Identity in the Mouse Motor Cortex, was co-written by Dr Stephanie Hughes (Biochemistry) and Dr Ruth Empson (Physiology). The aim of this project is to investigate the role of a developmentally critical transcription factor in maintaining the adult morphology and function of neurons in the motor cortex of the brain. Lentiviral constructs expressing RNA interference, which interrupts the cells ability to make the developmental protein, are injected into the motor cortex of live mice. In order to get a complete picture of how inhibiting the expression of the developmental protein affects mature neurons, techniques from both biochemistry and physiology will be employed. Biochemistry techniques for generating viruses to specifically target pyramidal neurons, and methods such as laser capture microdissection and microarray analysis, will provide information about the biochemical pathways required for maintaining motor neuron function. Electrophysiology methods such as whole cell patch clamping and filling cells with dye will shed light on how the electrical firing properties and cell morphology has changed. This project has the potential to inform future motor neuron rescue strategies for patients with motor neuron disease, stroke, or spinal cord injury.
This project is funded by a Marsden grant.