The Heller Lab research program is focused on discovering molecular mechanisms by which epigenetic reprogramming contributes to neuropsychiatric disease. To this end, Dr. Heller pioneered the use of targeted epigenetic editing in brain, to elucidate the precise causal role of histone posttranslational modifications on gene expression and alternative splicing in specific neuronal subpopulations. Dr. Heller will share recent studies of epigenetic regulation of gene expression and alternative splicing across cocaine abstinence in mice, as well as novel approaches to examine histone modifications in specific neuronal subpopulations. Zoom option if unable to attend in person Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting […]

Metabolic MRI allows observing energy metabolism, neurotransmission, second messaging, endocrine signaling, antioxidants, protein metabolism and dynamic membrane processes in the human brain. Related quantitative metabolic imaging biomarkers are beneficial for differential diagnostics, monitoring of treatment response and patient stratification in various neurological and psychiatric disorders and yield complementary information to structural and functional imaging. To visualize related metabolic processes my research group develops methodology for highly spatially and temporally resolved metabolic imaging exploiting magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) and non-proton spectroscopic imaging (31P, 13C, 2H) at 3T, 7T and 9.4T with application in the human brain, […]

Microglia are the primary immune cell of the brain, but have roles outside of immunity as well as being implicated in the pathogenesis of many CNS disorders. Here I will show how we can use CSF1R inhibitors to control the microglial population in vivo, and elucidate their functions in both the homeostatic and disease brains. I will focus on the involvement of microglia in Alzheimer's disease, and also detail several new genetic models to understand the disease progression. Zoom option if unable to attend in person Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 99412 188589 Passcode: 188589

Zoom option if unable to attend in person Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 99412 188589 Passcode: 188589 Over the past 25 years the costs of drug development have been rising steeply, with later phases being particularly resource intensive. Molecular imaging (primarily PET) has become an indispensable tool in early phase drug development, especially for compounds focused on CNS targets, PET studies conducted at an appropriate enable the refinement of the dose range to be explored in later phase studies, leading to time and resource savings, as well as providing early demonstration of compounds that are going to […]

For decades, neuroscience has focused almost exclusively on stereotyped, reductionist, and over-trained behaviors due to their ease of study. In contrast, naturalistic behavior provides a rich diversity of movements, but this feature also largely precludes it from quantification and use. Recent advances in computer vision have enabled automatic tracking of the position of body parts - but position is not behavior. To provide a bridge from positions to behaviors and their kinematics, we developed B-SOiD (Hsu and Yttri, Nature Communications). This open-source method discovers natural spatiotemporal patterns in body position data, then uses the cluster statistics to train a machine learning algorithm to classify behaviors that can […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 99412 188589 Passcode: 188589 The CNS is an immune-privileged organ, yet we know that peripheral immunity is critical for proper brain function. Here we will discuss cell communications in the meninges that regulate patrolling T cells and how the brain responds to T cell-derived signals.