Sergi Simo
University of California-Davis, CA·Neuroscience
The neocortex, the brain's outer layer found only in mammals, supports thinking and language in humans. As it develops, newborn neurons must travel from where they are born, near the fluid-filled ventricles deep in the brain, to their correct layer.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biochemistry
Biology
- Topics
neuronal migration
neocortex
cortical development
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2028
What they work on
- Determine how the E3 ubiquitin ligase CRL5 regulates the activity of PIP5K and PI3K, the enzymes that make the signaling lipids PIP2 and PIP3, in neocortical projection neurons.
- Test whether CRL5 controls projection neuron migration and final positioning in the developing cortex by regulating PIP2 and PIP3 levels.
- Examine whether CRL5 shapes calcium (Ca2+) signaling dynamics in projection neurons by controlling calcium channel activity or localization.
- Test whether CRL5-dependent changes in PIP2 and PIP3 levels directly affect the frequency of calcium events in migrating neurons.
More about the research
Once there they stop, mature and form connections. When this migration goes wrong, the result can be neuronal migration disorders, which lead to cognitive problems, psychiatric disease, epilepsy and brain malformations. This project seeks the molecular signals that tell projection neurons, the cortex's long-range signaling cells, when to move and when to stop.
Why it matters
Neuronal migration disorders can cause epilepsy, cognitive impairment, psychiatric disease and brain malformations. Defining how CRL5 controls signaling lipids and calcium signals in migrating cortical neurons could reveal potential targets for future treatments of these developmental brain disorders.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Anna La Torre
University of California-Davis, CA·Neuroscience
Map how microRNA expression and the messenger RNAs they target change over time in cortical radial glial progenitors, using miR-eCLIP to capture miRNA–target pairs.
Feng Yang
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine how COP1, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, binds and tags GATA2 for degradation in prostate cancer cells, including castration-resistant and taxane-resistant models.
Richard S Smith
Northwestern University, IL·Neuroscience·Early-career
Define the prenatal onset and cellular basis of disease caused by novel SCN2A sodium channel variants, using transient transgenic ferrets, whose folded neocortex resembles the human brain, to assess effects on cell proliferation, cell fate, and neuronal migration.
The school
University of California-Davis: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 647 research doctorates a year.
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