Anna La Torre
University of California-Davis, CA·Neuroscience
The brain's outer layer, the neocortex, needs the right types of neurons in the right numbers and places. When this goes wrong, the result can range from cognitive disorders to severe brain malformations.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
cortical development
neocortex
neurodevelopment
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- 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.
- Uncover the molecular mechanisms controlled by miRNA-targeted mRNAs in neural progenitors and how they synchronize neuron fate with developmental time.
- Test how changes in RNA methylation, a chemical tag on RNA regulated downstream of miRNA targets, affect which projection neuron subtypes form in the neocortex.
More about the research
Stem-like cells called radial glial cells produce the cortex's projection neurons, which send signals over long distances, in a fixed order over time. The textbook model says a chain of transcription factors, proteins that turn genes on and off, sets this timing. But the molecules that actually tie cell identity to developmental time remain unknown.
Why it matters
Errors in producing the right mix of brain cells can lead to cognitive disorders and brain malformations. The work is basic science that adds an understanding of how small RNAs and RNA chemical tags time the birth of different cortical neurons. It could eventually inform research on these developmental conditions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Eva S Anton
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Neuroscience
Discover how the developing mouse cortex maintains the balance between radial progenitors and intermediate progenitors, the stem-like cells that set neuron number and type, using cell-type-specific genetic models, live imaging and lineage tracing.
Victor Ambros
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Genetics
Determine mechanistically how microRNAs, short noncoding RNAs that dampen other genes, work together with RNA-binding proteins to keep heterochronic gene network output accurate during C. elegans larval development.
Sergi Simo
University of California-Davis, CA·Neuroscience
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.
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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