Research Focus:

I am interested in understanding how the brain develops, how it is organized, and how its structure is regulated throughout life. Questions of particular interest to my current work relate to the organization and development of the mouse visual system and the neocortex. I am part of a large effort at the Allen Institute focused on understanding the diversity of cell types in the primary visual cortex and lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus. Though it is well accepted that multiple cellular properties must be used to define a cell type, my work focuses on describing cells from a morphological perspective. To do this, we use high resolution brightfield and fluorescence microscopy (multi-photon and resonant confocal) in combination with in vitro and in vivo single cell labeling methods. From montaged, multi-plane 2D images we generate a 3D structural description of individual neurons. These descriptions will be used in combination with other data to answer questions such as: How many different cell types exist in these brain regions? What are their morphologies? Across cell types, how does morphology relate to physiology, gene expression, connectivity and function? This work will help us to better understand how the mouse visual system is organized, and also to identify the features that are essential to define a cell type. I also lead a smaller project at the Institute related to characterizing cortico-cortical axon development across neonatal time points in the mouse cortex. For this work, referred to as the Developmental Connectivity Project, multiple cortical brain regions are labeled by Cre-dependent and Cre-independent adeno-associated viruses in layer-specific transgenic mouse lines. These data will give us a better understanding of how gene-defined and anatomically-defined projection neuron classes develop relative to one another within and across brain regions. It will also complement the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas, which already contains a large number of cortical datasets from adult wildtype and transgenic mice.