The School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The nervous system and the genome are the two major control systems in complex biological organisms. My research is directed at the interface between the two.

Many of our studies examine the influence of gene regulation on the storage and retrieval of information (memories) in the adult brain. Our prior work in songbirds showed that novel or salient experiences activate a pattern of gene expression in parts of the brain involved in processing the relevant information. More recently we found evidence that this genomic response promotes the storage of memories or associations during the following hour. We would now like to develop a more complete description of this genomic response, and understand how it is recruited, suppressed and directed to specific brain systems during normal experience.

Other studies examine the role of gene regulation in the development of specific neural circuits in the brain. We established a tissue culture model of circuit development, based on the formation of the motor pathway responsible for song production in male zebrafinches. We discovered that the male pattern of pathway development is triggered by estrogens, which are produced at high levels in the developing male brain. We now would like to identify the control mechanisms responsible for the male pattern of brain estrogen production. We would also like to identify the presumed genomic targets which respond to estrogen and promote song pathway maturation.

The future aims described above will all benefit by application of new and rapidly developing technologies for genomic and proteomic research, including whole-genome sequencing, microarray analyses of gene expression, and mass-spec analysis of complex protein mixtures. We are the center of multi-institutional, NIH-funded collaborations to sequence the zebra finch genome, and to characterize gene expression across species and development in songbirds via microarrays (http://songbirdgenome.org). In another collaborative project at the Beckman Institute we are exploring the application of novel optical methodologies for monitoring of neurophysiologic (and possibly genomic) activities in behaving animals. Our work is relevant to a broad range of issues in brain science, and has been supported by three NIH institutes (Aging; Mental Health; Neurological Disorders and Stroke) and the National Parkinson Foundation, among others.