Publications related to An Alien Divalent Ion Reveals a Major Role for Ca2+ Buffering in Controlling Slow Transmitter Release

A bistable inhibitory optoGPCR for multiplexed optogenetic control of neural circuits

Information is transmitted between brain regions through the release of neurotransmitters from long-range projecting axons. Understanding how the activity of such long-range connections contributes to behavior requires efficient methods for reversibly mani ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Principles of Network Plasticity in Neocortical Microcircuits

András Ecker

Synaptic plasticity underlies our ability to learn and adapt to the constantly changing environment. The phenomenon of synapses changing their efficacy in an activity-dependent manner is often studied in small groups of neurons in vitro or indirectly throu ...

EPFL2023

Assemblies, synapse clustering and network topology interact with plasticity to explain structure-function relationships of the cortical connectome

James Gonzalo King, Eilif Benjamin Muller, Michael Reimann, Marwan Muhammad Ahmed Abdellah, Giuseppe Chindemi, Pramod Shivaji Kumbhar, András Ecker, Daniela Egas Santander, Ioannis Magkanaris, Sirio Bolaños Puchet, Jorge Blanco Alonso, James Bryden Isbister

Synaptic plasticity underlies the brain’s ability to learn and adapt. While experiments in brain slices have revealed mechanisms and protocols for the induction of plasticity between pairs of neurons, how these synaptic changes are coordinated in biologica ...

2024

GABAergic-like dopamine synapses in the brain

Maria Reva

Dopamine synapses play a crucial role in volitional movement and reward-related behaviors, while dysfunction of dopamine synapses causes various psychiatric and neurological disorders. Despite this significance, the true biological nature of dopamine synap ...

2023

Modeling and simulation of neocortical micro- and mesocircuitry. Part II: Physiology and experimentation

Henry Markram, Felix Schürmann, James Gonzalo King, Rajnish Ranjan, Srikanth Ramaswamy, Alexis Arnaudon, Eilif Benjamin Muller, Daniel Keller, Michael Reimann, Vishal Sood, Jean-Denis Georges Emile Courcol, Werner Alfons Hilda Van Geit, Giuseppe Chindemi, Michael Emiel Gevaert, Pramod Shivaji Kumbhar, Armando Romani, Christian Andreas Rössert, Judit Planas Carbonell, Genrich Ivaska, András Ecker, Daniela Egas Santander, Natali Barros Zulaica, Alexander Dietz, Omar Awile, Samuel Lieven D. Lapere, Matthias Wolf, Sirio Bolaños Puchet, Thomas Brice Delemontex, Jorge Blanco Alonso, Mustafa Anil Tuncel, Tanguy Pierre Louis Damart, Maria Reva, James Bryden Isbister, Darshan Mandge, Weina Ji, Aleksandra Zuzanna Teska, Polina Litvak, Gianluca Ficarelli, Joni Henrikki Herttuainen, ,

Drosophila SPG12 ortholog, reticulon-like 1, governs presynaptic ER organization and Ca2+ dynamics

Rebecca Carolyn Smith

Neuronal endoplasmic reticulum (ER) appears continuous throughout the cell. Its shape and continuity are influenced by ER-shaping proteins, mutations in which can cause distal axon degeneration in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP). We therefore asked how ...

Rockefeller University Press2023

Cholesterol-Containing Liposomes Decorated With Au Nanoparticles as Minimal Tunable Fusion Machinery

Francesco Stellacci, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Ester Canepa, Giulia Rossi

Membrane fusion is essential for the basal functionality of eukaryotic cells. In physiological conditions, fusion events are regulated by a wide range of specialized proteins, operating with finely tuned local lipid composition and ionic environment. Fusog ...

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH2023

Plasticity of sensory representations in the posterior insular cortex during fear learning

Denys Osypenko

Aversively-motivated associative learning allows animals to avoid harm and thus ensures survival. Aversive learning can be studied by the fear learning paradigm, in which an innocuous sensory stimulus like a tone (conditioned stimulus, CS), acquires a nega ...

EPFL2023

Robust gamma-aminobutyric acid and energy metabolism measurements by proton and phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy and fingerprinting

Songi Lim

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is the only technique that can detect endogenous metabolites directly and non-invasively in vivo. It allows to identify different metabolites and analyze the dynamic neurochemical processes in the brain, skeletal muscl ...

EPFL2023

A conditional glutamatergic synaptic vesicle marker for Drosophila

Evelyne Ruchti, Brian Donal McCabe

Glutamate is a principal neurotransmitter used extensively by the nervous systems of all vertebrate and invertebrate animals. It is primarily an excitatory neurotransmitter that has been implicated in nervous system development, as well as a myriad of brai ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2022

Modulation of working memory duration by synaptic and astrocytic mechanisms

Sophia Becker

Short-term synaptic plasticity and modulations of the presynaptic vesicle release rate are key components of many working memory models. At the same time, an increasing number of studies suggests a potential role of astrocytes in modulating higher cognitiv ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2022

A conditional GABAergic synaptic vesicle marker for Drosophila

Brian Donal McCabe

Background: Throughout the animal kingdom, GABA is the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter of the nervous system. It is essential for maintaining the homeostatic balance between excitation and inhibition required for the brain to operate normally. Identi ...

2022

The matricellular protein Drosophila Cellular Communication Network Factor is required for synaptic transmission and female fertility

Evelyne Ruchti, Brian Donal McCabe

Within the extracellular matrix, matricellular proteins are dynamically expressed nonstructural proteins that interact with cell surface receptors, growth factors, and proteases, as well as with structural matrix proteins. The cellular communication networ ...

Genetics Society America2022

The functional characterization of callosal connections

Giorgio Innocenti, Muhamed Barakovic

The brain operates through the synaptic interaction of distant neurons within flexible, often heterogeneous, distributed systems. Histological studies have detailed the connections between distant neurons, but their functional characterization deserves fur ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

A subpopulation of cortical VIP-expressing interneurons with highly dynamic spines

Graham Knott, Jérôme Blanc, Christina Georgiou, Kok Sin Lee

Structural synaptic plasticity may underlie experience and learning-dependent changes in cortical circuits. In contrast to excitatory pyramidal neurons, insight into the structural plasticity of inhibitory neurons remains limited. Interneurons are divided ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2022

Water as a contrast agent for imaging interfacial structure and ion transport in giant vesicles

David Roesel

Hydrated lipid bilayer membranes and their asymmetry play a fundamental role in living cells by maintaining and regulating concentration gradients between cells, their environment, and their compartments. They achieve this not only through various channels ...

EPFL2022

Second harmonic scattering of water in a biological context

Tereza Schönfeldová

Water is one of the most abundant molecules in the universe. It forms a hydrogen bond network with unique structure and dynamics. Hydrogen bonding is highly relevant to many biological processes including membrane formation, protein folding, adsorption, an ...

EPFL2022

Neuromodulation of neocortical microcircuitry: a multi-scale framework to model the effects of cholinergic release

Cristina Colangelo

Neuromodulation of neocortical microcircuits is one of the most fascinating and mysterious aspects of brain physiology. Despite over a century of research, the neuroscientific community has yet to uncover the fundamental biological organizing principles un ...

EPFL2022

Mechanistic Understanding of Neurobehavioral Effects of Insecticides on the Larvae of Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Sarah-Katharina Könemann

Due to conservation of neuronal functioning across phyla, molecular targets of insecticides are similar in insects and vertebrates. Insecticides thus pose a risk to aquatic vertebrates, such as fish, and potentially cause neurotoxic effects. Although these ...

EPFL2022

Pathological substrate of memory impairment in multiple system atrophy

Hilal Lashuel, Melek Firat Altay

Aims: Synaptic dysfunction in Parkinson's disease is caused by propagation of pathogenic alpha-synuclein between neurons. Previously, in multiple system atrophy (MSA), pathologically characterised by ectopic deposition of abnormal alpha-synuclein predomina ...

WILEY2022