[Seminar] Functional compression at the C. elegans motor circuit by Dr. Mei Zhen

Abstract

Combining molecular genetics and optogenetics, we have begun to reveal the molecular and circuit mechanisms that underlie the C. elegans motor behaviors. First, we show that oscillators for the C. elegans motor rhythm are excitatory neurons. Next, we describe an intricate dual-regulation of the motor neuron oscillators by descending interneurons to modulate locomotion through a conserved mixed synapse configuration. These results implicate functional compression, where these motor neurons adopt roles of multiple classes of neurons of the spinal/ventral nerve cords of larger animals. A small nervous system can serve as compact models to dissect the conserved organizational logics of motor circuits.

Biography

Dr. Mei Zhen received her PhD in Biochemistry with Dr. Peter Candido at the University of British Columbia. She pursued her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Santa Cruz with Dr. Yishi Jin on synapse development. She established her research program at the University of Toronto in 2001. She has been a senior scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute since 2008, and a full professor at the Departments of Molecular Genetics and Physiology since 2011. Her research interests include neuronal excitability, synapse development, connectomics, and motor functions.

She is a Canada Research Chair in developmental neurobiology, and previously a long-term Human Frontier fellow, EJLB Foundation Scholar, and Harvard Radcliffe fellow.