[Seminar] Integrating connectivity and spatial transcriptome at single cell resolution in the cerebellar nuclei of the zebrafinch

We would like to draw your attention to a seminar we will host on Wednesday (May 21st) given by our recent graduate, Salvatore Lacava. He recently moved from the business of examining mouse tails to working with zebra finches, so we are all excited to hear about his new work!

- Time: Wednesday, May 21st, 14:00-15:00
- Place: Lab 1, D015
- Speaker: Dr.Salvatore Andrea Lacava, Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins Universitity

- Title: Integrating connectivity and spatial transcriptome at single cell resolution in the cerebellar nuclei of the zebrafinch.

- Abstract: Understanding the organizational principles underlying vertebrate brain evolution requires integrating data across species at multiple levels—connectivity, development, and single-cell transcriptomics. The cerebellar nuclei provide a powerful model for this effort: they are compact (fewer than 10,000 neurons in the zebra finch) and have been proposed to evolve through serial duplication events along the phylogenetic tree (Kebschull et al., Science, 2020). In this seminar, I will present a cross-species approach to integrating connectivity and transcriptomic data at single-cell resolution, focusing on the cerebellar nuclei of the zebra finch, which traditionally are thought to comprise two nuclei. I will share preliminary results mapping the output projections of cerebellar nuclei using barcode-based tracing—leveraging short nucleotide sequences rather than fluorescent labels—and discuss ongoing efforts to classify cerebellar cell types using spatial transcriptomic methods such as STARmap. This integrated framework opens new possibilities for understanding how complex brain regions evolve and diversify across vertebrates.

Hope to see many of you interested in comparative neuroscience there!