Laboratory of Neural Genetics and Disease

Motor Synapse Neuroscience in Health and Disease

The research in our laboratory is directed towards two goals: understanding the biology of the synapses that connect neurons within motor system circuits, and exploiting this knowledge to ameliorate neurodegenerative motor system disorders. Motor circuit function is fundamental to complex animal life and is thought to be among the most ancient of all neuronal activities. No matter how cerebral, all human cognitive activity must be precisely translated via motor circuits to find its expression — whether through movement, writing or speech. Yet our understanding of the development, activity and maintenance of the synaptic connections that enable the motor system remains limited, not least in how these essential connections are depleted by age or by neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (also known as motor neuron disease – MND), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).