Summary
This project aims to uncover the brain-wide molecular determinants of individual memory performance across the lifespan, focusing on long-term memory formation and variability, using the C. elegans model.
Uncovering brain-wide molecular determinants of individual memory performance across lifespan
US · IL
NIH
grant
awarded
#nih-4DP2NS132372-02
What they want
The project is divided into two main parts. Project 1 will combine behavioral training, spatial transcriptomics, novel techniques for profiling somatic and synaptic subcompartment transcriptomes, and precise gene manipulation in C. elegans to generate a comprehensive molecular snapshot of memory formation. Project 2 will utilize unbiased behavioral profiling to identify strategies of memory performance variability, predict individuals likely to show improved memory with age, and then apply epigenomics and genomics to determine key molecular regulators, followed by functional validation in the context of age-related memory loss.
Deliverables
- Most precise snapshot to date of nervous system-wide molecular changes necessary for memory formation
- Identification of essential memory components regulating individual memory performance
- Functional validation of identified components in age-related memory loss
- Revelation of new pathways potentially disrupted in neurological disorders
- Identification of new targets for therapies preventing memory disruption due to neurological disease
Technical requirements
- Use of C. elegans as an invertebrate model
- Behavioral training
- Spatial transcriptomics
- Techniques for simultaneous profiling of transcriptomes of somatic and synaptic subcompartments
- Temporally and spatially precise gene manipulation
- Unbiased behavioral profiling
- Epigenomics techniques
- Genomics techniques
- Functional validation
