Molecular mechanisms of excitatory-inhibitory balance in neuronal circuits

Upon the arrival of stimuli with new experiences, neuronal circuits regulate a large set of molecular adaptation programs at the DNA, RNA, and protein levels to store the necessary information and to perform computations.

Many of these molecular events have been shown to be involved in the excitation of neuronal circuits responsible for a particular behavior, learning ability, and memory.

However an activated neuronal circuit has to be balanced with inhibitory events, and the molecular mechanisms of such inhibition are mostly unknown.

This excitatory-inhibitory balance is particularly important to develop innovative therapeutic approaches for brain disorders including epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia, autism, and learning disorders.

The two-third of my research program here will unravel two molecular mechanisms by which the inhibitory arm of the excitatory-inhibitory balance is established.

The last part of the research program will focus on the development of technologies that enable the building of causal links between the spatiotemporal role of a protein and neuronal circuits.

Overall this research program will allow us to better understand sensory-experience dependent circuit modulations at the molecular level and will pave the way to develop new therapeutic approaches for brain disorders.