Novel mediators of information flow in a minimal nervous system

All our thoughts and sensations stem from dynamical processes in our brains’ complex nervous system. These processes are controlled and mediated by ion channels that make up fast neurotransmission.

Understanding of these processes requires insight into how gene products act within neuronal circuits to decode external sensory information and later transduce this information into external output.

While this problem is complicated by the vast complexity of the mammalian brain, several important breakthroughs have been enabled by instead using simpler model organisms that are easier to study and manipulate.

This project will take such a reductionist approach by using the nematode, C. elegans, that has a minimal nervous system, in which I will investigate basic properties of ligand-gated ion channels; known regulators of neurotransmission.

In addition to its small nervous system, C. elegans is easy to manipulate genetically, making it plausible to gain basic molecular knowledge of neurotransmission.

For this project powerful genetic and imaging techniques available in C. elegans will be used, in combination with state-of-the-art biochemical and biophysical methods.

This will provide in-depth understanding of ligand-gated ion channels and increased knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that govern fundamental neuronal processes such as memory formation.