How do neurons distinguish self from non-self? From genome architecture to brain architecture

My lab investigates how neurons distinguish self from non-self, a process critical for the establishment of appropriate neural wiring patterns during brain development. To tell each other apart and avoid self, neurons must express unique protein “barcodes" on their surfaces which confer individual cells molecular identities. We are particularly interested in the role of genome architecture and epigenetic gene silencing in the generation of the transcriptional diversity underlying the barcoding strategy of mammalian neurons to self-avoid. We are also investigating the mechanisms by which, once expressed, these protein barcodes function to mediate neural self-avoidance.