Ph.D. Student position Neuroscience at Bernstein Center Freiburg Germany

The role of dichotomous properties of D1 and D2 medium spiny neurons for the dynamics and function of striatum

The striatum is the main input station of the basal ganglia and is strongly associated with motor and cognitive functions. It is a recurrently connected network of GABAergic medium spiny neurons (MSNs), which receive strong feedforward inhibition from the fast spiking interneurons and massive excitatory afferents from various regions of the neocortex via the cortico-striatal projection neurons. Interestingly, neighboring MSNs do not share their presynaptic inputs. Recently, we have shown that this special structure of cortico-striatal projections provides optimal conditions for the representation of cortical inputs in the striatum.
The MSN population in the striatum can be segregated into two types: D1 type MSNs project to the globus palidus external (indirect path) and D2 MSNs project to the globus palidus internal (direct path). Recent experiments have revealed a great degree of differences between D1 and D2 MSNs in terms of their morphology, integration properties, synaptic dynamics and connectivity.

This project requires one to understand the consequences of these different neuronal, synaptic, and network properties of the two types of MSNs for the striatal activity dynamics and representation of cortical inputs. To address this question we will use a combined experimental and theoretical approach. Relevant experiments will be conducted in the lab of Prof. Gilad Silberberg (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden). Analysis of experimental data and development of network models will be done in the lab of Dr. Arvind Kumar and Prof. Ad Aertsen (Bernstein Center Freiburg).

Looking for candidates with a strong background in Physics or Electrical Engineering and a genuine interest in Neuroscience, who are interested in interdisciplinary research and are willing to learn and perform neurophysiology in animal experiments.

Please apply here: www.kth.se/eurospin
Closing date: 2011-11-30

Study of Ethics of Sharing DNA Information

Inching toward the Dawn of the GATTACA era!, making up history as we went along. 

A group of researchers will use a $2.5 million federal grant to study the ethical and legal implications of providing genetic research results to the relatives of people who donated samples to biobanks, Mayo Clinic said today.

The grant from the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute will fund researchers at Mayo, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Minnesota who will study what families prefer, will analyze the legal and ethical issues, and propose recommendations for best practices policies.

"Substantial debate surrounds the question of whether researchers have an ethical obligation to return individual research results to genetic relatives of patients, especially when the patient has died, and incidental findings have potential health or reproductive importance for kin," Gloria Petersen, the Purvis and Roberta Tabor Professor at Mayo Clinic, said in a statement.

"Establishing best practices for navigating this issue is becoming increasingly important as biobanks all over the world are archiving genetic data and making those data available for secondary analyses, often years after the DNA was donated," Petersen said.

Petersen said that genetic information from biosamples can be used for research purposes for a very long time, even long after the donor is deceased, and can provide valuable information to the rest of their families.

"This genetic information could actually have tremendous relevance for their children, and their brothers and sisters," she said. "We seek to understand how best to tell the family members who could be affected by research findings when the family members themselves were not the research subject – the person who is now deceased is."

Petersen said the researchers plan to use surveys and interviews with people who may be affected by such policies, analyze the results, discuss the ethical and legal issues, and then will develop the recommendations within the next three to four years.