CDB Seminar - Prof Baljit S. Khakh, UCLA Medical School

Talk abstract: The study of the brain, a highly complex multicellular organ, has witnessed spectacular advances in the last few decades. Despite this laudable progress, severe blind spots in our understanding of basic brain function and disease still remain. Many cell types that make up the brain are non-neuronal, and many aspects of these cells have been understudied or overlooked. The brain’s non-neuronal cells include glia, which represent about half of all brain cells. Khakh will describe a series of studies from his laboratory that provide new insights on predominant glial cells called astrocytes, named historically because of their alluring, yet deceptively simple star-like shapes. He will tackle long-standing questions in neuroscience concerning the functions of astrocytes in the brain. It is now clear that signaling between diverse astrocytes and neurons plays pivotal roles in both normal brain physiology and in disease conditions.

Suggested references:

JS. Soto, Y. Jami-Alahmadi, J. Chacon, SL. Moye, B. Diaz-Castro, JA. Wohlschlegel & BS. Khakh (2023) Astrocyte and neuron subproteomes and obsessive-compulsive disorder mechanisms. Nature, 616: 764-773

F. Endo, A. Kasai, JS. Soto, X. Yu, Z. Qu, H. Hashimoto, V. Gradinaru,  R. Kawaguchi, & BS Khakh (2022). Molecular basis of astrocyte diversity and morphology across the CNS in health and disease. Science (Research Article) Nov 4;378(6619):eadc9020. doi: 10.1126/science.adc9020.

J. Nagai, AK. Rajbhandari, MR. Gangwani, A. Hachisuka, G. Coppola, SC. Masmanidis, MS. Fanselow & BS. Khakh (2019) Hyperactivity with disrupted attention by activation of an astrocyte synaptogenic cue. Cell, 177: 1280-92.

Nagai J, Yu X, Papouin T, Cheong E, Freeman MR, Monk KR, Hastings MH, Haydon PG, Rowitch D, Shaham S, Khakh BS (2021). Behaviorally consequential astrocytic regulation of neural circuits. Neuron 109:576-596.

Zoom: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/94292246674

Host: Prof Patricia Salinas