Medical Scientist-Programm 2021

Thema: "This project deals with the emerging role of astrocytes during brain structural plasticity."

Zusammenfassung:
The project aims to elucidate the mechanisms which mediate the rewiring of our brain during challenging tasks. For yet unknown reasons, these processes are non-invasively detectable by using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and manifest as grey matter expansions in task-relevant areas which renormalize with increasing success. We translated the human approach into an animal model (monocular deprivation, MD) and our preliminary data suggest transient swelling of astrocytes as main driver leading grey matter to expand. In order to appropriately examine this novel finding, we now switch to the molecular level and want to generate a comprehensive signature of the astrocytic translatome which will provide valuable explanatory approaches regarding their involvement in the rewiring of neuronal circuits. As core experiment we use our previous MD model which enables the comparison of different plasticity patterns in different areas of the brain. A dedicated transgenic approach thereby will allow both, the extraction of the translatome and the imaging of sparsely labeled cells. We thus elucidate neuronal plasticity from the astrocytic side which might emerge as a valid therapeutic target to boost the function of diseased or aging brains.