Nikki's life in the lab

Welcome to our neuroscience blog everyone! 

My name is Nikki Dolphin and I am a senior here at the University of Albany finishing my Bachelor's degree in biology this spring! I first became interested in Dr. Scimemi’s neuroscience lab during my junior year after reading her previous research work and laboratory interests. I have always been interested in neuroscience and learning ways to apply certain laboratory skills in order to learn new things about the brain caught my eye. I came with little to no background about caring for or working with our laboratory animal models, mice. During my first week I was brought up to speed and certified to work them. I first initially shadowed another undergraduate student, Nurat, who was preforming surgeries. Later, I learned my role in the lab. I now have been working with different mice colonies for two years and have been put in charge of running our behavioral experiments (I even get to name them!). But of course, with fun also came a lot of work that I was unfamiliar with. I was also responsible for becoming very tech savvy with Igor and MATLAB, both software's I had never even heard of. I was really pushed out of my comfort zone and expected to perform was during this time I really grasped onto my love research and the obstacles that it came with. In addition, we also had weekly lab meetings which I believed were really helpful and knowledgeable. It was during these meetings I was also able to learn about what my peers in the lab were researching and how it pertained to my work. Not only that but we also took turns presenting on various academic journals which gave me a great opportunity to sharpen my reading and presenting skills while also learning something new. 

I hope to attend graduate school in the future to further my research skills and become my own independent researcher!

Nikki

Saad's comment on "Region specific astrocyte subtypes"

Astrocytes are glial cells that tile the nervous system and have complex morphology characterized by multiple branch levels and fine processes. Astrocytes have been regarded as largely identical until recently despite having a large degree of functional diversity. Batiuk et al (2020) explored the molecular diversity of astrocytes using single-cell RNA sequencing. Astrocytes were divided into 5 subtypes (AST1-5) based on the expression of 886 highly variable genes with AST5 being the least abundant (1.4%) and AST1 being the most abundant (36.5%). Furthermore, some subtypes are localized to specific brain regions as AST1 and AST4 are predominantly hippocampal while AST2 is mainly cortical. While some genes are expressed across all subtypes over 70% of enriched genes are specific to a subtype. AST4 was linked to neurogene sis as the enriched genes in this subtype show involvement in mitosis, cell cycle control, transcriptional regulation, neurogenesis, and neuronal differentiation. While AST5 showed considerable overlap with AST4, it was also enriched in genes coding for traditional astrocyte functions such as glucose metabolism. AST1-3 were grouped together as they all showed gene enrichment profiles indicating mature astrocyte function. AST1 showed a distinct specialization in synaptogenesis, synaptic plasticity, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. After establishing the molecular differences among astrocytes, Batiuk et al (2020) looked to explore morphological differences. They found smaller territorial volume in AST2 and 3 which are localized in cortical layers 2-4 when compared to AST3 which is localized to the hippocampal CA3 region. Going forward, it may be interesting to see more studies correlating the transcriptome to morphology and function as we learn more about region-specific astrocytes.

Saad

Reference

Batiuk, M.Y., Martirosyan, A., Wahis, J. et al. Identification of region-specific astrocyte subtypes at single cell resolution. Nat Commun 11, 1220 (2020). 

Hello everyone!

My name is Danielle Saint Hilaire and I am a Senior Biology Major and Neuroscience Mnor. I joined the lab last semester (Fall 2020) and have been really enjoying it! On my first day, I learned all about what Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is, and since then it has been my primary job in the lab, along with colony management. In my short time here in the lab, I have learned more than I thought possible in just a few months. As a new member in the lab, I got acquainted with the various mouse genotypes and the different projects being worked on; I learned quickly that determining the genotype of the mice is an imperative first step to any experiment. So I dove right in. I learned how to decide which genes to type for and I also learned how to follow the extensive protocol for preparing the samples for PCR. I found it really fascinating how I could collect the DNA samples and see it through all the way until we got the final product: the genotype. Aside from technical skills, being a member of the lab has taught me so much about how to analyze scientific literature. In our weekly lab meetings, we rotate (from PhD students, to Masters students, to Undergrads), and we all take turns choosing, dissecting, and presenting a new and cutting edge research article. When I presented my first paper, I remember having to do so much research behind the scenes of the various data collection techniques (as a newly declared Neuroscience Minor, my background in lab techniques was, let’s say, lacking). Not only dissecting these papers for myself, but hearing others from the lab contribute has been so critical in learning how to consume research papers; most papers aren’t as ‘black and white’ as they seem, if you look deep enough, you’ll find a lot of grey areas too. Another unexpected benefit of working in the lab has been overcoming my dislike of public speaking. Before joining the lab, if I was asked to present to the class or share my thoughts, I would’ve high-tailed it in the other direction. But working in the lab and discussing papers in lab meetings/presenting my work at research conferences has made all the difference. And now I actually love presenting - what a reversal! It’s great to be passionate and knowledgeable about a topic and be able to share it with others. Working in the lab has been, by far, my favorite experience at UAlbany. I’ve been able to work with a wonderful group of passionate, focused people, and have been able to learn from them throughout it all. Not only that, but I’ve also been able to contribute to a project that’s bigger than me, that will, hopefully, one day make a difference for someone living with a neurodegenerative disease or OCD.

Danielle

Hello everyone!

My name is Corey Nilon, and I am a sophomore studying Biology with minors in Neuroscience and Sociology. Last semester, because of COVID-19, I was only a virtual member of the lab. This has been my first semester coming to the lab in person and I have enjoyed every part of it. It is a great educational environment to be in and it is so fascinating to see all the projects that people around me are working on! So far, my experience in the lab has been a significant amount of ezTrack data analysis, mouse colony management, and PCR. ezTrack is a Python-based program that I have been using to track the location and trajectories of mice and they perform reward-based motor tasks. Furthermore, going forward, I plan to use this program to note differences in behavior relative to differences in various genes. By studying these mice, we hope to gain insight into the neural circuits controlling behaviors similar to that of obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

Outside of the lab, I am the president of the Special Olympics club and a part of the TriBeta honors society. I also have been volunteering at Albany Medical Center since last Fall, which has been an extremely rewarding experience being able to have primary interactions with all types of medical personnel: doctors, nurses, technicians, and patients. 

I am proud to be a part of the lab as it is a great opportunity to contribute to real-life science. It is very different from most other sciences classes where you're only learning material and things that have already been, for the most part, figured out. The experimental side of science is a pleasure to be a part of, and I look forward to being a part of future discoveries!

In the future, I have hope to attend medical school. From there, I am excited to see where life takes me!

Corey

Ian's synopsis on: "Glutamate signaling and plume characteristics in a genetic mouse model of migraine with aura" by Parker et al.

Migraine is a neurological disorder that commonly consists of symptoms such as extreme headaches and sensory amplifications. It is commonly associated with aura, which is characterized by spreading sensory hallucinations (flashing visual perceptions, numbness, and tingling). Spreading depolarization (SD) is known to be the underlying cause of migraine aura. Familial hemiplegic migraine type 2 (FHM2) is a form of migraine with aura that arises from loss-of-function mutations to the gene ATP1A2 (the gene encoding the predominantly astrocytic alpha2 Na+/K+-ATPase). Astrocytes in heterozygous FHM2 mice show slower uptake kinetics of glutamate due to a 50% reduction in the concentration of glutamate transporter GLT-1a in perisynaptic astrocyte processes. This serves as an effective mouse model for migraine with aura. How this astrocytic mutation reshapes glutamate signaling in awake FHM2 mice is largely unknown. Here, they use the fluorescent glutamate reporter iGluSnFR to measure glutamate in FHM2 and WT mice. They found that FHM2 mice exhibited spontaneous glutamatergic “plumes” that were generally circular in nature and appeared to spread from a central origin. Plumes occurred predominantly in superficial cortical layer 1 (L1a), and much less frequently in deeper L1b and L2/3. This correlated with the density of GLT1a+ astrocyte processes, as L1a exhibited a reduced density of these processes as compared to L2/3, and superfusion of the glutamate transporter inhibitor TFB-TBOA caused a large number of plumes in L1a, leading the researchers to believe that plumes are a result of impaired glutamate uptake. Glutamate release during plumes is likely due to Ca2+-mediated vesicular release from neurons. Once glutamate is released, the presence of plumes is gated by impaired or inefficient glutamate clearance by astrocytes. Plumes tend to occur during the depolarization phase, following the glutamatergic wavefront commonly seen in SD and rises in glutamate and plume frequency predict the onset of SD. This links plumes to the key translational phenotype of FHM2 and all other models of migraine with aura.

Ian

Reference 

Parker, P. D., Suryavanshi, P., Melone, M., Reinhart, K. M., Sawant-Pokam, P. A., Kaufmann, D., Theriot, J. J., Pugliese, A., Conti, F., Shuttleworth, C. W., Pietrobon, D., Brennan, K. C. (2020). Non-canonical glutamate signaling in a genetic model of migraine with aura. NEURON, 109(4), 561-740. doi:10.1101/2020.01.02.891770