Abstract
My presentation will be focusing on two major axes of our research program over the past 20 years: (Project 1) the identification of novel cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the development and function of cortical and hippocampal circuits in vivo. I will present our most recent results aimed at identifying novel molecular effectors of ER and mitochondria function in regulation of intracellular calcium dynamics in vivo and their impact on dendritic integration and synaptic plasticity underlying the emergence of feature selectivity in CA1 pyramidal neurons. (Project 2) I will then switch to present our second major research topic aimed at studying the genetic basis of human brain evolution by focusing on the role of human-specific gene duplications as genetic modifiers of synaptic connectivity, circuit function and their impact on cognition. Our work on that front as enabled the emergence of a new field of investigation demonstrating that human-specific genes such as SRGAP2B/C not only represent human-specific modifiers of brain development but also represent unique human-specific disease modifiers in the context of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders.
Biography
Franck Polleux obtained his PhD in 1997 at Université Claude Bernard in Lyon France under the supervision of Henry Kennedy and Colette Dehay. He then did his postdoctoral training with Anirvan Ghosh at Johns Hopkins University. From 2002-2010, he started his independent research career at UNC-Chapel Hill, then moved to Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. In 2013, he was recruited to the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behaviour Institute at Columbia University in New York.
Throughout his scientific career spanning three decades, Dr Polleux has focused on the identification of novel cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the development, function and evolution of synapses, neurons and circuits in the mammalian neocortex.
For his numerous scientific contributions, he was awarded several prestigious awards such as the Albert L. Lehninger Research Prize for postdoctoral research, the 2005 NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the 2015 Foundation Roger De Spoelberch Prize, a 2021 Nomis Foundation Award and the 2021 R35 Research Program Award, a career award from the NIH-National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).