Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr. Alexandra Joyner, Developmental Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY, USA
August 2002 - June 2009
PhD Thesis "Developmental Regulation of Ponto-Cerebellar Mossy Fiber Connectivity", Laboratory of Dr. Peter Scheiffele, Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular, Structural, and Genetic Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University, NYC, NY
September 1997 - August 2001
BA in Integrated Arts and Science Program, Hunter College, CUNY, NYC, NY
Publications:
Kalinovsky A., Scheiffele P. Transcriptional Control of Synaptic Differentiation by Retrograde Signals. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2004, 14(3):272-9 (Review)
Research Interests:
I am interested in elucidating molecular and cellular mechanisms governing specificity of neuronal connectivity in the mammalian CNS. Precision in synapse formation between neurons is a universal property of the nervous system that is evident on multiple anatomical levels - in stereotypical connectivity between brain regions, neuronal cell types, and subcellular compartments. For example, in the cerebellum, one of the major excitatory afferents, the mossy fibers, innervate specifically the inner granule cell layer, were mossy fiber terminals originating from projection neurons in different subregions of the precerebellar nuclei distribute in discrete patches. Physiological experiments suggest that this anatomical organization correlates to functional domains. However, what molecular mechanisms contribute to this specific targeting, and how is it achieved developmentally, remain largely uncharacterized. To get insight into this question, I would like to develop molecular and genetic tools to mark discrete anatomical and functional subdomains within the IGL and the precerebellar nuclei, as well as use a candidate screen approach to identify regulators of specific targeting and synaptogenesis in these domains. Ultimately, these genetic tools could allow us to disrupt specific circuits in vivo in order to assess how anatomical specificity contributes to the physiological and behavior outputs of these circuits.
