Postdocs

Research Interest: Neural Stem Cell biology, cortical development and RNA regulation. Neural stem cells (NSCs) generate a remarkable diversity of neurons and glial cells during development of the cerebral cortex and defects in progenitor proliferation and differentiation are a major cause of neurodevelopmental disorders such as microcephaly, autism, seizures and intellectual disability. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are involved in post-transcriptional regulation and mRNA metabolism and have recently emerged as critical regulators of NSCs during cortical development. In April 2017, I joined Dr. Debra Silver´s lab where I plan to study the role of RBP in neurogenesis during cortical development and the regulation of RNA and signaling in neural progenitors. I will use multidisciplinary approaches that include In Utero Electroporation, progenitor primary cultures, brain slices, transgenic mice, biochemical assays and transcriptomic/translational profiles. Background: I am from Argentina and I did my graduate training in Dr. Gustavo Paratcha´s lab in the Institute of Cellular Biology and Neuroscience “Prof. E. De Robertis” (IBCN) in the University of Buenos Aires (UBA – CONICET), Argentina. My PhD thesis focused on the negative regulation of neurotrophic factor receptor signaling in developing neurons. Personal Interests: In my free time I really enjoy hiking, playing soccer, going out with friends and family, traveling around, reading and watching series and movies.

I am currently working on discovering which viral vectors are best suited for transduction of exogenous genes into select neuronal populations. My goal is to use optogenetics to control the activity of desired neuronal populations in awake and behaving non-human primates in order to understand how the brain controls the movements of the eyes. Additionally, I hope that this viral work, in this animal model will lead to better therapeutic tools clinically for treating neuropsychiatric and neuromuscular disorders.

I have a background in retinal gene therapy, developing a treatment for an animal model of an inherited retinal disease and engineering novel AAV capsid variants. Currently, I study retinal circuitry functionality both in healthy tissue and models of degenerative retinal disease. In particular, I want to understand how different bipolar cell types shape visual processing, and how that processing is impaired once connectivity between photoreceptors and bipolar cells is lost in advanced forms of disease.

I am interested in how the brain processes sensory information and uses that information for perception and behavior. Using the mouse visual system, I am studying connectivity and patterns of activity in cortex during perceptual tasks. My hope is to resolve some of the mechanisms that govern the neural networks necessary for these tasks and ultimately relate them to sensory perception in general.