Dr Susanna Mierau


University position

Lecturer

Dr Susanna Mierau is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.

Departments

Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience

Institutes

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Home page

https://www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/directo...

Research Themes

Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Developmental Neuroscience

Interests

My research focuses on the fundamental rules that govern the development of synaptic and network activity in the cortex and how this process is disrupted in autism and related disorders, with the ultimate goal of developing novel therapies.

I combine electrophysiological recordings at the synaptic and network level with optogenetic techniques to investigate the cell-type specific mechanisms underlying NMDA and AMPA receptor development, impact on circuit function and synaptic plasticity, and role in neurodevelopmental disorders in acute cortical slices, primary cortical cultures, and human cerebral organoids. I collaborate with computational groups at Cambridge and MIT to develop novel methods for analyzing the development of network activity.

Research Focus

Keywords

autism

neural network activity

synaptic plasticity

NMDA receptors

postnatal development

Clinical conditions

Autism

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Rett syndrome

Equipment

Calcium imaging

Cell culture

Electrophysiological recording techniques

Intracellular recording

single-cell RNA-Seq

Whole cell patch clamp

Collaborators

Cambridge

Kate Baker

Stephen Eglen

Martin Hemberg

Guillaume Hennequin

Andras Lakatos

Madeline Lancaster

Ole Paulsen

International

Una-May O'Reilly Web: http://alfagroup.csail.mit.edu/

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