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We are a team of scientists trying to understand how neural circuit connections are orchestrated during brain development, and how failures in this process might contribute to disease.

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Brain

Neural Circuits

Neural circuit connections, or synapses, are integral to life; yet what restricts their assembly remains largely unexplored. We recently identified a mechanism restricting new synapse assembly (Wills et al., 2012). We aim to define the principle characteristics of this mechanism since we believe this is key to decoding how synapse assembly is orchestrated during development.

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Parkinsons's Disease

There is emerging evidence suggesting synaptic pathology may contribute to PD. We propose that Cyclin E, a gene we previously demonstrated contributes to synaptic development and function (Odajima, Wills et al., 2011), may be a key mediator in PD synaptic dysfunction.

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