Grant: CIHR Fellowship

The vertebrate brain is a highly complex tissue that consists of a large number of distinct types of neural cells that are involved in different tasks. These unique cell types are characterized by expression of different genes, which usually encode proteins that play important roles in the functions of these cells. Aberrations in expression of critical neuronal cell type-specific genes can potentially lead to brain disorder, disease or impact cognition tasks such as learning and memory. Recent technological advances can now be leveraged to systematically identify gene expression signatures of single cells and computationally determine individual cell types. This technique referred to as single-cell RNA-Seq also has the power to identify gene expression differences between diverse cells, and thus help us identify genes underlying specific activities. In this project, we will utilize zebrafish as a model system to profile gene signatures of individual neurons from a mixed cell population, and assess how these profiles correspond to the functions of distinct neurons involved in learning activities. Since zebrafish and humans share many genes, the results of this study are expected to have a significant impact in understanding conserved mechanisms that enable key neuronal functions.