Neurophotonics.ca

Professor, Faculty of medicine

Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Canada Research Chair on Postnatal Neurogenesis
Armen Saghatelyan on http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/
 

The main goal of our research program is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms that orchestrate the migration and maturation of neuronal progenitors in the adult brain. The ability of the adult brain to produce new neurons provides not only a unique model to study the basic mechanisms of neural development in the mature CNS, but also raises the exciting possibility for the development of new therapies to cure brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases.

Using multidisciplinary approaches we would like to understand how stem cells proliferate and differentiate into specific cell types, how they are targeted to particular brain regions and how they mature and integrate into neural networks. Two-photon, widefield and fiber optics time-lapse imaging experiments will allow us to monitor the migration and maturation of newborn neurons in the adult mammalian forebrain and to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of these processes.