BME 280B Seminar: Preconfigured neuronal firing sequences in human brain organoids
Presenter: Tjitse (TJ) van der Molen, Ph.D. (Postdoc, Sharf Lab, UC Santa Cruz and PhD Kosik Lab, UC Santa Barbara)
Description: Neuronal firing sequences are thought to be the building blocks of information and broadcasting within the brain. Yet, it remains unclear when these sequences emerge during neurodevelopment. Here we demonstrate that structured firing sequences appear in spontaneous activity of human and murine brain organoids, both unguided and forebrain identity directed, as well as ex vivo neonatal murine cortical slices. We observed temporally rigid and flexible firing patterns in human and murine brain organoids and early postnatal murine somatosensory cortex, but not in dissociated primary cortical cultures. These results suggest that temporal sequences do not arise in an experience-dependent manner, but are rather constrained by a preconfigured architecture established during neurodevelopment. By demonstrating the developmental recapitulation of neural firing patterns, these findings highlight the potential of brain organoids as a model for neuronal circuit assembly.
Bio: Tjitse van der Molen studies spontaneous and evoked neural circuit activity in human and mouse stem cell derived brain organoids using dense multi electrode arrays. His main goal is to gain a better understanding of how healthy neural circuits process information and how possible malfunctions in neural circuit activity may result in disease, in order to develop appropriate treatments. Tjitse recently completed his PhD in the Kosik lab at UC Santa Barbara and is now continuing his research as a postdoc in the Sharf lab at UC Santa Cruz.
In this talk, Tjitse will present his latest manuscript that is currently in press with Nature Neuroscience, focused on spontaneously occurring repeated sequential firing patterns that are present in the intrinsic activity of both brain organoids and neonatal mouse brain slices but not in 2D primary cultures. Similar sequential firing patterns have recently been shown to be important for information encoding and learning in the human cortex. The presence of these sequential firing patterns in the spontaneous activity of brain organoids that have never received external stimuli supports the notion that they develop in an experience-independent manner.
Hosted by: Professor Josh Stuart, BME Department
Zoom Link: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/99970819390?pwd=8sl5pd5TTBA5f6nqyCzo5mFpaqcEJG.1
Full Schedule: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xD09vITwd_Pj9Ge6hHEuBFa5zBUYu2O-bjpSibt7VHE/edit?tab=t.0
Room: PSB-240
