We are verry sorry to inform that Mustafa Sahin’s seminar has been CANCELLED. His flight out of Boston was cancelled by the airlines after a long delay. We will let you know if it is possible to reschedule his seminar.
Neuroscience Seminar Series
Friday, February 6, 2015 at ***2:00 pm***
Salle des Conférences (R229), Centre Universitaire des Saints-Pères, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006 Paris
Mustafa Sahin, Associate Professor, Children’s Hospital Boston & Harvard Medical School
Neural Circuitry Underlying Autism in Tuberous Sclerosis
Accumulating evidence suggests that TSC patients have non-tuber abnormalities that contribute to the development of the neurological and behavioral phenotype. Using mouse models of TSC, work from our lab with our collaborators has started to shed light on the cellular and neural circuit abnormalities underlying the neurobehavioral problems. We have shown that TSC1/2 proteins regulate axon specification, guidance, myelination and regeneration. Recently, we generated a conditional knockout of Tsc1 only in cerebellar Purkinje cells. Mutant mice displayed autistic-like behaviors – social impairment, restrictive/repetitive behaviors, and abnormal vocalizations. Importantly, treatment of mutants with rapamycin prevented the development of these behavioral abnormalities. Taken together, these preclinical studies have lead to collaborative clinical biomarker and treatment trials that are currently ongoing.