Gavin R Rumbaugh
University of Florida, FL·Neuroscience
How do genes active during brain development wire up the networks of the cerebral cortex, the brain's outer layer that supports thought and behavior? Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), conditions defined by cognitive impairment, can be caused by a loss-of-function change in just one gene.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
neurodevelopmental disorders
Syngap1
cerebral cortex
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Oct 2027
What they work on
- Test whether genetic control of intrinsic membrane excitability, how readily a neuron fires, drives activity-dependent dendrite growth and the assembly of developing cortical circuits.
- Alter excitability genetically in developing cortical neurons and measure the effects on neuronal ensembles, groups of co-active neurons, and on behavioral adaptation.
- Determine how Syngap1, a neurodevelopmental disorder risk gene, acting in touch-processing cortical neurons contributes to tactile learning and behavioral traits in Syngap1 mice.
- Determine how Syngap1 regulates mesoscale, large-scale, plasticity across the cortex as mice learn touch-based tasks.
- Examine how Syngap1 in forebrain excitatory neurons modulates hindbrain arousal centers that support reinforcement learning.
More about the research
Studying what these single genes normally do can reveal how the healthy cortex assembles and what goes wrong in childhood brain disorders. Two projects link gene function across levels: gene, neuron, synapse, circuit, groups of neurons and behavior.
Why it matters
Altered sensory processing is common across neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, schizophrenia and ADHD. By identifying circuits that link impaired touch processing to cognitive and behavioral problems, and by revealing how risk genes guide cortical wiring, this work could clarify the causes of childhood brain disorders and inform future efforts to understand and treat them.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Intersection of causal neurodevelopmental disorder risk genes, cortical circuit function, and cognitive processing required for behavioral adaptions
NIH · Sep 2012 – Oct 2027
Neurodevelopmental Disorder Risk Gene Regulation of Intrinsic Membrane Excitability: A Rheostat that Tunes Dendritic Morphogenesis to Regulate Circuit Assembly During Development
NIH · Sep 2022 – Jun 2027
Closest labs
Arnaldo Carreira-Rosario
Duke University, NC·Neuroscience·Early-career
Identify the neurons that start spontaneous network activity in the Drosophila larval locomotor circuit and the mechanism by which they trigger it.
Seth Kullman
North Carolina State University, NC·Genetics
Use the Medaka Inbred Kiyosu-Karlsruhe (MIKK) panel of 80 sequenced inbred fish lines to measure how genetic background changes the effects of early-life contaminant exposure on larval sensory processing behavior.
Eva S Anton
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Neuroscience
Discover how the developing mouse cortex maintains the balance between radial progenitors and intermediate progenitors, the stem-like cells that set neuron number and type, using cell-type-specific genetic models, live imaging and lineage tracing.
The school
University of Florida: 65 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 795 research doctorates a year.
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