Detail

Keywords

Astrocytes; Auditory Pathways; Developmental Biology; Functional Neuroimaging; Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton; Neurons; Visual Pathways

Research interests

The primary goal of my new laboratory at the Medical University of Vienna is to understand how neural circuits develop in the healthy brain and in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

To study this we look at an often overlooked cell type in the brain - Astrocytes. Using advanced microscopy techniques and genetically altered mice, we are able to detect coordinated signaling between astrocytes and neurons in the intact developing brain. My lab will study what role this coordination plays in brain development, and in specific neural circuits such as inhibitory circuits.

Additionally, we will study the coordination between astrocytes and neurons in models of autism and schizophrenia.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

Widefield and Multiphoton calcium imaging; Genetically encoded calcium indicators; In vivo imaging; Acute slice imaging; Image analysis using MATLAB; PCR, RT-PCR, qRT-PCR; Immunohistochemistry; In situ Hybridization (using HCR); Mouse models; RNA sequencing; Bioinformatics (using R)

Selected publications

1. Kellner, V. et al. (2021) ‘Dual metabotropic glutamate receptor signaling enables coordination of astrocyte and neuron activity in developing sensory domains’, Neuron, 109(16), pp. 2545-2555.e7. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2021.06.010.
2. Kellner, V. et al. (2014) ‘Amyloid-β alters ongoing neuronal activity and excitability in the frontal cortex’, Neurobiology of Aging, 35(9), pp. 1982–1991. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.04.001.
3. López-Hidalgo, M., Kellner, V. and Schummers, J. (2017) ‘Astrocyte Calcium Responses to Sensory Input: Influence of Circuit Organization and Experimental Factors’, Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 11. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2017.00016.