Assistant Professor
Pathology and Imm unology\, Division of Neuropathology\,
Washington University School o f Medicine
Talk title: Astrocyte regulation of neuronal plasticit y\, from genes to circuits.
Abstract: Experience drives structur al and functional remodeling of neuronal circuits in the brain during discr ete developmental windows called critical periods\, after which circuits st abilize. Critical periods are thought to drive perduring changes in neural circuit function\, and consequently\, changes in the timing or expression o f critical periods are linked to broad neurodevelopmental disorders. This t alk will explore the consequences of critical period plasticity at genomic and circuit scale\, and the extrinsic mechanisms that drive timely critical period closure to stabilize circuit function.
Host: Dr. Susan Dutche r
Host comments: Dr. Sarah Ackerman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University. She is a g raduate of Wash U where she worked with Dr. Kelly Monk in the Department of Developmental Biology on myelination using Zebrafish. She was a postdoctor al fellow with Dr. Chris Doe (following the footsteps of our own Jim Skeath ) at the University of Oregon working on neural circuit plasticity.
S he was awarded a number of prizes as a graduate student that include the Ph illip Needleman Pharmacology Prize\, the O’Leary Prize for Excellence in Ne uroscience\, and the Spenser T. and Ann W. Olin Medical Science Fellow. She has continued to gain awards as an Assistant Professor that include the Kl ingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award\, the BBRF NARSAD Young Investigator Awa rd\, and the Pershing Square Foundation MIND Prize.
She returned to W ash U as the inaugural hire into the newly-opened Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) Center in 2022\, where she uses both fly and fish models to uncover conserved mechanisms used by glia stabilize neural circuit function.