PhD position in developmental neurobiology

A funded PhD project focusing on the signaling mechanisms controlling developmental axon degeneration for brain wiring is currently available in the Poulain lab at the University of South Carolina, USA.

Project description

Precise organization of neuronal connections is essential for processing information. A major challenge in neuroscience is to understand how these connections are properly established, and how errors in this wiring process can lead to disorders. During development, neurons extend axons that navigate along defined paths towards their target by responding to attractive and repulsive cues. Concomitantly or subsequently to this guidance process, refinement mechanisms involving degeneration or pruning correct axons that have deviated from the right path, thereby ensuring the formation of accurate neuronal circuits. Our research aims to dissect the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling the formation and maintenance of functional brain circuits. We use the zebrafish visual system and a unique combination of genetic, biochemical and high-resolution imaging approaches to test how axon guidance and selective degeneration contribute to circuit wiring. In that context, our previous work has established that selective axon degeneration is an essential process for the topographic ordering of retinal axons in the visual system. Our new results further demonstrate that axonal pruning can be initiated by signaling among axons en route to their target. Pioneer retinal axons notably instruct the degeneration of follower axons that wrongfully navigate along them. This PhD project will now elucidate how this trans-axonal signaling is spatially, temporally and molecularly controlled for triggering degeneration. Determining how selective axon degeneration leads to the precise and timely ordering of retinal axons in the visual system will fill a major gap in our knowledge of developmental axon pruning, tract formation and brain wiring.

For more information, interested candidates should contact Dr. Fabienne Poulain directly by email at fpoulain@mailbox.sc.edu (mention “PhD position – the Node” in email subject, and include resume/cv). Deadline to apply to the graduate program is January1st, 2025.