The research team investigates molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders, especially mechanisms causing features requiring treatment such as challenging behavioural problems in fragile X syndrome (FXS) and autism related disorders.  The ultimate goal is to develop improved treatment strategies for these disorders. The team uses patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for disease modelling in dish. Studies explore alterations of functional responses in iPSC-derived neuronal cells in a cell type-dependent manner and explore contribution of astrocytes to impaired neuronal network function.

Previous work of the lab has functionally characterized differentiation of glutamate-responsive human and mouse neural progenitors and demonstrated aberrances during early stages of neuronal cell differentiation in FXS.  The recently published studies revealed enhanced intracellular Ca²⁺ responses to AMPA receptor activation in neural progenitors differentiated from human iPSCs generated from somatic cells of FXS males compared to controls. Increased Ca²⁺-permeable AMPA receptor (CP-AMPAR) activity associates with increased Ca²⁺ influx via L-type voltage-gated calcium channels and augmented responses to membrane depolarization and to NMDA and type I metabotropic glutamate receptor activation. Changes of Ca²⁺ dynamics affect fate determination, differentiation, and migration of FXS neural progenitors. Increased Ca²⁺ influx through CP-AMPARs renders neural progenitors more susceptible to excitotoxicity. Increased vulnerability may act as a selective factor during cell differentiation and interfere with establishment of neocortical circuits leading to network hyperexcitability in FXS brain.