Collaborative Research Network Archive

Preprint: Profiling lysosomal content using tag-based lysosomal immunoprecipitation (LysoTagIP) in cell and animal models allowed major discoveries, however studying lysosomal dysfunction in human patients remains challenging. Here, the authors report the development of the tagless LysoIP method to enable rapid enrichment of lysosomes from clinical samples and human cell lines.

Preprint: In Parkinson’s disease (PD), loss of midbrain dopamine neurons is associated with progressive motor and cognitive deficits. Lack of coordination between direct and indirect neurons is implicated in the disease. Here, the authors developed a mouse model of PD/ICD, in which ICD-like behavior was assayed with a delay discounting task.

Preprint: Parkinson’s disease is characterized by the death of substantia nigra (SNc) dopamine (DA) neurons, but the pathophysiological mechanisms that precede and drive their death remain unknown. To address this question, the authors developed a chemogenetic (DREADD) mouse model to increase DA neuron activity, and confirmed this increase using ex vivo electrophysiology.

Preprint: This study leverages X-ray phase-contrast tomography for detailed analysis of neurodegenerative diseases focusing on the 3D visualization and quantification of neuropathological features within fixed human postmortem tissue.

Published: It has been a goal in the field to decode the regulatory logic of an enhancer and to understand the details of how spatiotemporal gene expression is encoded in an enhancer sequence. Here, deep learning models can be used to efficiently design synthetic, cell-type-specific enhancers, starting from random sequences.

Preprint: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder and lacks disease-modifying therapies. The authors developed a Drosophila model for identifying novel glial-based therapeutic targets for PD.

Published: Neuromodulation such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) is advancing as a clinical intervention in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including Parkinson's disease. Here, the authors review current literature in the pre-clinical research fields.

Preprint: Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of extrastriatal dopamine release in motor deficits of Parkinson’s disease (PD). To characterize the actions of dopamine on substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) GABAergic neurons, optogenetic and electrophysiological tools were used in ex vivo mouse brain slices to monitor synaptic transmission arising from neurons.