Michele Caselle, Università di Torino - INFN

Thursday, 11th May - h 2:00 p.m.
Seminars Room, NICO

Gene Regulation of Functional Brain Networks

Michele Caselle
Università di Torino, Dipartimento di Fisica e INFN

It is well known that gene expression patterns exhibit strong correlation with functionally-coupled resting state networks of the human cortex, however little is known on the regulatory program leading to the establishment of these network-specific transcriptional signatures.

In this talk I will discuss a few attempts to shed light on this issue. I will discuss in particular the case of the Default-mode Network and of the Somatosensory Network, showing how to construct  a robust set of transcription factors which are likely to control the gene expression program of these networks. As a major result of this analysis I will show that a special role in this regulatory program is played by the the epigenetic layer of regulation and in particular by the PolyComb complex.

Moreover, I will also show that a remarkably similar regulatory program controls transcriptional signatures in corresponding resting-state networks of the mouse brain.

Host: Ferdinando Di Cunto