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Collaborators:
Dr. Scott E. Frasser
California Institute of Technology
(CALTECH)
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Dr. Eduardo Rosa-Molinar
My research seeks to elucidate how
neuronal precursors migrate to reach their final destination
in the spinal cord to form somatic efferent motor neurons that
conduct impulses from the spinal cord to skeletal muscles of
the pelvis and perineum and to determine the role of retinoic
acid as a determinate of somatic motor neuron phenotype, directional
guidance cue, or motility regulator in migration of those precursors
during vertebrate neuroembryogenesis. To that end, my work focuses
on elucidating 1.) the development, structure, shape, and positioning
of dendritic fields and 2.) their spatial patterning in response
to retinoic acid in order to determine target recognition and
synaptogenesis of somatic efferent motor neurons.
Through the use of classical and modern experimental neuroembryological
and neuroanatomical tract-tracing methods, selective neuronal
and/or dendritic laser ablation, development, refinement, and
use of new specimen preparation techniques, and correlative
multi-functional probes, and nanoparticles for wide-field fluorescence
microscopy, structured illumination microscopy (SIM), and transmission
electron microscopy (TEM), we are able to visualize, follow,
and build neuroanatomically realistic three-dimensional (3-D)
models of somatic efferent motor neurons in preserved and living
intact embryos in two vertebrate model system, specifically,
the sexually dimorphic teleost fish, Gambusia affinis affinis,
the Western Mosquitofish which has a unique ano-urogenital region
which contains skeletal muscles analogous to the skeletal muscles
of pelvis and perineum and the non-sexually dimorphic teleost
fish, Danio rerio, the Zebrafish.
Funding:
Active
Retinoic acid in motor neuron specification
PI: Eduardo Rosa-Molinar, Program Director: Walter Frontera
Period: 12/01/04 - 11/30/09
Granting agency: NIH-NINDS SNRP Program.
Cellular and Molecular Changes Associated with Reproductive
Health after Androgen Exposure during Puberty. NIH/P20RR016470
Barreto/González (PI) Period: 08/01/06-07/31/09 0.04%
(AY) person months
Effect of Androgens on Behavior through NPY Modulation; NIH/P20RR016470;
Barreto/González (PI); Period: 08/01/09-07/31/14; 0.04%
(AY) person month; Role: Co-PI
Lab
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