COUTINHO-BUDD LAB

The Coutinho-Budd lab is interested in the cellular and molecular aspects of glial cell development and function. Glia are critical components of the nervous system-almost everything that neurons do requires glial support. Significant progress has been made in understanding neuron-glia interactions at synapses and axons, but our lab aims to define what glia do at neuronal cell bodies. We also seek to understand how these glial cells interact with neighboring glial cells, and to unravel their roles in disease... Normal cortex glia wrap neuronal cell bodies in the cortex, forming a tight border and boundary with astrocytes at the neuropil. After the loss of either αSNAP or Spz3 from cortex glia, the cortex glia lose their ability to wrap neurons, and instead form globular structures leaving many neurons unwrapped. This leads to increased neuronal cell death, aberrant invasion of astrocyte processes from the neuropil into the cortex, and ultimately behavioral impairment such as poor..

Primary location: Charlottesville United States