Anderson Lab ~ Introduction

Developmental Neurobiology: The nervous system performs the most complex tasks of any organ system and understanding how it develops is one of the most challenging tasks in modern biology. During nervous system development: (1) precursor cells differentiate into either neurons or glial cells, (2) neurons extend an axon to another neuron or to a peripheral target, and (3) the neurons adopt a phenotype appropriate for that target.

Understanding neuronal pathfinding and control of neuron phenotype is made even more pertinent by the huge efforts being expended on developing stem cells to replace neurons in humans with neurological problems. It is pointless to generate new neurons from stem cells if we cannot control their connectivity and phenotype.

We study autonomic neurons to determine how they adopt their mature forms during development. Autonomic neurons are accessible and well studied cells that have been crucial in understanding many aspects of neurobiology. We are interested in how an autonomic neuron makes choices during development about which phenotype to adopt and how these phenotypic choices relate to events earlier in the neurons life.

Neurocardiology: Neurocardiology is the study of the neural control of the heart, which relies on sensory and intrinsic and extrinsic autonomic neurons of the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system.

We are interested identifying whether different functions within the heart are under the control of discrete subpopulations of cardiac neurons and whether the heart depends on local reflex loops that are independent of the central nervous system.

We are currently using a range of approaches to first identify, using retrograde tracing and immunohistochemical techniques, the different types of neurons that innervate the heart and their connectivity and then, using whole-animal physiological techniques, to determine the role of the cardiac nervous system in controlling heart function.

This diagram summarises many of our studies. We have combined retrograde tracing and multiple-label immunohistochemical studies to identify different types of pre and postganglionic neurons in the rat sympathetic nervous system. Image © CR Anderson