Home Department: Biology
Supported by: Bio-X
Mentor: Carla Shatz, Biology and Neurobiology

Memories are stored at synapses, and if mechanisms driving the loss and extensive pruning of synapses known to occur in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) were understood, then this devastating disease could be halted or even reversed. The aim of Alan’s project is to study the role of a neuronal receptor, PirB, in synapse pruning during normal developmental critical periods and in the adult mouse cerebral cortex. These experiments should expand our understanding of how PirB receptor works in mice, and may even aid in translating the results to Alzheimer’s disease in human patients.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 24, 2017:

Developmental Expression of the Non-Classical MHC1 Qa-1, a Regulator of Visual Plasticity

Alan Y. Wei¹, Ioana A. Marin¹, Kylie S. Chew¹, Carla J. Shatz^1,2
[Departments of Biology¹ and Neurobiology², Stanford University]