Home Department: Biology
Mentors: Michelle Monje, Neurology & Neurological Sciences; and John Huguenard, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

“Maladaptive Myelination in Epilepsy”

Myelination, which insulates cells in the brain and enables fast transmission of information between neurons, is dynamic over the course of the human lifespan. A recent discovery is that changes in myelination can be driven by neuronal activity to support learning. However, this process might be subverted in diseases characterized by abnormal or excessive neuronal activity, such as epilepsy, which is defined by chronic seizures. Tristan will utilize neurophysiological and histological methods to determine whether abnormal myelination observed in rodent models of epilepsy contributes to disease severity, potentially illuminating a novel disease mechanism in epilepsy.