University of Virginia Health System

Dr. Dwyer's research focuses on understanding how the architecture and wiring of the human brain are set up during development. Neurons proliferate, migrate long distances, and project axons through diverse pathways to innervate appropriate targets. Her lab is working on elucidating the molecular and cellular machinery that orchestrate these processes by focusing on the development of the thalamocortical system and by taking a forward genetics approach in mice. She has performed a random mutagenesis screen in mouse embryos and found several exciting mutants that affect development of the cerebral cortex, and also other organs such as eyes and kidneys. These mutants could represent defects in any of several biological processes including patterning, cell proliferation or fate, or signaling between axons and substrates. Genetic mapping has narrowed the mutations to several possible genes. Identifying the mutant genes and understanding what exactly is missing or abnormal in mutant brains will be the focus of the next few years, and will help to dissect the complex process of cortical development into a series of genetically separable elements and events.

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