![Tracking Memories via mRNA]()
“How do memories form?” is a fundamental unanswered question in biology. Researchers in the lab of Robert Singer, Ph.D., have generated a novel mouse model to address that question. In a study published online on June 20 in Science Advances, Dr. Singer and colleagues describe directly visualizing the dynamics of memory-associated messenger RNA in living neurons in response to neuronal activity in real time. A key finding made by Sulagna Das, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the lab, was that transcription cycles continue even after the initial neuron stimulation is removed. Use of this model system could change our understanding of how memories form and provide insight into neurodegeneration, stroke and mental illness. Dr. Singer is professor and co-chair of anatomy & structural biology, as well as co-director of the Gruss-Lipper Biophotonics Center and of the Integrated Imaging Program at Einstein. He also is professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and of cell biology and the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in anatomy & structural biology at Einstein.
Posted on: Wednesday, June 27, 2018