Engineered gene delivery vectors and microbial opsins for high-precision minimally-invasive study and repair of diseased nervous systems across species - Viviana Gradinaru

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute Seminar Series Presents

Viviana Gradinaru, PhD 

Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Engineering

Heritage Principal Investigator
Director of the Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Center of the Chen Institute

California Institute of Technology CALTECH, Pasadena CA

Host: Keren Haroush

Abstract

Dr. Gradinaru’s research group at Caltech specializes in developing neuroscience tools and methods, including engineering of new viral vectors with optimized brain tropism after systemic delivery. In addition to developing technologies for neuroscience, Dr. Gradinaru has also been using such tools and methods to dissect circuitry underlying movement, mood, and sleep disorders (Gradinaru et al., Science, 2009; Xiao et al, Neuron, 2016; Cho et al, Neuron, 2017; Oikonomou et al, Neuron, 2019). The Gradinaru group at Caltech has recently developed and disseminated various new tools for less invasive gene delivery and optogenetics to the brain (Deverman et al Nature Biotechnology 2016; Chan et al Nature Neuroscience 2017; Challis and Kumar et al Nature Protocols 2019; Bedbrook et al Nature Methods 2020; Kumar et al Nature Methods 2020). With collaborators and her own Caltech group, Dr. Gradinaru is now applying these gene delivery tools to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders (Challis et al Nature Neuroscience 2019; Rauch et al Nature 2020).

Dr. Grandinaru was a 2008 Bio-X Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow.