Gamma-protocadherin Cis- and Trans-interactions regulate the development of dendrite arbors and synapses in the cerebral cortex

Abstract

honors student and began my career in science. My first research project required me to sit in a dark room with a microscope and transfer 300 tiny Caenorhabditis elegans worms to an agar plate, a feat that, at that time, took me four hours to accomplish, but presently would take me less than 15 minutes. Little did I know I would end up working on my PhD just down the hall from my undergraduate honors research lab in the exact same dark room with yet another microscope on a project involving mouse neurons instead of worm gonads. This work would not have been possible without the guidance and mentorship of Josh. With his support I have performed and published novel research that I was able to present coast to coast for multiple years, something that would not have been possible without him. Any success I have moving forward will largely be owed to the examples and standards he set. I would also like to thank the current members of the Weiner Lab, Leah Fuller, Peter Bosch, Karmen Mah, Stacey Peek, David Steffen, and Charles Marcucci IV. I would especially like to thank Leah for helping me master the ways of the mouse, and Dr. Peter Bosch for both constructive and unconstructive conversations about experiments and general lab business. Thank you also to Dr. Austin Keeler for his guidance during our overlap in the Weiner lab. Thank you to Drs. Andrew Garrett, Dietmar Schreiner, and Jason Radley for their work and helpful comments. Also, thanks to a plethora of undergraduates, some of whom contributed to my projects, especially Dillan Newbold, Nora Koblesky, and Jake McDonough. I am grateful to the members of my thesis committee, Drs. Sarit Smolikove (who also got me started in research as an undergraduate), Michael Dailey, Ginny Willour, and Andy Frank, as well as Genetics Program Director Dr. Dan Eberl, for their encouragement and helpful suggestions during my graduate career. iii Thank you to Megan Astell for putting up with me while I "scienced" in the lab. Finally and most importantly, I would like to thank my parents John and Cathy for their continual support and for teaching me that education is the one thing that no one can take away from you. This extends to my brothers Matthew and Jacob for reasons words cannot describe.