Anzela Niraula, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, in collaboration with University of Rochester Professor of Microbiology and Immunology Jacques Robert, has been awarded a Picker ISI grant of $9,581 for the project 鈥淭he immune system as the brain鈥檚 sculptor during metamorphosis.鈥 Niraula and Robert seek to enhance understanding of the biological changes in the metamorphic brain.
The immune system plays a key role in brain plasticity in mammals, and disruptions in immune signaling are associated with conditions like schizophrenia and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. In nature, tadpole metamorphosis is a developmental phase during which the brain undergoes radical changes. Indeed, the whole organism undergoes transformation visible to the bare eyes.
Using frogs as the animal model, Niraula and Robert will investigate if and how immune cells in the brain and the periphery regulate brain development during metamorphosis 鈥 a topic that remains unexplored. Understanding the biological changes in the metamorphic brain could bring us closer to understanding the human brain and what it means to be human.