Education

PhD, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Argentina, 1989

Lab information

Pozzo-Miller Lab
https://www.uab.edu/medicine/neurobiology/faculty/pozzo-miller

Research focus

Since my undergraduate work, I have studied Central Nervous System synapses and their plasticity using morphological and physiological approaches. During the past 25 years, I have studied the role of the neurotrophin BDNF on synapses in the hippocampus, and for the last 15 years focused on synaptic dysfunction in a mouse model of Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorders associated with autism and intellectual disability that is caused by mutations in MECP2, a methylated DNA-binding protein that regulates transcription of multiple genes, including BDNF. My research career has exploited several experimental approaches, spanning from conventional and rapid-freezing electron microscopy, to simultaneous whole-cell recording and intracellular Ca2+ imaging, synaptic vesicle recycling, voltage-sensitive dye imaging, laser-scanning confocal and multiphoton excitation microscopy, all applied to different preparations such as acute or cultured brain slices, and primary cultured neurons. We have recently expanded our toolbox of experimental approaches to include manipulations of selective neuronal populations by optogenetics and chemogenetics, in vivo recordings and Ca2+ imaging with genetically-encoded indicators, tract tracing of long-range synaptic connections, and machine learning-based behavioral assessments.

Publications