Houart lab

Brain development and evolution

The Houart Lab aims to understand the fundamental cellular, molecular and morphogenetic mechanisms required to build the vertebrate brain, with a special interest for early development.

The team's investigations are exploring two main aspects of CNS development:

• The spatio-temporal mechanisms controlling the organisation and diversity of neuronal cell types in the forebrain. Comparative studies using shark, zebrafish, chick, mouse, ferret and human tissue are designed to explore the regulatory changes generating forebrain progenitor diversity across vertebrate evolution. These studies are complemented by translational investigations in neurodevelopmental disorders (eg. FOXG1 syndrome).
• The roles of axonal pools of splicing factors and intron retaining transcripts in neuronal maturation and connectivity. Findings from this research theme led to insights in mechanisms driving initiation of neurodegenerative processes (eg. ALS). In vivo cell manipulation, genetics, ‘omics’ and live high-resolution imaging are used to achieve their goals. 

Their research is supported mainly by the Wellcome Trust, MRC, BBSRC and Foxg1 Syndrome Foundation.