Brain Diversity Develops at the Boundaries

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

The brain is one of the best-studied vertebrate organs, and yet biologists know very little about how the diversity of brain structure evolves. In this project the primary investigator and team members will use the techniques of developmental biology to ask (i) when variation in brain size and shape is first observed and (ii) which gene networks contribute to this variation. Experiments will be conducted on cichlid fishes from Lake Malawi, East Africa, where brain diversity is comparable to that seen across mammals. The investigators will test the hypothesis that brain diversity develops early in development as major neural boundaries are established. This project provides training opportunities for minority graduate students and provides educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students worldwide. The project involves faculty, postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates participating in interdisciplinary biology training programs. Presently, the research team is heavily invested in community education, employing cichlid biological diversity as a model to develop teacher education programs and high school curricula, geared to address new Georgia Performance Standards. In the future students will build lecture modules to be posted at the web resource Connexions (http://cnx.org/). These lecture modules can be shared with students globally and can be compiled into web-based courses.