//     CORNELIA ABLINGER

Obermair Research Group
Institute of Physiology,
Medical University of Innsbruck

//     INFORMATION

Nationality: Austrian
Education: MSc in Molecular cell and developmental biology at the University of Innsbruck
E-Mail: Cornelia.Ablinger@i-med.ac.at
ORCID
Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Gerald Obermair (Medical University, Karl Landsteiner)

//     PROJECT

The auxiliary α2δ subunits of voltage-gated calcium channels (VGGC) function as regulatory subunits of the VGGC, and in neurons regulate pre- and postsynaptic functions independently from their role as channel subunits. Increased experimental evidence that α2δ subunits mediate synapse formation lead us to investigate whether all α2δ subunits and consequently all α2δ-like proteins exert a synaptogenic potential that mediates glutamatergic synapse formation. Along these lines, we examine the expression of individual α2δ splice variants and their potential effects on synapse formation. Since human genes encoding for α2δ proteins have been linked to a large variety of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, we further investigate the consequences of the loss of an α2δ subunit on the synaptic differentiation of specific neuronal projections within the CNS, that could potentially explain an autism-like phenotype.

Methods: Primary neuronal cell culture and transfection, immunofluorescent and histological stainings, high-resolution microscopy, transcardial perfusion, RNA extraction, qRT-PCR, Western Blotting, presynaptic calcium imaging.

//     PUBLICATIONS

PubMed

//     INTERNAL COLLABORATIONS

//     EXTERNAL COLLABORATIONS