About his Postdoctoral project

A distinctive feature of neurons is their elaborate dendritic tree. Acquiring the proper dendritic pattern is critical for neurons as type-specific dendritic morphology plays an important role in defining their synaptic partners and in supporting the specific computation performed by a given neuron. Much work has been done to identify the molecules and to elucidate the mechanisms of dendritic patterning such as growth, tilling, scaling or branch formation. However, how the combined actions of these mechanisms lead to the emergence of precise dendritic shapes remains unknown. Specifically how genetically encoded programs define and constrain the self-organized dynamics of dendritic arborization which depends on stochastic processes. Using the different classes of dendritic arborization (da) neurons of the Drosophila larva sensory system, we propose to investigate how dendritic morphology emerges dynamically and to characterize how the cell specific dendritic patterns arise during development.