Affiliations

Professor, Neurology, Neurobiology

Member, Brain Research Institute, Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology GPB Home Area, Neuroscience GPB Home Area

How are cortical circuits established during brain development? How do neurons recognize each other as appropriate synaptic partners? What strategies do axons use to elaborate their complex arbors? We want to answer these and other questions about cortical development using 2-photon microscopy in vivo and in brain slices together with electrophysiology and molecular biology. One goal is to investigate the mechanisms of synaptogenesis and how dendritic filopodia mature into dendritic spines, which has implications for various neuropsychiatric disorders such as fragile X syndrome. Here we use 2-photon imaging in vivo and image transgenic mice that express the green fluorescent protein (GFP). We also use in utero electroporation to transfect neural progenitors with GFP or other genes of interest. Another project is aimed at understanding how coordinated neuronal activity arises within developing networks of neurons in cortex. We use in vivo 2-photon calcium imaging to record and analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of activity within ensembles of neurons, as measured with fluorescent calcium indicator dyes such as Oregon green BAPTA-1AM. We are also interested in mechanisms of plasticity and neural repair in peri-infarct cortex after stroke. Using a middle cerebral artery occlusion model of stroke in mice, we carry out chronic in vivo imaging of dendritic spines and axons over periods of months in GFP-expressing mice to find out which neuronal structures participate in functional recovery after stroke.

The Portera-Cailliau laboratory investigates how developmental defects in network connectivity at the level of the cerebral cortex directly lead to symptoms of autism, learning disability and intellectual dysfunction. In particular they are studying sensory hypersensitivity in a model of fragile X syndrome, by combining in vivo two-photon calcium imaging, patch-clamp electrophysiology, and head-fixed behavior.  Dr. Portera-Cailliau was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. He obtained a B.A. in Biochemistry & Cell Biology from U.C. San Diego in 1990. He then attended the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and obtained an MD-PhD degree in 1997. His mentors were Drs. Donald Price and Lee Martin. After finishing a residency in Neurology at The Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston in 2001, Dr. Portera-Cailliau moved to Columbia University for a post-doctoral fellowship in Dr. Rafael Yuste's laboratory. His second post-doc was with Dr. Karel Svoboda in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He joined the UCLA faculty in November 2004 and has joint appointments in the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology. He is a member of UCLA's Brain Research Institute, the Integrated Center for Learning & Memory, and the Neuroscience Theme.  Since 2013 he has served as co-director of the UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program.

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