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Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum
Research Institute
Mount Sinai Hospital
Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Health Complex
600 University Avenue
Toronto Ontario M5G 1X5
Tel: 416-586-4800 ext.1592
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Dr.
Mei Zhen
SENIOR
INVESTIGATOR
When
neurons form synapses to communicate with each other, the wiring for
our sensory, motor, and cognitive experience is formed. Dr. Mei Zhen is
studying how synapses form in the nervous system, the wiring of
the brain that makes us who we are. Her goal is a breakthrough in
understanding brain development, synapse formation, and how to treat
the brain when it is diseased or damaged.
Dr. Zhen's research has implications for a vast range of diseases
including psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, depression and
bi-polar disorder, neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, and genetic
disorders related to development of the nervous system. To date, the
biochemical mechanisms responsible for synapse formation are still not
well understood, in large part because of the size and complexity of
the nervous system. In order to study synapse formation Dr. Zhen uses
an innovative research model, a small roundworm called C. elegans –
that has fewer than ten thousand synapses compared to the estimated
1014 to 1015 (that's a quadrillion) synapses in the adult
human brain.
Dr. Zhen has shown that, in spite of the vast difference in
complexity, the human and C. elegans are likely to use similar sets of
genes to make synapses. Her innovative approach has provided much more
information than earlier methods of studying synapses, which called for
a labour-intensive preparation of animal samples to be studied with an
electron microscope.
Dr. Zhen's lab is at the forefront of
building a knowledge base of the human brain in health and disease, an
important tool for the field of neurobiology.
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