The Houart Lab aims to understand the fundamental cellular, molecular and morphogenetic mechanisms required to build the vertebrate forebrain, with a special interest for early development. The team main investigations are exploring two main aspects of CNS development:
- The spatio-temporal mechanisms controlling the organisation and diversity of neuronal cell types in the forebrain. Comparative studies using zebrafish, mouse and human tissue are designed to explore the regulatory changes generating forebrain diversity across vertebrates.
- The roles of axonal splicing factors and intron retention in neuronal maturation and connectivity.
In vivo cell manipulation, genetics, ‘omics’ and live high-resolution imaging are used to achieve their goals.
Their research is supported by the Wellcome Trust, MRC, BBSRC and Foxg1 Syndrome Foundation.
