Lectures and seminars The shadows of the subplate
Join us for a seminar with Professor Zoltán Molnár, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
The lowermost cell layer of the cerebral cortex that contains interstitial white matter cells in humans has great clinical relevance (Kostovic and Rakic, 1990). These neurons express higher proportions of susceptibility genes linked to human cognitive disorders than any other cortical layer and their distribution is known to be altered in schizophrenia and autism (Hoerder-Suabedissen et al., 2013; Bakken et al., 2016). Despite these clinical links, our current knowledge on the adult layer 6b is limited. These cells are the remnants of the subplate cells that are present in large numbers and play key role in the formation of cortical circuits but a large fraction of them die during postnatal development (Molnár et al., 2020). The adult population that remains in all mammals to form interstitial white matter cells in human or layer 6b in mouse display unique conserved gene expression and connectivity (Hoerder-Suabedissen et al., 2018). We study their input and output using combined anatomical, genetic, and physiological approaches. Selected cortical areas, relevant for sensory perception, arousal, and sleep (V1, S1, M1, prefrontal cortex) are studied using genetic and chemogenetic methods. Our data suggest that 6b is not just a developmental remnant cell population in the adult, but a layer that plays a key role in cortical state control, integrating and modulating information processing (Guidi et al., 2016; Meijer et al., 2022; Zolnik et al., 2023; Messore et al., 2024).
Zoltán Molnár – Short Biography
Zoltán Molnár is Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. He is known for key contributions to our understanding of how the birth of cortical neurons is regulated, how they migrate, differentiate, generate axons, and assemble into circuits, and how those circuits change over time, partly as a result of activity passing through them.
Molnár earned his M.D. at the Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical University, Szeged, Hungary and D.Phil. at the University of Oxford, UK. He also investigated thalamocortical development working at the Institut de Biologie Cellulaire et de Morphologie, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, and learned optical recording techniques to understand early functional thalamocortical interactions at Kyoto Prefectural School of Medicine, Japan.
He was appointed to a University Lecturer position at the Department of Human Anatomy and Genetics at Oxford associated with an Official Fellowship and Tutorship at St John's College from 2000. He was awarded the title Professor of Developmental Neuroscience in 2007. Molnar has been Elected Member of Royal Society of Biology (2022); Academia Europaea (Physiology and Neuroscience); European Neonatal Brain Club; Fellow of the Anatomical Society, Awarded New Fellow of the Year Award for 2018.
He published a book jointly with Tamas Horvath and Joy Hirsh: Body, Brain, Behavior - Three Views and a Conversation (2022) ELSEVIER, Academic Press