MECHANISMS OF INDUCED PLASTICITY OF THE BRAIN CAGHAN KIZIL

Kizil Group

Our goal is to learn from zebrafish how to enable the adult brain to better cope with neurodegenerative disease and regenerate. The main motivation of our research group is to understand the molecular programs for zebrafish brain to induce regenerative stem cell plasticity. We are using zebrafish as a model organism that can regenerate its brain effectively. We try to learn from fish the molecular programs underlying such an aptitude, and developing innovative tools for comparative studies in mammalian brains.

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A cross section of adult zebrafish brain expressing human version of TAU protein (green). Zebrafish neurons are marked in red

Research

Mechanisms of Induced Plasticity of the Brain

Group Leader

Dr. Caghan Kizil

People

See the group members, guest scientists and alumni here

Our research

MECHANISMS OF INDUCED PLASTICITY OF THE BRAIN - CAGHAN KIZIL

We use zebrafish, 3D human brain cultures and mouse models of Alzheimer's disease to investigate:

The molecular mechanisms of neural stem cell plasticity and neurogenesis,
Comparative aspects of AD pathology in zebrafish, humans and mouse
The effects of neuroinflammation (e.g.: Interleukin-4) on neural stem cell proliferation and neurgenesis

We believe that our findings will be important in terms of contributing to the efforts to design therapeutic approaches to circumvent the detrimental consequences of neurodegeneration in human brains.