To live or die: early fate decision of cortical interneurons

Forty per cent of interneurons are eliminated after birth and the benefit to overproducing these cells to then select them for apoptosis is not known. Kinga would like to understand how interneurons are selected to die and what happens if this process goes wrong. In Professor Oscar Marin's lab, King's College London, Kinga will investigate the molecular basis of interneuron cell death and how it can be modulated to increase or decrease the number of surviving cells. She will then move to Professor Dimitri Kullmann's lab at UCL to study the impact of incorrect cortical interneuron number on the electrophysiological properties of the neocortex, and will also assess the behavioural properties of animals with an abnormal number of interneurons in Professor Steve Dunnett’s and Dr Simon Brooks's labs at Cardiff University.