Lab News
2024
December 2, 2024 - Lily Ferguson joins the Cruz-Martín lab as a research technician. She recently received her BS in Neuroscience from Regis University, Denver. We’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone with her and look forward to her contributions to the lab!
October 14, 2024 - October 14, 2024 - Paige Caley joins the Cruz-Martín lab as a research technician. She recently graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Congratulations to Paige on this significant achievement, and welcome to the team!
Cover from our blog in Springer Nature Science Communities
September 20, 2024 - Our paper describing a new transgenic line to study complement dysfunction and providing a causative link between C4 and the vulnerability of PV cells in brain disease. has been published: https://tinyurl.com/PVdysfunction
September 4, 2024 - Behind the Paper Blog titled, "Beyond Phagocytosis: The Intracellular Complement Pathway in Synaptic Dysregulation," https://go.nature.com/46PTDXb
September 3, 2024 - Our paper describiing an intracellular complement pathway in neurons is online: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-024-02701-7. See also our blog: https://go.nature.com/46PTDXb
August 2024 - Ali Brack presented her project titled, Early life stress affects spatiotemporal expression of schizophrenia high-risk genes at the Glia in Health & Disease Cold Spring Harbor Meeting (2024)
March 22, 2024 - Rushikesh Phadke defends his thesis titled "Non-Canonical Mechanisms of Complement-Dependent Pathological Synaptic Loss." Rhush and his colleagues demonstrated for the first time that complement proteins have an intracellular function in the nervous system, regulating synaptic strength during development (Phadke et al., 2023, bioRxiv). This new mechanism could underlie some of the synaptic deficits observed in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
June 3, 2024 - Alberto starts at CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
July 19, 2024 - Luke Fournier defends his thesis titled "Cell-type specific contributions to synaptic and behavioral dysfunction in mouse models of complement overexpression. Using a unique mouse model to specifically overexpressed C4 in PV cells, Luke and colleagues demonstrated that this overexpression caused sex-specific changes in anxiety-like behavior and deficits in synaptic connectivity and excitability in the prefrontal cortex's PV cells (Fournier et al., 2024, bioRxiv).
July 30, 2024 - Our paper, titled "Overexpression of the schizophrenia risk gene C4 in PV cells, drives sex-dependent behavioral deficits and circuit dysfunction," is now in press. Congratulations to Luke and the team!
September 4, 2024 - Behind the Paper Blog titled, "Beyond Phagocytosis: The Intracellular Complement Pathway in Synaptic Dysregulation," https://go.nature.com/46PTDXb
September 3, 2024 - Our paper describiing an intracellular complement pathway in neurons is online: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-024-02701-7. See also our blog: https://go.nature.com/46PTDXb
August 2024 - Ali Brack presented her project titled, Early life stress affects spatiotemporal expression of schizophrenia high-risk genes at the Glia in Health & Disease Cold Spring Harbor Meeting (2024)
March 22, 2024 - Rushikesh Phadke defends his thesis titled "Non-Canonical Mechanisms of Complement-Dependent Pathological Synaptic Loss." Rhush and his colleagues demonstrated for the first time that complement proteins have an intracellular function in the nervous system, regulating synaptic strength during development (Phadke et al., 2023, bioRxiv). This new mechanism could underlie some of the synaptic deficits observed in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
June 3, 2024 - Alberto starts at CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
July 19, 2024 - Luke Fournier defends his thesis titled "Cell-type specific contributions to synaptic and behavioral dysfunction in mouse models of complement overexpression. Using a unique mouse model to specifically overexpressed C4 in PV cells, Luke and colleagues demonstrated that this overexpression caused sex-specific changes in anxiety-like behavior and deficits in synaptic connectivity and excitability in the prefrontal cortex's PV cells (Fournier et al., 2024, bioRxiv).
July 30, 2024 - Our paper, titled "Overexpression of the schizophrenia risk gene C4 in PV cells, drives sex-dependent behavioral deficits and circuit dysfunction," is now in press. Congratulations to Luke and the team!