Juan Ispizua, Ph.D.
- Title
- Postdoctoral fellow
- Department
- Neurobiology and Biophysics
- Institution
- University of Washington
- Address
- 1705 NE Pacific St.
- [email protected]
- Research field
- Motor control and proprioception
- Award year
- 2025
Research
In the Tuthill lab, I will explore how the nervous system remodels itself in response to injury. Animals can readily adapt to significant physical harm; fruit flies, for example, relearn how to walk just days after losing a limb. How the nervous system reconfigures itself to drive this rehabilitation is unclear. Combining the precision of electron microscopy with AI-powered analytical techniques, I will generate a connectome—a complete map of all the neurons and synapses in the nervous system—after recovery from leg amputation in the fruit fly. Comparing this new dataset to the available connectomes of healthy flies—including one generated by the Tuthill lab and collaborators—will allow me to identify the cell types that change during locomotor recovery, both in the nerve cord motor circuits and the brain’s motor areas. Using techniques for monitoring and manipulating the activity of these cells, I will assess their roles in regaining locomotion. This work could reveal how the brain responds to injury and why recovery is sometimes accompanied by lingering neuropathic pain or phantom limb syndrome.
Mentor
- John C. Tuthill, Ph.D.
Country of Origin
- Argentina