Fall 2024 Grantee Highlight:
Priya Rajasethupathy

Priya Rajasethupathy, MD, PhD
Associate Professor and Head, Laboratory of Neural Dynamics & Cognition, The Rockefeller University

The Rajasethupathy Lab recently developed an approach to characterize the genetic contributions to cognitive variability in mice. They undertook a large-scale genetic mapping study using hundreds of genetically diverse outbred mice, focusing on attention and short-term memory— two interrelated cognitive functions that are highly heritable. They found that a single genetic locus on chromosome 13 accounted prominently for variation in attention, while a locus on chromosome 5 accounted for variation in short-term memory. Within these loci, we identified causative genes as the synaptic protein Homer1 and an orphan brain receptor Gpr12, respectively, that have functional effects converging in the brain’s thalamo-cortical circuit.

Interestingly, both genes have early developmental roles in shaping neural circuit and behavioral variation. The lab proposes to model the developing thalamo-cortical circuit using human brain organoids to characterize the effects of these genes while also rapidly screening for additional genes contributing to endophenotypes of short-term memory.