Brain Research at Karolinska
As a research assistant at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, I used fluorescent staining on human brain tissue to map where the protein NEUROD6 shows up, and in which kinds of cells.
- Role
- Research Assistant
- Where
- Karolinska Institute Biomedicum, Stockholm
- Mentors
- Nick Mitsios and Jan Mulder
- Methods
- Immunohistochemistry, TSA fluorescent staining, image analysis
The question
NEUROD6 is a transcription factor thought to help develop and maintain the nervous system. Which brain regions and cell types express it, and how might that relate to what it does?
What I did
I prepared paraffin-embedded samples from different brain regions, ran antigen retrieval in a pressure cooker, incubated them overnight with an antibody against NEUROD6, then used TSA fluorescent amplification to see where the protein sits under the microscope.
What I found
NEUROD6 shows up mainly in neurons, especially in the cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum. In the cerebellum about 80% of neurons overlapped with NEUROD6, and every hippocampal sample showed dense expression along the dentate gyrus.
Gallery
