Oscar Marin

..Functional maturation of these neurons occurs over a protracted period, which resembles normal human development, and suggests these cells may be useful for modeling brain development and disease...

..These insights are leading to a better understanding of the causes of schizophrenia, autism and intellectual disabilities, and may contribute to the development of more-effective therapeutic interventions...

..Aims. In this review I have summarized our current knowledge of the factors that control the specification of cortical interneurons, as well as the mechanisms that direct their migration to the cortex...

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..Perhaps more surprisingly, the cellular mechanisms underlying the response of the leading process of migrating cells to guidance cues might be different to those involved in growth cone steering, at least for some neuronal populations...

..According to this idea, the same basic molecular mechanisms found in other cell types, such as fibroblasts, might have been adapted to the special morphological needs of migrating neurons in different regions of the developing brain...

..Together with earlier findings, our results also suggest that the POA generates nearly 10% of the GABAergic interneurons in the cerebral cortex of the mouse...

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..At the molecular level, the role of Slit/Robo in progenitor cells involves transcriptional activation of the Notch effector Hes1. These findings demonstrate that Robo signaling modulates progenitor cell dynamics in the developing brain...

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..These results show that neuronal tangential migration constitutes a novel mechanism to control the timely arrangement of guidance cues required for axonal tract formation in the mammalian brain...

..Thus, the meningeal membranes are fundamental in the development of Cajal-Retzius cells and, hence, in the normal development of the cerebral cortex...

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..Our results demonstrate a role for the cell-fate determinant Nkx2-1 in regulating neuronal migration by direct transcriptional regulation of guidance receptors in postmitotic cells...

..Our results demonstrate that Robo1 and Robo2 mostly cooperate to mediate the function of Slit proteins in guiding the major forebrain projections...

..These results reveal a novel guidance mechanism during neuronal migration that might be extensively used in brain development...

..Furthermore, the results of microtransplantation experiments in vivo corroborate that anatomically defined regions of the mouse subpallium, such as the medial ganglionic eminence, can be subdivided into functionally distinct domains...

..These results indicate that FAK plays a fundamental role in the dynamic regulation of Gap-mediated adhesions during glial-guided neuronal migration in the mouse...

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..At the molecular level, we found that contact repulsion is mediated by Eph/ephrin interactions. Our observations reveal a mechanism that controls the even distribution of neurons in the developing brain...

..This demonstrates that a chemokine receptor modulates the function of another chemokine receptor by controlling the amount of protein that is made available for signaling at the cell surface...

..We will also discuss how this basic knowledge may help us to understand the etiology of schizophrenia, and eventually lead to the development of novel therapies for treating the disorder...

..In this review, we summarize recent progress on this process, progress which holds the promise of providing a rational framework for their classification, as well as means to understand their role in cortical processing...

..In this review, we will describe recent progress made in understanding the contribution of transcription factors in controlling neuronal migration in the developing mouse brain, with a special focus on the developing telencephalon...

..We will also review how this basic knowledge is contributing to a better understanding of the etiology and pathophysiology of multiple neurological syndromes in which neuronal migration is disrupted...

..These observations provide evidence that Neuregulin-1 and its ErbB4 receptor directly control neuronal migration in the nervous system...

..These results suggest a conserved function for EphA receptors and their ligands in the elaboration of topographic maps at multiple levels of the visual pathway...