ASHLEY COMER RECEIVES 2019 I. ALDEN MACCHI AWARD!
GPN PhD student Ashley Comer of the Cruz-Martin Lab was selected as the winner of the 2019 I. Alden Macchi Award for excellence in the field of regulatory biology.
Ashley’s research is focused on understanding how the immune and nervous system interact to shape brain development and behavior in healthy and diseased states. As part of her thesis research project, Ashley has sought to understand the role of a schizophrenia-associated gene called Complement component 4 (C4). Specifically she studies the impact of increased C4 expression on the wiring of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region implicated in social cognition, by assaying neuronal connectivity during early postnatal development. She has found that increased C4 expression disrupts synaptic development of the prefrontal cortex through microglia-mediated synapse elimination which leads to deficits in the social behavior of mice.
Congratulations, Ashley!