Oscar Marín Lab

She is! Thanks for the fantastic comic -- it will go on the wall to make company for the one of your paper (and Clems' paper)

A postnatal molecular switch drives activity-dependent maturation of parvalbumin interneurons Neuronal activity triggers PGC-1α-mediated transcriptional programs that drive the late maturation of PV+ interneurons, essential for cortical circuit function. PGC-1α partners with ERRγ and Mef2c to ...

10/10 Here’s the paper @cellcellpress.bsky.social if you want to dig in www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... That’s it. Thanks for sharing! @devneuro.bsky.social @mrc-cndd.bsky.social @kingsioppn.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social

9/10 In sum, our findings reveal a postnatal molecular switch that drives the activity-dependent maturation of parvalbumin interneurons, a critical population for cortical function. Funded by the @wellcometrust.bsky.social

8/10 Importantly, this mechanism also allows PV interneurons to regulate their mitochondrial content and function, which may also contribute to their maturation

7/10 PGC-1alpha cooperates with ERR-gamma to directly regulate the transcription of many PV-enriched genes. Incidentally, it also seems involved in repressing genes that are typically enriched in other cells, like SST interneurons

6/10 How is this achieved? We discovered that PGC-1alpha regulates the expression of most genes that are typically enriched in mature PV interneurons

5/10 What are the mechanisms regulating the protracted maturation of cortical interneurons? We found that this process requires neuronal activity and is mediated by the transcriptional modulator PGC-1alpha

4/10 Interestingly, while PV interneurons are generated in the embryo, they are late bloomers: in humans, for example, it takes more than two years for PV interneurons to acquire their mature properties

3/10 Several unique properties distinguish PV interneurons: They exert a very tight control over the output of pyramidal cells; are fast-spiking, meaning they can fire action potentials at very high frequencies; are covered by perineuronal nets, and have many mitochondria

2/10 PV interneurons are a type of inhibitory neuron in the cortex, characterized by their expression of the calcium-binding protein parvalbumin. These neurons play a crucial role in regulating neuronal activity and are involved in #memory, sensory processing, and motor control

A postnatal molecular switch drives activity-dependent maturation of parvalbumin interneurons Neuronal activity triggers PGC-1α-mediated transcriptional programs that drive the late maturation of PV+ interneurons, essential for cortical circuit function. PGC-1α partners with ERRγ and Mef2c to ...

1/10 Our latest research, led by Monika Moissidis, identifies a mechanism regulating the maturation of PV interneurons in the #cortex. This is the story @cellcellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... ⬇︎ thread @devneuro.bsky.social @kingsioppn.bsky.social
@wellcometrust.bsky.social

A postnatal molecular switch drives activity-dependent maturation of parvalbumin interneurons Neuronal activity triggers PGC-1α-mediated transcriptional programs that drive the late maturation of PV+ interneurons, essential for cortical circuit function. PGC-1α partners with ERRγ and Mef2c to ...

🚨 New Paper Alert! 🚨

I’m very happy to share our newest paper in Cell, led by the brilliant Monika Moissidis. We show that PGC1a regulates the maturation of PV+ interneurons in an activity-dependent manner.

Link below 👇
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

@cellpress.bsky.social @marinlab.bsky.social

Senior Executive Assistant

We're #hiring for a new role as Senior #ExecutiveAssistant to our fantastic Director and Managing Director! Deadline 23 June
@marinlab.bsky.social

www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/116505-...

Conservation of regulatory elements with highly diverged sequences across large evolutionary distances Nature Genetics - Combining functional genomic data from mouse and chicken with a synteny-based strategy identifies positionally conserved cis-regulatory elements in the absence of direct sequence...

How to find Evolutionary Conserved Enhancers in 2025? 🐣-🐭
Check out our paper - fresh off the press!!!
We find widespread functional conservation of enhancers in absence of sequence homology
Including: a bioinformatic tool to map sequence-diverged enhancers!
rdcu.be/enVDN
github.com/tobiaszehnde...

Still openings, check it out!

But it also sends a critical message about the value of fundamental and translational scientific research. The work that led to this breakthrough, using "genetic scissors" to repair a faulty gene, began in laboratories pursuing basic science and was later adapted for therapeutic use. If we are to safeguard the breakthroughs of the future, governments must recognise and protect the pipelines that lead from curiosity-driven investigation to real-world benefit.

On the value of investing in curiosity driven research - which in this case contributed to the personalised gene therapy for a rare disease
on.ft.com/45rXI50 @anjahuja.bsky.social

🎙️[49] ENTENDER EL CEREBRO PARA REGULARLO
👨‍🔬 con #OscarMarínParra
@MarinLab

Alteraciones durante el desarrollo de nuestro🧠 pueden ser la causa de desordenes psiquiátricos como #autismo, #epilepsia, #bipolaridad o #esquizofrenia

#Neurociencias
(1/3)

Yeah, don’t forget the inferior colliculus

Great @nature.com paper on the early stages of human cortical development, led by @qianxuyu.bsky.social from C. Walsh’s lab, in collaboration with @drmingyaoli.bsky.social
A wonderful new resource to probe area & layer specification 🧪🧠🧬

A human-specific enhancer fine-tunes radial glia potency and corticogenesis - Nature HARE5, a human accelerated region enhancer, modulates cortical development by influencing neural progenitor cell behaviour, leading to an enlarged neocortex with increased functional independence betw...

Thrilled to share our latest study out in @natureportfolio.nature.com led by the fantastically talented Jing Liu. Our study provides insight into a long standing question in biology: What molecular features make us uniquely human and how do these function? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1/10 Our latest research, led by @martijnselten.bsky.social, identifies a mechanism through which Parvalbumin (PV) interneurons regulate their activity in the #cortex. This is the story @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41... ⬇︎ 🧵 @devneuro.bsky.social @kingsioppn.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu

Meet the 2025 @dev-journal.bsky.social Pathway to Independence (PI) fellows

Eight developmental and stem cell biologists transitioning from postdoc to principal investigator

journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pi...

That’s brilliant — congrats!

10/10 Here’s the paper @nature.com if you want to dig in www.nature.com/articles/s41... That’s it. Thanks for sharing! @devneuro.bsky.social @mrc-cndd.bsky.social @kingsioppn.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu

9/10 In sum, our findings identify a previously unknown form of interneuron plasticity and strengthen the idea that neuropeptide signalling plays crucial roles in maintaining neural circuit stability. Funded by the magnificents @erc.europa.eu and Rosetrees Trust

8/10 Importantly, this mechanism also regulates the connectivity of PV interneurons during learning, for example, in a fear-conditioning paradigm

7/10 For PV interneurons, Vgf is the critical gene modulating the plasticity of inhibitory inputs received from other PV interneurons

Bidirectional perisomatic inhibitory plasticity of a Fos neuronal network - Nature Novel experiences in mice lead to opposing effects on inhibition of Fos-activated hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons by parvalbumin- and cholecystokinin-expressing interneurons, revealing the role...

6/10 Incidentally, the Greenberg lab described a few years ago that hippocampal pyramidal cells use Scg2 to modulate the inhibition they receive from PV and CCK interneurons. You can find their paper here www.nature.com/articles/s41...

5/10 How is this achieved? We found that PV interneurons induce the expression of two genes encoding multiple neuropeptides, Scg2 and Vgf, in response to increased activity

4/10 Using experimental manipulations, we found that PV interneurons scale the inhibition they receive to maintain stability. When the activity of a PV interneuron increases, it “requests” more inhibitory inputs from other PV+ interneurons, effectively rebalancing its activity