Dr. Janina Kupke has been awarded an NWO Veni grant for her project ‘Bridging the epigenome and the synapse: resolving how memories persist’
Memories are thought to be stored in specific brain cells that strengthen their synaptic connections during learning. But while these connections must remain stable for memories to persist, the proteins that make up synapses are constantly replaced. Janina will investigate how the brain resolves this apparent paradox.
Her project focuses on whether epigenetic mechanisms, which regulate gene activity, help memory-encoding neurons maintain stable synaptic changes over time. To address this, she will combine imaging of memory-encoding cells with molecular analyses of their nuclei and synapses.
Beyond its fundamental neuroscience relevance, this work may also help explain what goes wrong in disorders involving altered memory persistence, such as traumatic memories in PTSD or memory decline in Alzheimer’s disease.
Janina is a postdoc in the Molecular Engrams team of Priyanka Rao and Memory Circuits team of Michel van den Oever (collaborative Brainscapes project).