Adult Neurogenesis Methodology

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Sylvia Ortega-Martinez

Stoelting Co

Dr. Sylvia Ortega-Martinez is a scientific manager at Stoelting Co. in the Neuroscience and ANY-maze Divisions. She has developed her scientific career working in top academic institutions around the world, such as the Instituto Cajal (Spain), Washington University (US), Oxford University (UK), Turku Centre of Biotechnology (Finland) and the University of Chicago (US), among others. Her work was focused on the role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, as a key mechanism in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. She has established that the Neural Stem Cells responsible for Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis are generated mainly in the postnatal day 6 (t.ly/3VPOw). This is a crucial discovery in the field, as it explained the critical periods in postnatal stress that posteriorly have consequences in adult life. Her second main achievement was to establish the role of the kinase JNK1 in neurogenesis and its implications in psychiatric disorders, such as stress, depression or anxiety. This discovery was published in 2017 (t.ly/v9qn7). Finally, with her work at The University of Chicago, she has elucidated that microglia plays a crucial role in adult hippocampal neurogenesis, specifically in Alzheimer’s disease conditions (t.ly/zP8DP). Currently, she provides scientific and technical support and gives feedback and assistance in product improvement and development. Dr. Ortega-Martinez also implements courses and workshops in the Neuroscience field, being scientific divulgation one of her passions.

Collection Overview

Adult neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons are generated in the brains of adults. Since its discovery in mammals five decades ago, adult neurogenesis has been widely researched, providing new insights on the pathophysiology of many psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Specifically, adult hippocampal neurogenesis has recently acquired a great deal of relevance for a suggested role in the cognitive and emotional functions of the adult brain. However, the field has important challenges to overcome due to the huge controversy generated in recent years regarding the existence and functionality of human adult neurogenesis. Indeed, it has become essential to improve the methodology while pursuing a better understanding of this process. This collection brings together a wide range of techniques that have been developed to study adult neurogenesis over the years and in different experimental models (from rodents to humans). Some techniques, such as immunofluorescence of neurogenic markers, have been widely used in the field to provide a quantification of these newly-generated neurons. Others, such as many behavioral tests, aim to evaluate the posterior effect of this process in a variety of behaviors (such as memory or anxiety). Altogether, from the state of the art to the oldest techniques in the field, this collection will provide a current overview of the methodology used for neurogenesis studies.