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Research Group Leader - Christian Mayer

Neurogenomics - Genomic Analyses of Developing Neurons


Christian Mayer will start his own research group at the MPI of Neurobiology in April 2018.
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CV:C. Mayer

04/2018:  Max Planck Research group leader, MPI of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany
2017 - present:  Postdoctoral Fellow, Fishell Laboratory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, USA
2012 - 2017:  Postdoctoral Fellow, Fishell Laboratory, NYU Neuroscience Institute, New York, USA
2007 - 2011:  PhD program in Biology, University Hospital Eppendorf, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, Hamburg, Germany
2001 - 2006:  Diplom in Biology, University of Konstanz, Germany

 


Research Projects:

The brain relies on an enormous diversity of local interneurons to form specialized circuits with remarkable processing capacities. Yet how different interneuron types emerge during development and integrate into functional circuits remains unclear. Using molecular genetic fate mapping strategies combined with statistical and machine learning-based methods, our goal is to elucidate the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that drive cellular decision-making during interneuron development. We are using high-throughput single cell RNA-sequencing methods to reconstruct developmental trajectories and are building an integrated framework to understand how a cell’s spatial localization, epigenomic landscape, parental lineage and neural network activity influence its behavior and fate. A growing body of evidence suggests that defects in interneuron development are associated with epilepsy, autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other complex neuropsychiatric diseases. Therefore, elucidating the molecular mechanisms regulating interneuron development is crucial for understanding how the brain operates in both health and disease.

 


List of Publications:

Mayer, C.,  Hafemeister, C., Bandler, R. C., Machold, R., Fishell, G., Satija, R., “Inhibitory neuron diversity originates from cardinal classes shared across germinal zones”, Revised and Resubmitted; preview available at Biorxiv, 2017.

Bandler, R.C., Mayer, C., and Fishell, G. (2017). Cortical interneuron specification: the juncture of genes, time and geometry. Curr Opin Neurobiol 42, 17-24.

Mayer, C., Bandler, R.C., and Fishell, G. (2016). Lineage Is a Poor Predictor of Interneuron Positioning within the Forebrain. Neuron 92, 45-51.

Mayer, C., Jaglin, X.H., Cobbs, L.V., Bandler, R.C., Streicher, C., Cepko, C.L., Hippenmeyer, S., and Fishell, G. (2015). Clonally Related Forebrain Interneurons Disperse Broadly across Both Functional Areas and Structural Boundaries. Neuron 87, 989-998.

Mayer, C., and Boehm, U. (2011). Female reproductive maturation in the absence of kisspeptin/GPR54 signaling. Nat Neurosci 14, 704-710.

Mayer, C., Acosta-Martinez, M., Dubois, S.L., Wolfe, A., Radovick, S., Boehm, U., and Levine, J.E. (2010). Timing and completion of puberty in female mice depend on estrogen receptor alpha-signaling in kisspeptin neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107, 22693-22698.