SUSTech-UQ Centre for Neuroscience and Neural Engineering (CNNE) Seminar Series

Speakers: Dr Tristan Wallis, UQ and Dr Xiaoying TANG, SUSTech
Hosted by: Professor Shengtao Hou
Date: Friday, November 19, 2021
Time: 12PM (noon) – 1PM Shenzhen // 2PM – 3PM Brisbane
Zoom: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/83268101868

Meet the speakers

Dr Tristan Wallis

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Meunier Lab Group, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland

Title: “Saturated Free Fatty Acids and Memory”

Abstract: Neurotransmission, synaptic plasticity and memory formation involve tightly regulated dynamic modulation of neuronal phospholipid membrane fluidity, curvature and surface chemistry in concert with protein/protein and protein/lipid interactions at the pre- and post-synapse in the brain. This process both generates and requires phospholipid metabolites such as free fatty acids (FFAs) which can affect membrane topology and act as lipid signalling molecules and modifiers of synaptic protein location and function. Several decades of (non-lipidomic) study have pointed to the paradigmatic involvement of the polyunsaturated FFA arachidonic acid (C20:4), in a wide range of neuronal processes. Arachidonic acid is generally thought to be generated by the activity of phospholipase A2 (PLA₂) on canonical phospholipids with saturated sn-1 and unsaturated sn-2 fatty acyl chains. However, much less is known about the overall dynamics of FFAs during memory acquisition. Using a highly sensitive multiplexed stable isotope labelling (FFAST) lipidomics workflow developed in our laboratory¹, we have demonstrated that in fact saturated FFAs, particularly myristic acid (C14:0) increase in an activity-dependent manner in stimulated neuronal cultures and during memory acquisition in specific brain regions associated with auditory fear conditioning² and instrumental conditioning. These brain region-specific increases are abolished when long-term memory acquisition is blocked with a post-synaptic NMDA receptor antagonist. Collectively our data suggest that saturated FFA production, driven at least partly by PLA₁³ and involving interplay between the pre- and post-synapse, correlates strongly with cognition and memory.

Dr. Xiaoying TANG

Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, SUSTech

Title: “Large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping based statistical shape analysis and its application to brain science”

Abstract: Large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping (LDDMM) is one of the state-of-the-art diffeomorphic registration techniques that apply to manifolds of different dimensions, such as landmarks, curves, surfaces, and dense images. LDDMM has seen a variety of popular applications in neuroimaging and computer vision, particularly in the realm of brain science. In this talk, I will introduce an LDDMM based statistical shape analysis pipeline for quantifying regionally-specific morphometrics of different brain structures in different settings of brain research. I will also show how to quantify the association between brain’s shape phenotype and cognitive measures. Findings obtained from various brain science studies will be presented.