Xu Zhang, PhD – Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Selective Activation of Hippocampal Parvalbumin Interneurons via Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation for Seizure Suppression in Scn1a+/- Mice
Postdoctoral Fellowship – $75,000, 1 year
Recipient of the Elliot Meskis Award for an Exceptional Postdoctoral Fellow which provides a $2,500 grant supplement for professional development.
Summary from the Investigator: Dravet syndrome (DS) is a severe, early-onset genetic epilepsy caused by a mutation in the SCN1A gene, resulting in reduced activity of specific inhibitory neurons in the brain. This disruption leads to abnormal brain activity and frequent seizures, while current treatments are often ineffective, making DS a challenging condition to manage. Our research explores a novel approach using focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS), a noninvasive technique that can precisely target and modulate brain activity. In previous studies, we demonstrated that FUS, when applied under specific conditions, can selectively activate these crucial inhibitory neurons. In this project, we aim to optimize FUS parameters to restore normal neuronal activity in a mouse model of DS and test its ability to acutely suppress ongoing seizures. By establishing FUS as a potential therapeutic tool, this work seeks to offer a new, effective treatment option for DS patients.
About the Investigator:
Xu Zhang is a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Jordan Farrell’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Zhang completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering under the mentorship of Dr. Sabato Santaniello at the University of Connecticut, where he trained as a computational neuroscientist and developed multi-scale models to explore the potential mechanisms of essential tremor and cerebellar neuromodulation. Currently, he is integrating computational and experimental approaches to investigate the mechanisms underlying epilepsy and focused ultrasound neuromodulation. Leveraging this noninvasive stimulation modality, his goal is to develop closed-loop, cell-type-specific, precision network control strategies for epilepsy and other pathological neural dynamics.
