Jacob Juty
PhD Student,
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Biography
I am a BBSRC-funded first year PhD student in the field of Behavioural Neuroscience, passionate about revealing the neural bases of cognition and behaviour in both health and disease.
Research Summary
My research will investigate the role of perineuronal nets (PNNs) in cognition and behaviour. PNNs surround cortical GABAergic parvalbumin-expressing interneurons, restricting plasticity and… read more
Current Research
My research will investigate the role of perineuronal nets (PNNs) in cognition and behaviour. PNNs surround cortical GABAergic parvalbumin-expressing interneurons, restricting plasticity and regulating GABAergic inhibition. PNN disruption has been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, potentially due to neural disinhibition caused by PNN loss. We will investigate the behavioural, molecular and electrophysiological consequences of PNN loss with site-specific disruption of hippocampal and prefrontal PNNs in Lister Hooded rats with the enzyme chondroitinase-ABC and subsequent behavioural testing, as well as histological analyses and in-vivo electrophysiological recordings.
Supervisors: Dr Tobias Bast at the University of Nottingham, Professor Michael Harte and Dr John Gigg at b-neuro, our industry collaborator.
Past Research
I have previously worked on research projects assessing object and social memory deficits in both the 3xTg mouse model of Alzheimer's disease and the sub-chronic phencyclidine (scPCP) mouse model of schizophrenia during my time as both an MSci student and a research intern under the supervision of Dr John Gigg at the University of Manchester. I also used immunohistochemistry to demonstrate a reduction of parvalbumin-positive neurons in the scPCP mouse, exclusive to the dentate gyrus.