First person – Lata Adnani

doi:10.1242/bio.039610

Abstract

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Lata Adnani is first author on ‘Plag1 and Plagl2 have overlapping and distinct functions in telencephalic development’, published in BiO. Lata conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Dr Carol Schuurmans’ lab at University of Calgary, Canada. She is now a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr Janusz Rak at McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada, investigating neuroscience.

Highlights

How would you explain the main findings of your paper to non-scientific family and friends? The neocortex is the region of the brain involved in regulating higher order cognitive functions such as learning and memory
Schuurmans’ lab previously demonstrated that all three of these genes are expressed in dividing progenitor cells in the developing neocortex, and my project was to characterize their functions in this region of the developing brain. In this new publication in Biology Open, I demonstrated that Plag1 and Plagl2 play redundant roles in embryonic survival; deletion of both Plag1 and Plagl2 is not compatible with life, resulting in early embryonic lethality suggesting compensatory roles for both these genes during development
My studies identify two new players that are important for guiding the proper formation of the embryonic neocortex, and these genes may be important for understanding how neurodevelopmental defects might arise in diseases such as autism spectrum disorder

Summary

Introduction

How would you explain the main findings of your paper to non-scientific family and friends? The neocortex is the region of the brain involved in regulating higher order cognitive functions such as learning and memory. In this new publication in Biology Open, I demonstrated that Plag1 and Plagl2 play redundant roles in embryonic survival; deletion of both Plag1 and Plagl2 is not compatible with life, resulting in early embryonic lethality suggesting compensatory roles for both these genes during development.

Results

Conclusion