Graziella Di Cristo, Ph.D.

Graziella Di Cristo is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Université de Montréal. Her laboratory is located at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre. In 2007, she received the Young Investigator Award from the NARSAD, an American organization dedicated to research on mental illness.

CONTACT

CHU Ste-Justine Research Centre
3175 de la Cote-Ste-Catherine
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3T 1C5

Phone: 514 345-4931, ext. 2867
Fax: 514 345-4801
E-mail: :graziella.dicristo@recherche-ste-justine.qc.ca

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

The research activities of my laboratory do not concentrate on one specific disease but rather aim to understand brain development, plasticity and function. Increased knowledge of the brain is likely to have an impact on how well we understand the mechanisms of the many diseases that affect it.

PRINCIPALES PUBLICATIONS

Di Cristo G, Berardi N, Cancedda L, Pizzorusso T, Putignano E, Ratto GM, Maffei L. (2001) Requirement of ERK activation for visual cortical plasticity. Science 292:2337-2340.

Wahle P, Di Cristo G, Schwerdtfeger G, Engelhardt M, Berardi N, Maffei L. (2003) Differential effects of cortical neurotrophic factors on development of lateral geniculate nucleus and superior colliculus neuron: anterograde and retrograde actions. Development 130:611-622.

Di Cristo G, Wu C, Chattopadhyaya B, Ango F, Higashiyama H, Svoboda K, Huang ZJ. (2004) Subcellular domain-restricted GABAergic innervation in primary visual cortex in the absence of sensory and thalamic inputs. Nature Neuroscience 7:1184-1186.

Chattopadhyaya B, Di Cristo G, Higashiyama H, Knott GW, Welker E, Huang ZJ. (2004) Activity and experience-dependent maturation of perisomatic GABAergic innervation in primary visual cortex during a postnatal critical period. Journal of Neuroscience 24:9598-9611.

Ango F, Di Cristo G, Hagashiyama H, Bennett V, Josh Huang Z. (2004) An ankyrin-based subcellular gradient of the immunoglobulin superfamily protein neurofascin specifies synaptic innervation at axon initial segment of Purkinje neurons. Cell 119:257-272.

Chattopadhyaya B, Di Cristo G, Wu CZ, Knott G., Kuhlman SJ, Fu Y, Palmiter RD, Huang ZJ (2007). Regulation of GABAergic axon branching and synaptic innervation by GAD67-mediated GABA synthesis and signaling. Neuron, 54(6):889-903.

Di Cristo G (2007). Development of cortical GABAergic circuits and its implications for neurodevelopmental disorders. Clinical Genetics. 72:1-8.

Huang ZJ, Di Cristo G, Ango F (2007). Development of GABA innervation in the cerebral and cerebellar cortices. Nat Rev Neurosci. 8:673-86.

Di Cristo G, Chattopadhyaya B, Kuhlman SJ, Fu Y, Bélanger M-C, Wu CZ Rutishauser U, Maffei L, Huang ZJ (2007). Activity-dependent PSA expression promotes the maturation of GABA inhibition and the onset of critical period plasticity. Nature Neuroscience,10:1569-1577.

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