Eberly Family Career Development Endowed Chair in Biological Sciences

DAT and TH expression marks human Parkinson’s disease in peripheral immune cells

Stressing the Importance of Cholinergic Interneurons in Striatal Function

Population-specific neuromodulation prolongs therapeutic benefits of deep brain stimulation

Cell Type-Specific Oxidative Stress Genomic Signatures in the Globus Pallidus of Dopamine-Depleted Mice

Delta oscillations are a robust biomarker of dopamine depletion severity and motor dysfunction in awake mice

Following a fascinating talk Aryn gave at OptoDBS 2022, we talk about her work on optogenetically inspired deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's Disease. In a first paper (2017 Nature Neuroscience), Aryn's lab could establish that a specific lineage of cells in the external pallidum needed to be stimulated (or a second one suppressed) to achieve symptom relief in the 6-OHDA mouse model of Parkinson's Disease. Crucially, these effects outlasted the stimulation, sometimes by up to eight hours. In a second paper (2021 Science), her team was able to mimick the exact same effect using a very creative form of deep brain stimulation to the entopeduncular nucleus. I am convinced that these results could transform the way we apply DBS in humans and they form a template of successful translation from optogenetics to electical stimulation. In a way, Aryn's story of discovery very much resemble the ones by Anne Young (previous episode), both were puzzled that differentially modulating specific – not all – cells (for Anne D1 vs. D2 cells in the striatum & Aryn Pv+ vs. Lhx6+ cells in the pallidum) would have an effect on Parkinsonism. I hope you will be as fascinated by the conversation I had with Aryn, as I was!

#24: Aryn Gittis – Optogenetically inspired DBS for Parkinson's Disease

Thursday, March 31, 2022
We talked to Aryn Gittis about globus pallidus cell types and circuits, and the idea of selective stimulation to improve the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease.
Dr. Gittis is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. https://labs.bio.cmu.edu/gittis/
Participating:
Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA
Host:
Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

Episode 240 -- Aryn Gittis PhD

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Carnegie Mellon University

Aryn Gittis received her Ph.D. from UCSD in 2008 where she studied the vestibular system in the lab of Sascha du Lac. From 2008-2012 she was a postdoc with Anatol Kreitzer at the Gladstone Institute/UCSF where she began her studies of basal ganglia circuitry and its plasticity in disease.  She started her lab at CMU in 2012 in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and is now an Associate Professor.

The Gittis lab studies the neural basis of motor control in health and disease.  Using mouse models of Parkinson’s disease, our lab has identified cellular nodes where optogenetic interventions promote long-lasting recovery of movement in the disease state.  Current studies seek to understand the broader motor circuits in which these nodes function, using a combination of behavior, electrophysiology, and anatomical approaches.  We are also innovating new experimental models for the study of network compensation during progressive dopamine loss, and how these compensatory mechanisms preserve, or possible paradoxically exacerbate symptoms of movement disorders.

Movement Disorders

Optogenetics

Neuroscience

Electrophysiology

Neural Circuits

Carnegie Mellon University Biological Sciences Profile

Carnegie Mellon University Department of Biomedical Engineering Profile

Gittis Lab Profile

Google Scholar Citations

Basal Ganglia Pathway Key to Learning, Not Motor Control

Neuroscientists Gain New Understanding of Neural Pathway

Research shows promising results for Parkinson's disease treatment

New Technique Isolates Brain Cells Associated With Parkinson's Disease

Carnegie Mellon's Aryn Gittis named finalist for Science & PINS Prize

Neuromodulation Using Electrical Stimulation

A podcast about brain stimulation and stimulating brains.

Stimulating Brains

Neuroscientists Talk Shop is the University of Texas at San Antonio's (UTSA) Neurobiology Podcast, showcasing the current research of internationally renowned guest Neuroscientists. Each episode features a moderated discussion with a cross section of UTSA Neurobiology faculty, highlighting the featured guest's research, and the state of the art in the field at hand.

Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Professor

On March 31, 2022, we talked to Aryn Gittis about globus pallidus cell types and circuits, and the idea of selective stimulation to improve the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease.

Dr. Gittis is Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. https://labs.bio.cmu.edu/gittis/

Participating:
Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

Host:
Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

Neuroscientists Talk Shop podcast: https://snrp.utsa.edu
UTSA Neurosciences Institute: https://neuroscience.utsa.edu​
UTSA Brain Health Consortium https://www.utsa.edu/bhc

Neuroscientists Talk Shop: Aryn Gittis on better deep brain stimulation

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