Dr. Abhishek Bhattacharya
Cellular communication in a nervous system is primarily governed by chemical and electrical synapses. While the complex biology of chemical synapses has been widely studied, electrical synapses remained much understudied, despite playing conserved and critical roles in the establishment and functioning of the neural circuit. We are interested in understanding the fundamental molecular principles regulating the assembly and functioning of the electrical synapse connectome, specifically on how individual neurons connect to different synaptic partners with electrical synapses that are molecularly and functionally distinct, how to achieve plastic changes in that electrical synapse network in response to intrinsic and extrinsic cues, and then how electrical synapses on glial cells regulate nervous system development and function.