The EpiLab: Science
The EpiLab sits at the intersection of molecular engineering, neurobiology, and behavioral psychology. We build the tools, ask the molecular questions, and then watch what happens when a mouse remembers something. Or can't.
Dr. Brandon Walters | Epitranscriptomics & Memory
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal modification on messenger RNA in the brain. These marks are dynamic: written, erased, and read by dedicated proteins in response to cellular activity. This makes m6A well-positioned to serve as a fast, reversible signal during learning.
The Walters Lab investigates how the brain deploys m6A during memory consolidation. Most of our stereotaxic surgeries target the hippocampus, using behavioral tasks including contextual fear conditioning, novel object recognition, and novel object-in-place to probe what animals remember and what they forget.
Not all of memory is about remembering where you left your keys. The Walters Lab has recently expanded into studying how stress-induced epitranscriptomic changes may contribute to depression-related outcomes.
In collaboration with the McCormick Lab, we use the Social Instability Stress during Adolescence (SIS) model to study how chronic stress during a critical developmental window drives depression-related outcomes in adulthood. We are also developing a maternal separation model in mice in-house, building on prior rat-based work to test whether the paradigm translates across species.
Core Methodology
DART-seq: Reading the m6A Landscape
DART-seq was developed by the Meyer Lab. The Walters Lab builds on this foundation with modified constructs designed to answer questions the original method was not built to ask.
Collaborative Highlight
Engineering a Cre-Inducible sgRNA for Cell-Type-Specific Knockout
One of the more technically demanding constructs produced by the Walters Lab was a Cre-inducible sgRNA built for a collaboration with the Josselyn Lab. The challenge: the U6 promoter that drives sgRNA expression has strict sequence requirements, and there are no introns or stop codons available as conventional "blockers." Solving this required a non-standard molecular engineering approach. This construct enabled cell-type-specific CB1 receptor knockout in PV+ interneurons of the amygdala, contributing to a publication in Cell.
Behavioral Models
Contextual Fear Conditioning
Our standard assay for hippocampal-dependent associative memory.
Novel Object Recognition
Tests recognition memory and hippocampal function in rodents.
Novel Object-in-Place
Spatial variant of NOR, sensitive to hippocampal and cortical contributions.
Social Instability Stress
Adolescent stress model developed with the McCormick Lab to study depression-related outcomes.
Maternal Separation
In-house model under development. Extending a validated rat paradigm to mice.
Dr. Iva Zovkic | Epigenetics, Histone Variants & Memory
Zovkic Lab Research: Coming Soon
Dr. Zovkic's lab investigates histone variants and their role in memory and Alzheimer's disease. A full research overview is being prepared and will be added shortly.