FY2024 Annual Report

Neuronal Rhythms in Movement (nRIM) unit
Associate Professor Marylka Yoe Uusisaari

nRIM in June 2024
Top row (from left to right) : Guo Da, Hugo Hoedemaker, Dmitriy Sakharuk, Kohgaku Eguchi, Salvatore Lacava, Isilak Necmettin, Hugo Nusselder, Deviana David and Bogna Ignatowska-Jankowska.
Front row: Kayoko Ikeda, Tetiana Salamovska, Yoe, Tara Helmi Turkki and Lakshmipriya Swaminathan.

Missing: Marina Khandarkhaeva

Abstract

In FY2024 nRIM reached the most amazing milestone - first students graduating! Salvatore Lacava, Deviana David, Lakshmipriya Swaminathan as well as our co-supervised Mi Yang got their doctoral diplomas. We also hosted two excellently productive interns - Hugo "secondary Hugo" Nusselder and Necmettin Isilak, both of them significantly contributing to publication works. 

As Marina joined us in April 2024, our lab became autonomous in terms of plasmid and viral vector works. 

1. Staff

• Dr. Da Guo, Postdoctoral Researcher
• Dr. Bogna Ignatowska-Jankowska, Postdoctoral Scholar
• Mr. Hugo Hoedemaker, Research Unit Technician
• Ms. Marina Khandarkhaeva, Research Unit Technician
• Mr. Salvatore Andrea Lacava, PhD student (JSPS fellow)
• Ms. Lakshmipriya Swaminathan, PhD student
• Ms. Deviana David, PhD student
• Ms. Tara Helmi Turkki, PhD student
• Mr. Dmitriy Sakharuk, PhD student
• Ms. Kayoko Ikeda, Research Unit Administrator

2. Collaborations

External collaborations:

• The laboratory of Dr. Benjamin Cravatt, The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and Department of Chemical Physiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
• The laboratory of Dr. Sylvia Fitting at the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• The laboratory of Dr. Katarzyna Bozek, Center for Molecular Medicine, Cologne, Germany
• The laboratory of Dr. Yosef Yarom, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
• Dr. Simo Järvelä, Gamification Group, Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, and Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki

Internal collaborations:

• Neurobiology research unit (Prof. Jeff Wickens)
• Immune signal unit (Prof. Hiroki Ishikawa)
• Biological physics theory unit (Prof. Greg Stephens)

3. Activities and Findings

1. Project: Motion capture analysis of freely moving mouse kinematics  (Project leader: Dr. Ignatowska-Jankowska; other participants: Dr. Gurkan Ozer, Ms. Lakshmipriya Swaminathan, Hugo Hoedemaker, Tara Turkki): in FY24, the first part of our very large amount of experimental insights was published in eNeuro. 
2. Project: In vivo fluorescent imaging of inferior olive network activity (Project leader: Dr. Guo: in FY24, the project was completed. Results were presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago and the work was published in eLife. 
3. PhD project (Salvatore Lacava, other participants: Necmettin Isilak, Hugo Hoedemaker): A study on the neuronal control of mouse tail in balance. In FY24, the work continued to describe in detail the neuromotor pathway  controlling balancing movements of the mouse tail. First publication from the project was published in Journal of Experimental Biology.
4. PhD project (Lakshmipriya Swaminathan): Elucidating the organisation principles of motor control in mice using the Lagrangian formulation. In FY24 significant advances of the mathematical treatment of quadruped animal locomotion was achieved. 
5. PhD project (Deviana David; other participant: Hugo Nusselder): Sensory modulation of olivocerebellar system: study of superior colliculus to inferior olive (SC-IO) Pathway. Major part of the work was completed involving immunohistochemical description of the nature of superior collicular projection into the IO. Results were presented at the FENS forum in Vienna.
6. PhD project (Tara Helmi Turkki; other participant: Tetiana Salamovska): Effects of Motor Learning on Mouse Inferior Olive Neuronal Gene Expression and Morphology. In FY2024, the first complete experiments were conducted, involving 29 mice undergoing various behavioral trainings, followed by brain harvesting and immunohistological processing. 
7. Project: Phosphoinositide (PI) dynamics and roles in synaptic function (Project leader: Dr. Kohgaku Eguchi; other participants: Marina Khandarkhaeva): in FY24, the project focused on developing chemo- and optogenetic manipulation and visualization methods of PI phosphorylation status as a tool to tune synaptic properties in the IO. The methods have been established in HEK293T cells. A review article related to the project was accepted for publication.

4. Publications

4.1 Journals

1. Justus M. Kebschull, Filippo Casoni, G. Giacomo Consalez, Daniel Goldowitz, Richard Hawkes, Tom J. H. Ruigrok, Karl Schilling, Richard Wingate, Joshua Wu, Joanna Yeung, and Uusisaari M.Y. (2024) Cerebellum Lecture: the Cerebellar Nuclei—Core of the Cerebellum. Springer Nature https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-022-01506-0
2. Lacava, Salvatore A., Necmettin Isilak, and Marylka Y. Uusisaari. "The role of mouse tails in response to external and self-generated balance perturbations on the roll plane." Journal of Experimental Biology 227.21 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.247552
3. Guo, Da, and Marylka Yoe Uusisaari. "In vivo imaging of inferior olive neurons reveals roles of co-activation and cerebellar feedback in olivocerebellar signaling." eLife, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.105305.1
4.  League AF, Yadav-Samudrala BJ, Kolagani R, Cline CA, Jacobs IR, Manke J, Niphakis MJ, Cravatt BF , Lichtman AH, Ignatowska-Jankowska BM, and Fitting S. A Helping HAND: Therapeutic Potential of MAGL Inhibition Against HIV-1-associated Neuroinflammation. 2024 Frontiers in Immunology vol 15
5. Yadav-Samudrala BJ, Ravula HP, Barmada KM, Dodson H, Poklis JL, Ignatowska-Jankowska BM, Lichtman AH, Reissner KJ and Fitting S. Acute Effects of Monoacylglycerol Lipase Inhibitor ABX1431 on Neuronal Hyperexcitability, Nociception, Locomotion, and the Endocannabinoid System in HIV-1 Tat Male Mice. (2024) Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2023.0247  
6. Yadav-Samudrala BJ, Dodson H, Ramineni S, Kim E, Poklis JL, Lu D, Ignatowska-Jankowska BM,  Lichtman AH,  Fitting S Cannabinoid receptor 1 positive allosteric modulator ZCZ011 shows differential effects on behavior and the endocannabinoid system in HIV-1 Tat transgenic female and male mice. 2004 PLOS One (in press)

5. Other Specific Achievements

5.1 Grants - ongoing

• Prof. Uusisaari: Kakenhi Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A): 身体モジュレーションと神経モジュレーションによる心身機能の改善 / as a co-Investigator of Prof.Rieko Osu
• Prof. Uusisaari: Kakenhi Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C): High-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of harmaline-induced tremor and inferior olive activity in living mice
• Dr. Ignatowska-Jankowska: Kakenhi Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C): In vivo imaging of endocannabinoid-regulated neuronal network activity coupled with 3D movement analysis in freely behaving mice
• Guo D: Kakenhi grant (early career): The correlation and contribution of spatiotemporal firing pattern of inferior olive neurons to the cyclical movement

5.2 Awards

• Bogna Ignatowska-Jankowska: Postdoctoral Presentation Prize (2024) for the presentation at the 34st Annual International Cannabinoid Research Society Symposium on Cannabinoids (ICRS). Salamanca, Spain (awarded to 5 presenters annually).
• Bogna Ignatowska-Jankowska: ICRS-NIDA trainee award for attendance to ICRS annual meeting, June 30th- July 5th 24-29 2024, Salamanca, Spain.

6. Other scientific activities

Here are just some highlights! We have been massively active with numerous presentations at domestic and international venues; for complete list, please see the dedicated page for Publications & Presentations.

6.1 Poster presentations in FENS Forum in Vienna, June 2024

• Ignatowska-Jankowska BM, Turkki TH, Swaminathan L, Uusisaari MY. Disruption of treadmill running by harmaline and cannabinoid agonist in marker-based 3D motion capture of mice. 24-29 June 2024, Vienna, Austria. 

• Turkki TH, Swaminathan L, Ignatowska-Jankowska BM, Uusisaari MY. Disruption of climbing behavior by harmaline in marker-based 3D motion capture of freely moving mice. 24-29 June 2024, Vienna, Austria.

• David D, Nusselder H., Uusisaari MY.  Anatomical and Functional Study of Superior Colliculus to Inferior Olive Pathway in Mice

• Eguchi K., Le Monnier E., Shigemoto R. Alternative splicing of Ca 2.1 EF-hand contributes to the tightness of calcium influx-neurotransmitter release coupling at mouse cerebellar synapses

6.2 Poster presentation at the International Cannabinoid Research Society Annual Symposium

• Ignatowska-Jankowska BM, Swaminathan L, Turkki TH, Uusisaari MY. Effects of CP55,940 on step kinematics during treadmill running in marker based 3D motion capture of mice. International Cannabinoid Research Society Annual Symposium, June 30^th- July 5th 2024, Salamanca, Spain.

6.3. Poster presentations at the SfN Annual Meeting (Chicago)

• Guo D., Uusisaari MY.. “Inferior Olive Spike Modulation by Cerebellar Feedback and Synchronicity.

• David D., Nusselder H., Uusisaari MY. “Anatomical Descriptions and In-Vivo Recording of the Superior Colliculus Projections to the Inferior Olivary Neurons.

• Rose F, Michaluk M, Blindauer T, Ignatowska-Jankowska BM, O’Shaughnessy L, Stephens GJ, Pereira TD, Uusisaari MY, Bozek K. Deep learning imputation of missing data empowers behawior analysis across species. 

6.3 Activities during OIST Researcher Appreciation Month (RAM)

The annual Researcher Appreciation Month (RAM) was held at OIST in October 2024, and as always nRIM members were actively taking part in the event:

• Tara Turkki gave a Blitz talk titled: Movement to Mind: Can Learning Shape Inferior Olive Neurons?
• Bogna Ignatowska-Jankowska, Tara Turkki, Lakshmipriya Swaminathan and Hugo Hoedemaker hosted numerous visitors touring both our Mouse Motion Capture Studio as well as the Vivarium in Lab 1, level D, inspiring engaged discussions on animal welfare and ethics of animal-based science.
• Hugo Hoedemaker presented a talk titled Working with Animals at OIST as part of the Core Facilities Appreciation topics
• Altogether, the members presented 6 posters at RAM.

6.4 Hosted visitors and in-house seminars organized

Prof. Sylvia Fitting (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, USA) - visit at nRIM, August 6th, 2024

We spent inspired time in discussions with Prof. Fitting, who also gave a very popular seminar "The Endocannabinoid System: A helping HAND". Prof. Fitting's work aligns with our interests in the broad relevance of modulation of the endocannabinoid system in health and disease. We continued the discussion with a visit to our collaborating group at Waseda University (Rieko Osu's group), bridging animal and human studies. 

6.5 Academic service

nRIM members are engaged in various workgroups aiming to improve OIST as a place to study and work.

• Dr. Ignatowska-Jankowska served as OIST researcher representative at Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) committee
• Tara Turkki served as the student community representative in Faculty Search Committee, gaining valuable experience in academic career matters.