The mechanisms that regulate the generation of neuronal diversity in the developing CNS have started to be unraveled. Various studies have shown that both the spatial and temporal origins of precursors determine the neurotransmitter phenotype, firing properties, subtype specificity and the position of the cell body in different regions and different layers.
These rules seem to persist into adulthood, in the lateral ventricle SVZ, i.e. the main adult germinal zone of the adult forebrain. As observed in the embryo, NSCs in distinct location of the lateral ventricle contribute to the generation of neurons that will migrate to different layers of the OB and express distinct subtype specific markers. These observations suggest that rather than being plastic and homogeneous, neural stem cells of the LV are a restricted and diverse population of progenitors.
By using a combination of molecular and imaging tools, our research addresses the following aims:

• To better understand the diversity of neural stem cells lineages in the postnatal forebrain (read more)
• To identify the transcription factors involved in neuronal differentiation and lineage specification (read more)
• To manipulate expression of these transcription factors in pathologies of the central nervous system in order to promote its repair (read more)

Olivier Raineteau has been developing in research at the Cambridge Institute for brain repair as an independent group leader, before moving to the brain research institute in 2008. His work aims at better understand basic mechanisms controlling the behavior of neural stem cells in the postnatal central nervous system in order to design innovative approached to recruit these cells after lesion or in pathologies. He received the Silver medal from the ETHZ for his PhD work and is a recipient of the Ulrich Schellenberg Price. He is also an associate director of the journal translational neuroscience .