Contact Information

Highest Degree: D.Phil.

Present Title: Postdoc

E-mail address: Theofanis.Karayannis@nyumc.org

Education & Training

11/2007 - Present: Post-doctorate in the lab of Dr. Gord Fishell

05/2007 - 09/2007: Post-doctorate in the lab of Dr. Marco Capogna MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, Dept. of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, UK

09/2003 - 05/2007: D.Phil. in the lab of Dr. Marco Capogna
Thesis title: "Synaptic transmission in cortical networks: focus on the corpus callosum and CA1 hippocampal area of rodents" MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, Dept. of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, UK

09/2002 - 09/2003: M.Sc. in Neuroscience, King's College-University of London,UK.
Project title: "Cloning and characterization of a novel gene regulated during neuronal differentiation in the developing rat forebrain"

09/1996 - 11/2002: B.Sc. in Pharmacy, University of Athens, Greece


Interests

My general scientific interests are on the development of the nervous system of mammals. More specifically, I am now focusing on how a broad class of brain cells called GABAergic neurons is generated from neuroepithelial cells of the ventral embryonic mouse brain and acquire their final position and role in the adult cortex. I aim to use electrophysiology together with mouse genetics and molecular biology to address GABAergic neuronal specification and integration into networks, in an effort to try to tease out what makes a GABAergic neuron to become one subtype instead of another. Both genetic and environmental inputs have been shown to be important for the proper maturation of these neurons and my efforts will focus on understanding their interplay.